The rise of generative AI is rapidly changing the search landscape. Where SEO was long focused on keywords, backlinks, and snippets, we are now seeing the emergence of AI-driven search experiences like Google’s SGE (Search Generative Experience) and Bing Chat. For e-commerce companies, this means opportunities and risks. How do you ensure that your brand remains visible as AI becomes the intermediary between you and your customer?
At Epartment, we are building scalable e-commerce platforms daily, often in combination with powerful integrations, product data (Akeneo), and Hyvä frontends. Below, we share 8 tips to make your SEO strategy future-proof in the AI era.
1. Understand how AI changes search behavior
AI systems are increasingly providing direct answers instead of link lists. If your webshop relies on organic traffic from search results, you need to understand how systems like Google SGE or ChatGPT plugins pick up your content — and whether your content is still visible in that context. It’s no longer just about ranking, but about presence in generated answers.
Tip: Actively monitor how your brand or products appear in AI results. Use tools like SGE.dev or AI overview tests in Search Labs (Google) to see if you’re included.
2. Focus on entities, not just keywords
AI understands context. Instead of solely optimizing for 'buying shoes', you should build content around entities: brands, types, materials, use cases. An AI model understands better who or what you are when you structurally build your content around these concepts.
Example: Do you have a B2B webshop for medical products? Then 'sterile gloves for ORs' as context is much more valuable than just 'latex gloves'.
3. Make your data machine-readable (structured data!)
Structured data, such as schema.org markup, helps AI systems to understand your content. Consider it as the translation between your website and AI algorithms. For e-commerce, product markups are essential: price, stock, reviews, SKUs — everything needs to be well structured.
Pro-tip: Our Hyvä B2B Suite includes standard schema.org markup for products and companies. Expand this with, among other things, ProductGroup, Offer, Brand, and Review.
4. Use FAQs, how-tos, and ‘zero-click’ content
AI extracts answers from content that answers questions. Think of FAQs, explanation pages, or product guides. This type of content is extremely suitable to be included in AI answers — as long as it is well structured.
Tip: Create a 'buying guide' or 'manual' for each category page. Think of titles like: “Which LED construction lamp is suitable for your work environment?” or “Checklist: what do you need for a sterile operating room?”
5. Build authority through reliable content
AI models value reliability. Content that shows expertise, is accompanied by authors, references, or industry information, scores better in AI-filtered search results.
Approach: Work with ‘expert profiles’ for your blogs or knowledge base. Publish insights from your product specialists or sales reps with their name, position, and possibly LinkedIn link.
6. Optimize product data for AI interpretation
E-commerce relies on product data. Yet, many feeds are incomplete or unclear. AI only understands your products if you enrich them well: with properties, variants, uses, compatibility, and more.
For Epartment customers: If you work with Akeneo or similar PIM systems, ensure that the output (via API or feed) is rich and consistent. AI does not understand cryptic product titles or abbreviations like ‘BLK-R20-2P-L’ without context.
7. Think in clusters and context, not in separate landing pages
The time of hundreds of SEO landing pages with minimal variation is over. AI rewards domains that cover a topic broadly and deeply. Organize your content around themes and ensure that pages strengthen each other.
Approach: Create thematic clusters such as:
Product safety in construction (blogs, guides, downloads)
Digital transformation in healthcare logistics (case studies, customer stories)
Wholesale and OCI integrations (whitepapers, demos)
8. Have your SEO team collaborate with development and PIM
AI SEO is no longer a task for marketing alone. Successful SEO requires cooperation between development (markup, speed, crawlability), content (content & structure), and data (PIM, feeds, integrations).
At Epartment, we bring these worlds together: our technical developers and PIM consultants work closely with your marketing party to make not only the frontend but also the data side SEO-ready.
In conclusion: see AI not as a threat, but as an accelerator
The AI revolution is inevitable. But those who smartly respond to this change — with good product data, relevant content, and a technically strong foundation — will remain visible. Epartment is happy to help you with that: from smart PIM connections to SEO-driven Hyvä frontends.
More information on how to make your webshop AI-ready? Contact us, we’ll show you in a live demo.
