Does My Product Page Copy Still Matter If Agents Read Feeds And Schema? – Ask An SEO via @sejournal, @rollerblader

Does My Product Page Copy Still Matter If Agents Read Feeds And Schema? – Ask An SEO Product page copy builds shopper trust and fills gaps in AI feeds with sizing, compatibility, and return details that help customers decide to buy.

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If their product pages were out of date and didn’t have the details, they would also have lost the sale to another brand.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