AI Page Audit for E-commerce
E-commerce product pages face a unique AI search challenge: if your Product schema is incomplete, your pricing is hidden behind JavaScript, or your product descriptions are generic, AI shopping assistants in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews will skip your listing entirely. Product schema with price, availability, and ratings increases AI citation rate by 52%.
Product schema with price, availability, and ratings increases AI citation rate by 52% — but most e-commerce sites use only the basic schema tier.
Common E-commerce AI Search Problems
- 1Generic manufacturer-supplied product descriptions — zero information gain, AI prefers unique content
- 2Pricing and availability in JavaScript — invisible to AI crawlers that can't execute JS
- 3Missing Product schema or incomplete structured data (no price, no availability enum)
- 4Category pages with only product grids — no explanatory content for AI to extract
- 5Self-review patterns — review.author.url matching your own domain = FTC violation flag
- 6Out-of-stock products showing InStock schema — content-schema mismatch = trust failure
Recommended Fixes
- Write unique, specific product descriptions (50-150 words) covering materials, dimensions, use cases
- Add complete Product + Offer JSON-LD with price, priceCurrency, and availability enum
- Use Shopify's built-in SSR for product data; supplement with custom JSON-LD in theme.liquid
- Add category page intros (2-3 paragraphs) covering who the products are for and buying criteria
- Implement AggregateRating schema to expose your star ratings to AI systems
- Add FAQ sections to product pages answering common pre-purchase questions
AI Search Checklist for E-commerce
Product Detail Pages
- Price visible in HTML (not JavaScript-only)
- Product + Offer schema with price, currency, availability
- Availability enum exact: InStock / OutOfStock / PreOrder / Discontinued
- AggregateRating schema if you have reviews
- Unique product description (not manufacturer copy)
Category Pages
- Introductory text (200+ words) explaining the category
- Buying criteria or comparison factors listed
- ItemList schema for the product grid
- BreadcrumbList schema matching visible breadcrumb
Buying Guides / Blog
- Named author with Person schema
- External citations for product claims
- Answer-first structure (recommendation in first paragraph)
- FAQPage schema for common buying questions
Frequently Asked Questions
Do AI shopping assistants actually recommend products?
Yes. ChatGPT's shopping mode, Perplexity Shopping, and Google AI Overviews for product queries all actively recommend products. They cite pages with complete Product schema significantly more than pages without. If your product pages lack structured data, you're invisible to these systems.
Does product review count matter for AI citations?
AggregateRating schema (displaying your star rating and review count in structured data) significantly improves AI citation probability — AI uses social proof as a quality signal. Product pages with 4.0+ ratings and AggregateRating schema are cited at a higher rate than unrated products.
How does pricing visibility affect AI search for e-commerce?
AI assistants can only help users 'compare products by price' if your prices are visible in structured data. Hidden pricing is the e-commerce equivalent of refusing to answer the question. Add pricing to your Product + Offer schema and ensure it's visible in the HTML source.
Should every product page be audited or just top sellers?
Start with your top 20 highest-traffic product pages and 5 most important category pages. Fix the common patterns you find (likely: incomplete schema, generic descriptions, JS-rendered content) with a site-wide approach. Then audit individual pages for specific AI visibility issues.
Does product schema help with Google Shopping as well as AI search?
Yes — Product schema with complete Offer data is required for Google Shopping free listings, Google Merchant Center, and now Google AI Overviews for shopping queries. Improving your schema for AI search also improves your traditional Shopping visibility.
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