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What ChatGPT Checkout means for beauty brands

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open ai instant checkout image

The next evolution of beauty e-commerce

It’s official, ChatGPT has crossed the threshold from helper to seller. With OpenAI’s launch of ChatGPT Checkout, artificial intelligence is no longer just recommending products; it’s processing payments and completing orders. 

For the beauty industry, which has always been quick to experiment with emerging tech, this marks a significant shift for brands.

Think of how the sector has already embraced AI-powered shade matching, skin diagnostics, and virtual try-ons. ChatGPT Checkout builds on that momentum, blending personalisation with convenience – we’ll be living in a world where shoppers can discover, compare, and buy their products within a single AI conversation.

It’s not just another channel, it’s potentially the next major step in how consumers buy beauty online.

So, what exactly is ChatGPT Checkout?

In simple terms, ChatGPT Checkout allows users to shop directly within ChatGPT. No links, no new tabs, no websites. The feature uses Stripe to handle secure payments, and it sits on top of OpenAI’s new “agentic commerce” framework, which enables AI to act on user intent in real time.

For now, the feature is limited to select US retailers, but it offers a preview of what’s coming for global e-commerce. ChatGPT can already search for and recommend products; this new function lets it complete the sale without leaving the chat.

In essence, AI is evolving from a recommendation tool into a full-funnel e-commerce channel.

Beauty brands, this is your time.

For beauty marketers, this represents both an opportunity and a challenge. Imagine a shopper asking ChatGPT:

“What’s a good moisturiser for sensitive skin and someone allergic to coconut oil?” 

“Look at this picture of me, what kind of contour suits my skin tone?”

“I need to buy a gift for my wife, she likes lipstick? I think?”

Within seconds, the AI could surface your brand for these curious consumers, describe the formula, share ingredient details, and handle the entire checkout, all without the shopper ever visiting your website.

That level of frictionless engagement could reshape the funnel. Awareness, consideration, and purchase can happen in one interaction, in one conversation. It also creates new digital touchpoints beyond search and social that your strategies will need to consider.

For brands willing to act quickly, there’s a clear early-adopter advantage. OpenAI noted that while Instant Checkout products won’t be prioritised in search results, ChatGPT will still consider factors like availability, price, quality, and whether a brand is the primary seller, plus whether Instant Checkout is enabled- to deliver the best user experience. Industry experts suggest that, at least for the first few months, brands already integrated with Shopify are likely to hold a strong competitive edge.

The beauty industry thrives on experience, storytelling, and innovation – ChatGPT Checkout is the latest breakthrough where that creativity and savvyness can help your beauty brand standout.

Opportunities for beauty marketers

Let’s explore some of the ways that ChatGPT Checkout opens up shopping for us all:

Conversational commerce

AI can hold personalised, two-way conversations. If a user says, “I’m looking for a gentle retinol,” ChatGPT could identify your product, explain how it works, and finalise the purchase in a single flow. Creating content in a conversational tone will help your brand show up in these types of searches. 

Impulse and trend-driven sales

When something goes viral, for example a limited-edition palette or a TikTok skincare craze, ChatGPT Checkout eliminates checkout delays or cart abandonment. The moment of interest can become a sale instantly. However, it’s worth noting that this is only theoretical – we haven’t seen this in action yet. But these conversations do have the potential to encourage impulse buys. ChatGPT Checkout could possibly be the quickest way for your customers to find and buy your products online. 

Smarter upselling

Once the AI recognises the shopper’s purchase, it could seamlessly recommend complementary products. “You might also like our ceramide moisturiser to support your skin barrier,” for example. 

The AI has much more scope to act like a sales rep compared to an e-commerce store, so continuing the conversation has the likelihood of driving more sales this way. 

Real-time insight

Chat transcripts could reveal what customers are asking for most, with more context behind their intent. From skin concerns related to ingredients or seasonal needs, this gives beauty marketers richer data than traditional analytics tools ever could.  Search gives us numbers of what people are searching for, but if when its conversational, we can learn more about intent. By understanding the intent behind a search like “best moisturiser for oily skin,” a beauty brand can move beyond product listings to explain that oily skin is often dehydrated, educate on balancing ingredients like niacinamide, and recommend a lightweight hydrating gel, all of which creates a more personal, trust-building experience that can improve conversion.

