Updating Your Product Pages for the AI-First Age

How to optimise product pages, category pages and full e-commerce site architectures for AI search and LLM visibility.

In the world of e-commerce, the rules are changing. Where once you built product pages primarily for human shoppers and search engines (think: Google), now you must also build for machines that summarise, recommend, and act on behalf of users. Yes — I’m talking about the era of large language models (LLMs) and generative-AI powered discovery.

So if your product pages feel “fine for Google” but aren’t showing up in AI-powered recommendations or being selected by chatbots/agents, you’re likely missing something. Below is a detailed breakdown of how you should update your product pages—and category pages—and exactly how to execute this across top retail platforms (Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Magento, WooCommerce, and others).

Why this matters

• According to recent coverage, ecommerce product pages weren’t built for how users shop today. The article “How to make ecommerce product pages work in an AI-first world” highlights that AI tools are acting like sales reps—they ask questions, they summarise options, they filter. If your product pages don’t provide the right “context”, they’ll be skipped entirely. (Search Engine Land)
• Another deep dive from Prerender.io explains that many AI crawlers only look at raw HTML. If your site hides product details behind heavy client-side JavaScript (infinite scroll, click-to-load) the machine simply can’t “see” it – which means invisibility in the AI-discovery layer. (Prerender)
• The shift away from traditional SEO toward what some are calling “GEO” (Generative Engine Optimization) or “AEO” (Answer Engine Optimization) is underway — this means optimising for being selected by an LLM rather than just ranking in a list of links. (SEO.AI)

In short: you need to optimise for humans, search engines and machines that summarise/recommend. If you ignore the last part, you risk losing visibility even if your SEO is “good”.

What to update: product pages, category pages & site architecture

Here’s a breakdown of the areas you must optimise — and how to think about each.

1. Technical foundation & accessibility

• Ensure product info is visible in raw HTML: If your product title, description, price, availability are only loaded via client-side JS, many AI crawlers may miss them. (Prerender)
• Use structured data/schema markup: Product, Offer, Review, FAQ markups help machines understand exactly what the data means. (SeoProfy)
• Serve prerendered or server-rendered content when using single-page apps or heavy JS frameworks — ensure bots can fetch meaningful content without executing all scripts. (Prerender)
• Mobile & loading speed matter**: In e-commerce contexts, load time and mobile usability still matter; slow pages or confusing navigation harm both human and machine trust. (SeoProfy)

2. Content clarity and structure

• The first few sentences of your product description need to clearly state what the product is, who it’s for, and why it matters — because LLMs often grab the “top of page” info to summarise. (Rigby)
• Use heading structure, bullet points, short paragraphs – machines favour structured, readable content. (SEO.AI)
• Provide contextual use-cases, user types (“for busy parents”, “for remote workers”, “for triathletes”), and not just features. The “who” and “why” matter. (Rigby)
• Avoid vague “marketing hype” copy (“innovative”, “premium”, “industry-leading”) without substance — machines are built to favour concrete statements. (Rigby)

3. Category pages & product-listing architecture

• Category pages should serve as overview/intent hubs (broad keywords) while product pages are the detailed nodes (long-tail). Avoid competing keywords between category & product pages. (Digital Commerce Partners)
• Navigation and internal linking: Breadcrumbs, logical site hierarchy, clear grouping help both humans and machines. (SeoProfy)
• For products that appear in multiple categories or as variants: Use canonical tags, avoid duplicate content, optimise URLs. (Digital Commerce Partners)

4. Trust, reviews & user-generated content

• Reviews, ratings, user-generated text act as signals of credibility and content richness — machines pick up on those. (Prerender)
• FAQ sections (written clearly) help capture conversational queries (“Which size should I pick?”, “What’s the warranty?”) and are gold for the AI-query layer. (Rigby)

5. Update, freshness, and availability

• AI engines often filter out stale or out-of-stock content — so maintaining accurate price/availability, and stock status matters. (Prerender)
• For seasonal products, reuse pages and update them rather than create brand new ones each time — keeps SEO and continuity intact. (Digital Commerce Partners)

Platform-specific instructions

Here are how you can execute on those updates across major e-commerce platforms. I’ll hit the key steps — you’ll want to adapt to your theme, workflow and the level of developer resources you have.

