- AI assistants recommend products whose facts they can verify across several sources.
- Fix crawl access and product identity first; then ingredients, fit and claims; then the independent trail.
- Claims must be safe before they are quotable — a drug-like claim is a liability, not a ranking factor.
- Measure with a fixed set of real shopper prompts, re-run monthly.
1. Make sure AI can read your site
ChatGPT search only shows sites its search crawler can reach: OpenAI says sites opted out of OAI-SearchBot will not be shown in ChatGPT search answers. Allow OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Claude-SearchBot, Googlebot and Bingbot, and check that your CDN or bot protection does not silently block them. Google says pages need no special markup for AI Overviews or AI Mode — they must simply be indexed and eligible for a snippet.
2. Give every product one identity
Use the same product name, variant names and sizes on your site, retailers and marketplaces. Add Product structured data with brand, GTIN where you have one, and offers that match the visible page. Mixed-up variants are one of the commonest reasons an assistant describes the wrong product.
3. Put ingredients and fit in text
List the full INCI and the key actives as HTML text — not only on packshots. State who the product is for (skin type, tone, hair type, concern) and who it is not for. Assistants answer "for oily, acne-prone skin" questions with products whose pages say so.
4. Make claims safe, then specific
Prefer measurable, supported statements ("in a 4-week consumer-perception study of 32 people…") to vague superlatives, and avoid drug-like claims. See claims-safe GEO for beauty brands.
5. Answer the questions shoppers ask
Publish ingredient pages, concern pages ("routine for sensitive skin"), comparisons and honest FAQs. Open each with a direct answer.
6. Align every shelf
Retailer and marketplace listings should carry the same facts as your site. For ChatGPT shopping, OpenAI invites merchants to apply to share product data (currently via a waitlist at chatgpt.com/merchants).
7. Earn independent confirmation — and measure
Editorial reviews, expert commentary and genuine community discussion are what assistants cross-check. Never buy fake reviews. Then re-run a fixed set of 20–40 shopper prompts every month; see how to measure AI visibility.