Every year the playing field shifts a little; this year it shifted hard. A growing share of product research no longer starts with ten blue links but with an answer: in Google's AI Overviews, in ChatGPT, in Perplexity. So anyone starting on SEO for an online shop in 2026 is optimising for two readers at once: the search engine that ranks pages, and the language model that assembles answers and cites sources.
This is not a 200-point checklist. It is what actually brought traffic to our own shops, Grill Bill among them, plus two things you can skip with a clear conscience.
Measure first, then start tinkering
Before you change anything: look at what already works. Open Search Console and sort by impressions rather than clicks. The pages with plenty of impressions and few clicks are your fastest win, because that is where the title or the meta description does not match the question people are asking. Fixing it takes minutes per page and often produces measurably more clicks within weeks, without writing a single new page.
Also record where your traffic lands. For most shops we migrate, 60 to 80 per cent of organic traffic arrives on category and product pages, not on the blog. That sets the order of everything below.
1. Category pages are your heavyweights
For an online shop, the category page is what the pillar page is for a blog: the page that has to rank for the commercial search term. Three changes make the difference:
- Give every category real copy. Not three lines of filler above the filters, but an introduction that explains the choice: what to look for, what the differences are, who each option suits. At Grill Bill this lifted the kamado BBQ category from position eight into the top three on its most important term.
- Keep the hierarchy shallow and logical. Three levels at most, every category reachable in two clicks from the homepage. Nesting deeper is almost always a taxonomy problem, not an SEO strategy.
- Do not let filters produce duplicates. Every filter combination that gets its own URL without its own content dilutes your authority. Decide deliberately which filter pages may be indexed and set the rest to noindex.
2. Product copy that answers questions
The standard product description lists specifications. The product copy that ranks, and gets cited, answers the question that comes before the purchase: is this right for me, how does it differ from the alternative, what are the pitfalls. In practice:
- Start with the answer in two sentences, then work it out. People scan; so do language models.
- Write out the comparison the visitor is going to make anyway ("the difference between the entry model and the pro model") yourself, on your own page.
- Do not repeat the specifications in prose; refer to them and use the space for context that exists nowhere else.
This is also why thin AI copy does not work: a language model that has seen a hundred generic product descriptions cites the one page that says something the rest does not.
3. Become citable for AI answers
Getting found in AI answers, GEO or AEO (pick your acronym), is not magic but structure. Language models cite pages that are easy to parse:
- Define your terms. A page that answers "what is a kamado" clearly in a single paragraph becomes the source for exactly that question. Our e-commerce glossary exists for this reason.
- Use visible question-and-answer blocks with matching FAQ markup, like the questions at the bottom of this article.
- Keep your structured data in order. Product, article and breadcrumb markup are the reading glasses through which both Google and language models understand your page.
- Serve an llms.txt. A short, current overview of what your site is and which pages matter, written for AI crawlers. Costs an hour, sets you apart from almost every competitor.
What you can safely skip
Two things that swallow a lot of money and attention and demonstrably did nothing for us:
- Bought link packages. Dozens of links from irrelevant sites no longer move an online shop's positions; one mention in a relevant trade publication does. Spend the budget on something worth mentioning.
- The 200-point audit. Reports full of items that each make less than a per cent of difference keep you away from the three changes above. An audit is useful when it ends in five actions with expected impact; otherwise it is procrastination with a dashboard.
Keeping shop SEO measurable
Everything above is handwork you set up once and then keep an eye on. We built our own SEO Manager for that: it scores every page on the classic checks and on findability for language models, and turns the gaps into tasks. If you are moving platform soon, read the migration playbook first, because a move is the moment when rankings either collapse or get stronger. More guides are in the knowledge base.
Start small: this week, fix the titles of your five most-shown pages; next week, write one category text that genuinely explains the choice. Measure after a month. No soup, just work you can see coming back in the numbers.
Frequently asked questions
How long does SEO take to produce results for an online shop?
Title and meta fixes on existing pages often produce measurably more clicks within two to six weeks. New category copy and building authority take three to six months. Anything promising faster is measuring impressions rather than revenue.
Is blogging still worth it for an online shop?
Yes, but as support: the blog answers orientation questions and links through to the category pages that earn the money. A blog that links nowhere is a hobby.
What is GEO, and do I need it alongside SEO?
GEO (generative engine optimisation) means making sure AI answers cite your pages. It is not a separate project: the same clear structure, definitions and question-and-answer blocks serve Google and language models alike. So you are already halfway there if your SEO is in order.
Should I have AI rewrite my product copy?
AI is fine for a first draft, but the copy that ranks contains knowledge only you have: hands-on experience, differences between models, honest drawbacks. Generate the skeleton, write the substance yourself.