Shopify

• Use a theme that supports server-rendering or ensure your product pages render essential info in HTML (not just via JS).
• In the Shopify Admin: enable “Online Store → Themes → Edit code” and ensure product template includes structured data (e.g., product schema JSON-LD).
• Under Products: fill in fields for title, description (make sure first paragraph prioritises “what / who / why”), add variants, stock/availability.
• Use apps (or built-in snippets) to include schema markup (Product, Offer, Review).
• Add FAQ sections via “Metafields” or customise template to include accordions or collapsible FAQ.
• For category (Collection) pages: ensure the description field is filled, the title uses a clear intent-based phrase (“Men’s Lightweight Waterproof Wetsuits”), breadcrumbs are enabled.
• Monitor performance via Shopify Analytics + Google Search Console + any AI-visibility tracking you have.

BigCommerce

• Use the “Stencil” theme platform or equivalent; ensure the storefront serves critical info server-side.
• In “Products” → edit product: make sure title is descriptive, first lines of description are strong, fill in “Product Options & SKUs”, stock/availability.
• Use built-in or marketplace “Schema” apps/extensions to implement JSON-LD markup for product, reviews.
• Under “Categories”: fill category description with a useful overview.
• On the technical side: ensure JavaScript heavy filters/loads are still functionally usable with JS disabled (for bots). Test by turning off JS in browser to check page still shows product info.
• Use apps/extensions for review collection and display; ensure review snippets show up in markup.

Squarespace

• Choose a commerce-enabled plan. Use “Commerce” pages for products.
• Under each product: fill the “Text” section starting with a clear summary, then features/benefits, bullet-lists, FAQs.
• Use the “Advanced” code injection (Page Header/Footer) or built-in “SEO” settings to insert structured data (product schema). Some third-party plugins/scripts may be needed.
• For category pages (folder or index pages): include a summary description, ensure navigation is clear, use folder breadcrumbs.
• Ensure you’re not relying purely on “click to load more” infinite scroll for product lists — you want at least page links so crawlers can view deeper pages.

Magento (Adobe Commerce)

• Given its flexibility, this is one of the easiest to customise.
• Under Catalog → Products: include a meta­-title, meta­-description, product name, attribute sets, stock/availability. Ensure first paragraph of long description is solid.
• Use modules/extensions to implement JSON-LD schema for product, offers, reviews.
• For category pages: go to Catalog → Categories, fill the “Description” field, meta-data, set canonical tags if needed.
• For technical optimisation: ensure server‐side rendering or full page cache is configured, avoid heavy client-only loads that hide product info.
• Use built‐in “Reviews” or an extension; ensure reviews appear and schema is applied.
• Monitor performance via Magento’s built-in reports + Google Search Console; consider adding custom tracking for AI-visibility (via your data layer).

WooCommerce (on WordPress)

• Under Products → Add/Edit: fill name, short description (first 1-2 sentences: product type + who it’s for + key benefit), long description with structure (headings, bullet points, FAQs).
• Use plugins for structured data (e.g., “Schema & Structured Data for WP & AMP”, or WooCommerce built-in schema). Ensure Product, Offer, Review schema.
• For product images: optimise alt text, use descriptive file names.
• For category pages: Products → Categories → edit category: fill description field, ensure slug is clean, breadcrumbs (via theme or plugin) are enabled.
• For technical: ensure your theme is lightweight, use caching, ensure the page loads effectively with JS disabled (test this).
• Use review-plugins to collect user reviews and display them, ensure schema for reviews is emitted.
• Use internal linking: link from blog posts or guides to relevant product/category pages, and from category pages to product pages to strengthen structure.

Other Platforms (General guidance)

• Regardless of platform, the rules are the same: ensure machine-accessible product data, structured markup, clear content, trust signals, updated stock/price, category-product architecture, FAQ/contexts.
• If you’re using a headless solution or custom front end, ensure you serve a prerendered version for bots or use SSR (Server Side Rendering) so AI crawlers can consume your HTML without requiring full JS execution.

Final Takeaways & Next Steps

• Product pages in 2025+ must serve three audiences: humans, traditional search engines, and AI agents/LLMs.
• Focus on accessibility (HTML visibility), structure (schema, headings, bullets), content relevance (what-who-why), and freshness/trust (reviews, stock, pricing).
• Category pages and product architecture still matter-don’t neglect the navigation layer or internal linking.
• Across platforms (Shopify, BigCommerce, Squarespace, Magento, WooCommerce) you can apply the same principles; just tailor the implementation to the tool.
• Use Seshes.ai as your visibility engine: baseline, track, improve, and forecast. You get visibility into how your products are performing in the AI layer, not just “ranking on Google”.
• Start with your hero SKUs (those that matter most for margin/revenue/brand visibility) and iterate outward.

If you’re ready to dig in, sign up at app.seshes.ai and start tracking how your brand and products perform in the AI-discovery world.
Want a pre-built checklist or worksheet for your team to audit product pages? I can craft that next.