Last week I ran a workshop at Meet Magento Florida. The room was supposed to hold 50 people. They kept bringing in more chairs. By the time we started, people were standing along the back wall.
The topic was AI-ready visibility for e-commerce stores.
Your customers are not searching the way they used to.
Ten years ago, twenty years ago, SEO meant one thing: rank on Google. That was the game. If you showed up on page one, you won.
That game is over.
Today, your customers are searching on Google, yes. But also ChatGPT. Perplexity. TikTok. Instagram. YouTube. Reddit. Each platform has its own algorithm, its own content format, its own rules for what gets surfaced.
40% of Gen Z uses TikTok and Instagram as their primary search engine. Not Google. They are searching "best running shoes" on TikTok and watching videos instead of reading blog posts.
This is not a trend. This is the new reality.
The problem for e-commerce brands
Most stores are still optimizing for one channel. They have an SEO person doing keyword research for Google. Maybe some social posts. But no strategy for showing up where customers are looking.
The result: you are invisible on the platforms where your customers spend their time.
What works now
After running workshops on this topic, here is what I keep coming back to:
1. Understand the old model first.
Google still matters. Traditional SEO is not dead. The fundamentals (quality content, fast load times, mobile-friendly design, proper meta tags) still drive organic traffic. Most stores I work with still get 40-60% of their traffic from Google.
But Google is no longer the only game. Ten years ago, you could build an entire business on SEO alone. Today, that same strategy leaves you invisible to half your potential customers.
You need to master the old model before you can expand beyond it. If your site is slow, your pages are thin, and your product descriptions are copied from the manufacturer, fix that first.
2. Accept that discovery is fragmented.
Your customers are searching on Google, yes. But also ChatGPT, Perplexity, TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, and Reddit. Each platform has its own algorithm, its own content format, its own rules for what gets surfaced.
This is not going to consolidate. It is going to fragment further. New platforms will emerge. AI assistants will get more sophisticated. The stores that win will be the ones that show up everywhere their customers are looking.
The practical implication: you cannot create content for one platform and expect it to work everywhere. You need a strategy for each channel, which leads to point six.
3. Treat social media as a search engine.
40% of Gen Z uses TikTok and Instagram as their primary search engine. They are not Googling "best running shoes." They are typing it into TikTok and watching videos.
That means rethinking how you create content. Text-based blog posts do not show up on TikTok. You need video. You need short-form content. You need to understand how each platform's algorithm decides what to surface.
If you sell to anyone under 35, social search is not optional. It is primary.
4. Build for technical discovery.
Before you worry about content, make sure your technical foundation is solid. Site speed matters. Structured data matters. Mobile experience matters. Crawlability matters.
AI assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity pull information from sources they can parse. If your site is slow, cluttered with JavaScript, or missing structured data, you will not get cited. Run your homepage through PageSpeed Insights. If your mobile score is below 50, fix that before you invest more in content.
The technical stuff is not glamorous, but it determines whether anyone can find your content in the first place.
5. Make your pages answer-ready.
AI assistants pull answers from content that directly answers questions. If your product page says "premium quality materials" instead of answering "what is this made of," you will not get cited.
Structure your PDPs, FAQs, and blog posts so the first sentence answers the question. Then expand with details. This is the opposite of how most people write, where they build up to the answer. Put the answer first.
Include E-E-A-T signals throughout: experience (first-hand knowledge), expertise (credentials), authoritativeness (citations and links), trustworthiness (transparent about who you are). Google cares about this. AI assistants care about this even more because they are trying to figure out who to trust.
6. Create a content flywheel.
Here is where the fragmentation problem gets solved. One piece of content becomes many.
Write a blog post. Pull three key points for a LinkedIn post. Turn the hook into a TikTok script. Use the data for a Twitter thread. Send the summary in your newsletter. Each platform gets content in its native format, but you only had to think through the topic once.
This is not about being lazy. It is about being efficient. Your customers are everywhere. Your content needs to travel to reach them.
7. Follow a 30-day gameplan.
All of this can feel overwhelming. Where do you start?
Pick four pillar topics for your business. These are the core themes that matter to your customers. For a running shoe store, it might be: training plans, injury prevention, gear reviews, race preparation.
Write one blog post per week, rotating through your four pillars. Repurpose each post into social content using the flywheel from point six. Do this every week without fail.
The compounding effect kicks in around month six. You will have 24 posts. Your domain authority will start climbing. Your social following will grow. The flywheel starts spinning on its own.
Most people quit at month three. The ones who make it to month six see results. Consistency beats volume every time.
The 30-day version
I put together a 30-day gameplan that breaks this down into weekly actions. It starts around page 38 of the deck from our AI-Ready workshop at Meet Magento Florida.
If you want the full deck (46 pages covering search fragmentation, technical foundations, content flywheels, and the gameplan), you can download it here:
No pitch, just the resource.
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