Where there are pros, there are cons

Innovation rarely comes without caveats. For beauty brands, several issues deserve attention, so here are our initial thoughts:

Loss of brand experience.
 Your website’s visual storytelling, language, and lifestyle imagery are part of your brand identity. A chatbot interface will flatten that. 

What does this mean for your brand? It might be time to brush the dust off your tone of voice documents! Having a strong, recognisable tone of voice will help your beauty brand stand out in AI-driven shopping. It helps differentiate brands,humanises your messaging, helps build emotional connection, and helps with brand recall. For example, we know Paula’s choice always uses smart, heavily science backed claims, compared to Glossier which has a much more casual, friendlier tone. 

Data and ownership.
 When a sale happens inside ChatGPT, who “owns” the customer? OpenAI could sit between your brand and your buyer, limiting access to valuable first-party data. 

Additionally, if sales happen within AI, traditional analytics might struggle to assign ROI. Understanding how ChatGPT contributes to conversions could be complex.

After the US trial we are expecting more clarity on this. 

Regulatory compliance.
 AI conversations must still follow ASA, CMA, and cosmetic claims standards. If a chatbot promises “anti-ageing results,” the brand remains accountable.

Costs and commissions.
OpenAI have said that for every sale received and fulfilled through their checkout interface, brands will pay a “small fee” to OpenAI, but we’re yet to know what this ‘small’ fee will be. But it is free for users so it won’t impact the price of products you set. 

Preparing for AI-driven commerce

OpenAI are open-sourcing the technology which underpins Instant Checkout, “so that more merchants and developers can begin building their integrations”. To stay ahead, beauty marketers should start preparing now. Here at Foundation, we are already having a lot of conversations around how we incorporate AI into our clients’ strategies. 

You can read some of our SEO team’s thoughts here on how you can optimise your content for ChatGPT. There’s lots of similarities between posts but to summarise, here is what we’re thinking will be important for preparing for GPT Checkout.

Audit product data

Ensure descriptions, ingredients, and imagery are structured for AI readability. The more consistent your data, the better AI can represent your products. Make sure that AI can crawl your sites too. If they can’t – it’s unlikely the information will be used by the AI.

Prioritise brand voice

If you already use chatbots or virtual beauty advisors, train them to reflect your tone, product philosophy, and skincare expertise. Authenticity matters as much as accuracy. 

Optimise for AI visibility

Just as SEO evolved for Google, a new field of GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation) is emerging. Focus on clear product information, verified reviews, brand mentions, and transparent ingredient data so your brand stands out in generative search results.

This is 100% not about replacing your existing channels; it’s about ensuring your brand is ready when AI-driven commerce becomes mainstream.

The future of beauty commerce in the age of AI

If we were a betting agency, we’d wager that ChatGPT Checkout is only the beginning. 

Soon, AI could handle bundles, subscriptions, or replenishment reminders automatically. Imagine a customer who buys a toner through ChatGPT, and 3 months later receives a friendly reminder: “Would you like to reorder?”

We expect that visual features will follow, the likes of AR try-ons, skin tone analysis, and real-time product matching in the checkout flow.

And other tech giants are already joining the race. Google’s Shopping Graph, Meta AI, and Amazon’s Rufus are all moving toward similar AI-commerce capabilities – the ecosystem is forming fast, and beauty brands that can adapt early will reap the benefits and shape the future.

The beauty of what comes next

The launch of ChatGPT Checkout signals a new era where curiosity, conversation, and conversion merge seamlessly. For beauty brands, this isn’t just a new tool to be aware of. With ChatGPT shopping traffic expected to increase exponentially in the next year, t’s  a huge opportunity to rethink how your customers will discover and buy your products and get ahead of your competitors.

At Foundation, we are constantly thinking about the future of digital marketing and the impact AI is having on search. For us, AI Search is another new, very important channel that every brand needs to be optimising for. Our team of beauty marketing specialists are here to help brands like yours, stay ahead of digital innovation. 

If you’re ready to explore what’s next for your brand in the age of AI-powered commerce, get in touch and let’s chat!

