For online shops
Ecommerce SEO agency: be the product AI assistants name
An ecommerce SEO agency helps an online shop be found when people search for what it sells. We do that work in Google and in the AI assistants shoppers now ask what to buy.
At a glance
- Who it is for
- UK online shops and brands that sell direct
- What it is for
- Being found for what you sell, and named when shoppers ask what to buy
- Measured beside
- Your orders and revenue from organic search
- First programme
- 90 days, then month to month
What an ecommerce SEO agency does
An ecommerce SEO agency makes a shop's category and product pages easy for search engines to read and worth showing to a shopper. Ecommerce SEO services cover six problems that other kinds of site do not have.
| Problem | What we do |
|---|---|
| Category pages that do not rank | Rebuild each one around the search it should answer, with useful copy, clear filters and links to the products. |
| Thin or copied product pages | Add what a shopper needs to choose: sizes, materials, delivery, returns and answers to the questions people ask. |
| Filters and variants that create duplicates | Decide which filtered pages should be indexed and which should not, and specify the fix. |
| Products going out of stock | Set rules for pages that are out of stock, discontinued or seasonal, so that they do not lose their place. |
| Product data | Keep structured data and your Merchant Center feed accurate and matching the page.1 |
| Slow templates | Find what slows the category and product templates and specify each fix as a developer ticket. |
Google's guide points shops to Merchant Center feeds and Business Profiles for their product and business details. Beyond that, it says no special markup is needed for its AI features.1
Which products AI assistants name
On we asked ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude three questions a UK shopper might ask. They covered running shoes for flat feet, ergonomic office chairs under £400 and coffee subscriptions.
Between them the four assistants named 55 products and brands. Four were named by all four.
For office chairs the assistants named 23 different chairs, and none was named by all four. For running shoes they agreed on the maker more often than the model: four makers were named by every assistant.
Where the assistants get their shopping answers
We also noted every website the assistants cited as a source for those three questions. There were 96 citations.
For shopping questions the assistants leaned on other people's reviews. Publishers and review sites made up 61 of the 96 citations. The assistants named a product 90 times and cited its brand's own website in only 13 of them. Amazon was not cited once.
What we do for online shops
| Part | What it means for an online shop |
|---|---|
| Prompt set | 50 questions shoppers ask: what to buy, which is best for a need, how two products compare and where to buy. |
| Category and product pages | Rebuilt around the searches they should answer, with the detail a shopper needs to choose. |
| Product data | Structured data and feeds that match what is on the page, including price and availability. |
| Reviews and buying guides | We map the publishers and review sites the assistants cite for your products, and work to get your products in front of them. |
| Corrections | Where an assistant gives the wrong price, range or delivery terms, we find the source of the error and fix it there. |
| Technical foundations | Filters, variants, pagination, stock changes and page speed on your templates. |
| Measurement | The prompt set is re-run monthly and reported beside your orders and revenue from organic search. |
What to expect, and when
First programme: 90 days
-
Baseline and source map
Weeks 1 to 3
The 50 questions are agreed and run. You see which products are named and which sites are cited.
-
Templates and product data
Weeks 3 to 8
Category and product templates, filters and feeds are fixed.
-
Reviews and buying guides
Weeks 6 to 12
Your products are put in front of the publishers the assistants read.
-
Re-run and report
Every month
The same questions, the same assistants, beside your orders.
Then month to month
These weeks are typical, not fixed. A large catalogue takes longer to fix and to recrawl, and we say so before we start.
How much an ecommerce SEO agency costs in the UK
On we read four UK ecommerce SEO pages that rank or are cited for these searches. One published a price: from £3,000 a month, on a 12-month agreement with a break at month three.
We also asked four AI assistants what a UK online shop should expect to pay. Three put a mid-sized shop at £2,500 to £5,000 a month, and Claude put it at £1,500 to £5,000. For a small shop most quoted about £1,000 to £2,500.
We price each engagement after a discovery call, because the scope depends on the size of your catalogue and your platform. You get the scope and the fee in writing before any work starts.
What we will not promise
A product named in every answer. No one outside these companies controls which products an AI assistant names. We promise the work, the method and the reporting.
Revenue by a date. Results depend on your starting point, your catalogue and your market. We tell you what we expect after the audit, and tell you when nothing moved.
Reviews we arranged. We do not buy reviews or write them. We work to get your products reviewed by people who will say what they think.
How we measure it
We agree a fixed set of 50 questions your shoppers ask and run each one in Google's AI Overviews, ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity and Claude. Every prompt is run more than once, because AI answers change from one run to the next. We record whether your products are mentioned, whether your site is cited as a source, whether prices and details are accurate, and who is cited instead. Each month you see the results beside your Search Console clicks and your orders and revenue from organic search.
Terms, in plain words
- First programme
- 90 days. Long enough to audit, fix the foundations and measure the first change.
- After that
- Month to month. You can stop with 30 days' notice.
- Who owns the work
- You do. Everything we produce is yours, including your prompt set and its results.
- Fee
- Agreed in writing, with the scope, before any work starts.
- Who you deal with
- Our founders, who lead the work and have more than seven years in SEO.
Questions
What are ecommerce SEO services?
Ecommerce SEO services are the work that gets an online shop's category and product pages found in search. They cover page content, product data, filters and variants, stock changes, page speed and the reviews and guides that mention your products.
How much does an ecommerce SEO agency cost?
When we asked on , three of four AI assistants put a mid-sized UK shop at £2,500 to £5,000 a month. One agency page we read published a price: from £3,000 a month. We price after a discovery call and put the fee in writing first.
Do we need an agency or an ecommerce SEO consultant?
It depends on how you like to work. With us you deal directly with the people who lead the work. We build websites as well as optimising them, so fixes are specified in a form your developers can use.
Which platforms do you work with?
Shopify, WooCommerce, Adobe Commerce, BigCommerce and custom-built shops. The problems are the same on each. What differs is how much the platform lets you change, and we say what is possible on yours.
Do AI assistants recommend products?
Yes. When we asked four of them three shopping questions on , they named 55 products and brands. Most of their sources were publishers and review sites, not the brands' own websites.
Do we need product schema to appear in AI answers?
Not for Google's AI features. Google says structured data is not required for them. It still helps your ordinary search listings show price and availability, so we keep it accurate and matching the page.1
Is SEO still worth it for an online shop?
Yes. Google says its AI features are rooted in its core ranking and quality systems, so SEO still decides which pages can be shown. What has changed is where a shopper first reads the answer.1
How long does ecommerce SEO take?
It depends on the size of your catalogue and your starting point, and we will not promise a date. Template fixes show once your pages are recrawled. Reviews and mentions take longer. The first programme is 90 days so there is time to measure a change.
Related guides
Sources
- Google Search Central. Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search. Last updated . Opened .
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