This week’s Ask an SEO question is about product page copy and whether it still matters, as AI is using multiple sources to find what your products are and the details about them.
“With agents reading feeds and structured data to make recommendations, does my product page copy still matter?”
Yes, your product page still matters because large language models (ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, etc.) are only one source of traffic and conversions, and they cannot access everything from a product feed or schema. AI is still in its infancy and will grow, but it is not something that can currently support a business.
Even as AI recommends a product, people still go to search engines to find products and reviews on YouTube, subscribe to email and SMS lists for deals, and visit websites directly or through affiliate and PPC links to shop. If your product pages do not provide a good experience by sharing the solutions the product provides, they may go elsewhere. Worrying about AI vs. covering your brand because AI is trendy is a big mistake multiple companies are making.
AI Is A Single Traffic And Conversion Source, Not The Only One #
Think of it like TikTok. It allows conversions directly on the platform (similar to the ChatGPT and Shopify deal), but just because people started shopping on TikTok doesn’t mean your website or app is out of the equation. It is the same as Amazon: People may see your website but not trust your site or return policy, so they go to Amazon. It doesn’t mean your website doesn’t matter – for many customers it still does, and they will shop directly with the right incentive.
I personally researched my favorite travel jacket on the SCOTTeVEST website and by watching YouTube reviews, but I didn’t trust the website itself, so I bought it from Amazon instead. If their product pages were out of date and didn’t have the details, they would also have lost the sale to another brand.
In my research, I started with five companies; three had lackluster website experiences making it easy to narrow down to two companies because of their product pages. Those three felt like knock-off companies, lacked details like a space for an iPad, and there was nothing human about the content. The other two did a better job with their PDPs. In the end, I still shopped, just on Amazon, because the SCOTTeVEST website lacked the trust builders on their product and category pages.
For me, it was a clear lack of a return policy and a make good if something went wrong. On Amazon, it had a free return within a specific time frame if you were unhappy. SCOTTeVEST will likely disagree, but I am the customer, and that was the deciding factor for me. Besides helping consumers research, there are more reasons to make sure your product display pages are up to date. See also: The New AI Marketplace: How ChatGPT’s Native Shopping Could Rewrite Digital Commerce
Schema And Product Feeds May Be Incomplete #
Your website is what builds your brand, and LLMs cannot find everything from third parties, data feeds, and schema alone. Schema specifically is incomplete on many sites, or contains errors, so the AI system needs other sources of information to validate it. If your schema is perfect, the next step is to check your product feed for accuracy, including variants, stock levels, images, etc. But product feeds could have less valuable information in them depending on the provider you use and format.
See also: Schema Markup Didn’t Move AI Citations In Ahrefs Test
Cannibalization Happens
Many brands have a second set of product descriptions, image names, and other elements that they send to marketplaces, affiliates, and third-party platforms so they don’t cannibalize their own product and their category pages elsewhere. This is a result of search engines not being able to tell who the original author and content owner is, so they keep the original value-adding copy on their own site, and only share what is necessary elsewhere. It doesn’t matter if it is plagiarized content or through syndication (in this case product pages).
If you have a newer brand with a signature product people search for by name, you want your product page to rank, and be recommended. If you use the same copy, and content that exists on your own product page on large marketplace websites and affiliate sites, there is a very reasonable chance they can outrank you for multiple platforms because you gave them your content. This is why you would send a second set of data, you protect your webpage first so you don’t have to pay network, marketplace, and advertising fees for your own branded searches. You also want your own product page to be recommended in an AI output, and if yours is out of date or incomplete, there’s a chance it may not.
Customer Experience, Trust, And Brand Building #
Your product pages are also where you can answer the most important questions that matter to your customer, and the AI systems have crawlers that come to find your content. This is why you want to update the product page content on your website. Your product page can tell a user when to go up or down a size because the fit is loose or tight. The AI system will learn this from your page, assuming it renders properly, has easy-to-read and navigate headers, and good content.
Product pages will share compatibility with other elements, but the feed has to be modified for each platform, as some have character limits, others require specific image sizes. This is where the details get lost because the feed does not allow for that much text, but your webpage does. AI crawling your website is one way it can find the most important details like running shoes specifically for pronation and trails, or a costume that is too large for a Chihuahua but not a French Bulldog.
See also: The Technical Signals AI Search Uses That Most SEOs Still Aren’t Optimizing
Keeping Third Parties Informed #
Next comes your influencers, ambassadors, affiliates, ecommerce editors at media companies, and creators that you hire or approve into your programs. You aren’t always going to be there to answer their questions, and when they’re ready to produce content, they need to know what to say.
They research your products via the content on your product pages. If they are a source used by AI, then this is how AI discovers the same talking points it found on your own product page and hopefully in your product feed. When all trusted sources are saying the same thing, all of a sudden it could be a reasonable assumption that this product and that page are the right ones to recommend. It doesn’t matter if the conversion happens on your site or in the LLM; you’re getting the sale vs. a third party or competitor.
If the selling points and UX are not on your product pages, the people creating content around your brand may not include it. This removes one learning point for the LLMs. But it isn’t only about LLMs, it’s about UX and SEO too.
SEO And User Experience Benefits #
Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo, and the other search engines still drive traffic. Same with Google and Bing Ads, Meta Ads, and Pinterest ads. They land people on your product pages. If the product pages do not sell the services and talk about how the person will benefit, you just wasted your money because they may be less likely to convert.
These product pages get sent out via data feeds with links that can be crawled. As spiders come to the pages, they will be able to discover internal links, and these internal links help get new pages discovered and crawled by search engines, and LLMs. If you ignore the links on your own page, you’re stopping the crawlers from finding more information from you about what you sell or the services you offer.
Updating your product page copy gives you opportunities to build site structure and help guide spiders and your customers to new models, better options based on need, and to find new pathways through your website.
If you’re wondering if product page content still matters or if you should ignore it, yes, it still matters. Do not sacrifice other channels just because AI is currently seen as the dominant narrative. While AI is not going anywhere, it is not enough to support your company financially. At any point in time, it can also decide you do not deserve to be surfaced in results, and that is when other channels that rely on your product page content matter more. As a rule of thumb, build your product pages for users. They’re going to keep coming to your pages from your email and SMS lists, affiliates, social media or YouTube, SEO, organic referrals, and paid ads. Your product pages are where conversions start. If your content and images are outdated or not trustworthy, there’s no reason to click add to cart. By not updating the pages, you stop yourself from making money, so make sure to not sacrifice your own website and products just because AI can read schema or because you submit a data feed.
If you don’t update your product pages, your competitors might, and they are the ones that will end up passing you because they are the ones thinking about their customers over the AI systems. More Resources:
- [Google’s Product Feed Strategy Points To The Future Of Retail Discovery](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/googles-product-feed-strategy-points-to-the-future-of-retail-discovery/572291/)
- [How Do You Fix Thin Content Across Similar Ecommerce Product Pages? – Ask An SEO](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/ask-an-seo-how-do-you-fix-thin-content-across-similar-product-pages/566266/)
- [70% Of Top Retailers Are Invisible To Agentic Commerce – Here’s Why](https://www.searchenginejournal.com/70-of-top-retailers-are-invisible-to-agentic-commerce-heres-why/581198/)
Featured Image: Paulo Bobita/Search Engine Journal