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How to optimise your beauty content for AI Overviews

image for AI overview blog tags of imperfections
image for AI overview blog

Imagine a potential customer searches for “how to reduce acne scars” and, instead of immediately clicking a website, they see an AI-generated overview at the top of Google’s results summarising the answer. This is Google’s Search Generative Experience (SGE) in action, known as the Google AI Overview, and it’s reshaping SEO.

how to reduce acne scars google overview

For beauty brand owners and marketing teams, the rise of AI overviews means adjusting your content strategy so your brand remains visible and authoritative in search results. In this guide, we’ll explain what Google’s AI overviews are, why they matter for e-commerce beauty brands, and provide practical tips (with real examples) on how to optimise your site to thrive in the era of AI-driven search.

Understanding Google AI Overviews (SGE)

Google’s AI Overview is essentially an AI-generated answer box that appears at the top of search results, above the traditional organic listings. Instead of the user having to click multiple results, Google’s AI provides a concise summary of information pulled from multiple sources on the web, presented in a few paragraphs or bullet points.

AI Overview of brightening serums

In the example above, Google’s AI overview gives a brief description of the query (“brightening serums” in this case) and even shows a related product and guides on brightening serums. When users click “Show more,” the overview expands with additional details such as key ingredients and benefits and citations linking to the websites that provided the information. In short, Google’s becoming both a search engine and even more of an answer engine with this feature.

Why Google’s AI Overviews matter for beauty brands

If you’re in the beauty e-commerce space, you might be wondering how this new search feature impacts your website’s traffic and visibility. The short answer: AI overviews are changing the game for top-of-funnel searches, and you need to adapt your SEO strategy accordingly. As of early 2025, roughly 13–15% of Google searches now show an AI Overview by default.

SEM Rush % of queries with AI overviews

According to a SEMrush study, it doubled from about 6.5% of queries in January 2025 to over 13% by March 2025. Of course, this varies by industry and according to Search Engine Journal “Telecommunications had the highest percentage of keywords linked to AI Overviews at 56%, while Beauty and Cosmetics had the lowest at 14%.” That means an increasing number of your potential customers will see an AI-generated answer before any regular search results or organic links. Why does this matter? Because when an AI overview appears, it steals some of the spotlight (and clicks) from the traditional search results. Users might get their answer straight from Google’s summary without ever visiting a website. However, it’s not all bad news. Being featured within an AI overview can offer a new kind of visibility for your brand. The AI overview cites its sources, which means if your content is one of the sources Google trusts, your brand name and a link can appear right inside that AI box. This is prime real estate at the top of the SERP (Search Engine Results Page). Even if users don’t click immediately, seeing your brand mentioned as an authority can build brand awareness and trust.

Informational vs. transactional & commercial queries, when does Google show an AI Overview?

Not every Google search triggers an AI overview. Google is much pickier about when its AI will step in, and the trigger largely comes down to search intent. Generally, informational searches (when the user is looking for knowledge or advice) are far more likely to get an AI-generated summary than transactional or commercial searches (when the user intends to buy something or navigate to a specific site). According to another SEMrush study, over 80% of AI overviews came from informational keywords.

SEM Rush intent of keywords triggering AI overviews graph

This means that if someone searches an obvious commercial or product query – e.g. “buy MAC lipstick online” or even simply “lipstick”, Google’s AI typically does not generate an overview, likely because the user’s intent is to shop, not to learn. Instead, that kind of query will show the usual results: ads, shopping carousels, and organic links (like your product page or Amazon). Google seems to avoid AI answers for purely transactional queries, maybe to prevent interfering with shopping ads revenue or because those queries are better answered by letting the user browse products. On the other hand, longer-tail informational queries, especially question phrases, are the sweet spot for AI overviews. Searches starting with words like “how…,” “why…,” or “best…” are much more likely to trigger an AI summary, whereas searches starting with words like “buy…” rarely do.

Question keywords triggers AI overviews from SEM Rush

For example, a query such as “how to choose the right foundation shade” or “best serum ingredients for glowing skin” will often prompt Google’s AI to generate an overview with tips or explanations, citing beauty blogs or expert sites.

Screenshot of 'how to choose the right shade of foundation' google AI overview

Why does this distinction matter for your beauty website? It means that the content most at risk of being summarised by AI (and thus possibly reducing direct clicks) is your informational content, things like blog posts, guides, ingredient explainers, how-tos, and advice articles. Meanwhile, your product and category pages are less likely to be affected by AI overviews for now, since Google isn’t showing AI answers for most pure shopping queries.

So your product pages still rely on traditional SEO services to rank well. But all those top-of-funnel queries that your content marketing team has been targeting (“how to contour face shape,” etc.) are exactly where AI is muscling in.

How to optimise your beauty website for AI Overviews

The good news is that many SEO best practices will help with AI overview visibility. According to a Writesonic study: “There’s an astonishing 81.10.% probability that at least one source from Google’s top 10 search results will be cited in an AI Overview. If your page ranks first, the chance of AI citation skyrockets to a remarkable 33.07%” Below are some practical tips, to help your beauty brand’s website shine in the age of AI overviews, while still maintaining good SEO techniques.

1. Identify your audience’s burning questions (and answer them):

Start by researching the informational queries in your niche. What are people asking about skincare, makeup, hair care, etc., that relates to your products? Use tools (Ahrefs for keyword research, People Also Ask (on Google), community forums, questions you get yourself from customers) to find those “how to…” “what is…” and “best…” questions. These long-tail queries are where AI overviews often appear. Create high-quality content on your blog or resource center that directly answers these questions. Aim to be the best answer on the web for that query because Google’s AI will only showcase the top insights. A great example is Paula’s Choice, they noticed consumers wanted to decode ingredients, so they built an extensive ingredient dictionary that demystifies thousands of ingredients with research-backed info. Think about similar educational content your brand can provide (e.g. a makeup glossary, a skincare routine builder, an FAQ hub on common beauty problems).

2. Write authoritatively and cite facts:

Content that gets featured in AI overviews tends to have a tone of expertise and trustworthiness. Make sure your content is accurate, up-to-date, and evidence-based where applicable. If you mention facts (like “retinol can increase collagen production”), consider citing a reputable source or at least have the information vetted by an expert. This aligns with Google’s emphasis on E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness). In the beauty space, that could mean involving a dermatologist or cosmetologist in your content creation, or at least quoting them. Avoid thin content, a 300-word blurb won’t cut it if the top results are comprehensive guides. Remember, an AI overview might pull info from half a dozen sources; so to be one of them, your content must bring something valuable to the table.

3. Leverage your unique expertise and data:

As a beauty brand, you might have access to insights or expertise that generic publications don’t. Use that to your advantage. For example, a skincare brand could publish data from product trials (“X% of users saw improvement in 4 weeks”) or a makeup brand might have a pro makeup artist share tips that aren’t widely known. Unique content is harder for others to duplicate and can make your site a go-to reference. If Google’s AI finds a fact or tip on your site that isn’t found elsewhere (and it’s useful), it has a strong reason to include it.

  • Use descriptive headings (H2s, H3s) that align with common questions. For example, on a page about “Winter Skincare,” a section titled “How should I change my skincare routine in winter?” is user-friendly and tells Google exactly what you’re addressing.
  • Provide direct answers near the top of the relevant section. If the question is “How to cover dark circles with concealer,” start the section with a straightforward answer or summary of steps, then elaborate. This increases your chances of getting a featured snippet and also makes it easy for the AI to pick out key points.
  • Utilise bullet points or numbered lists for step-by-step guides or tips. Google’s AI overview often presents information in bullet form or numbered steps for clarity.
  • If your content already has a well-formatted list (e.g., “5 Steps to Perfect Winged Eyeliner”), it’s more likely the AI will use that format in its answer.
  • Include relevant images or videos if they enhance understanding (e.g., a before-and-after image for a skincare tutorial). Google’s AI can incorporate images into the overview. While we don’t fully control which images Google chooses, having descriptive alt text and captions on your images can help Google associate them with the topic. For instance, an infographic on the “layers of skin and how retinol works” could be something the AI might show for a query about retinol.

4. Structure your content for users and AI:

Google’s AI tends to grab concise answers and well-organised information from pages. Help it (and your human readers) out by structuring your content clearly.

5. Digital PR, authority & brand mentions matter more than ever:

Getting a backlink from a highly credible, relevant source has always been a staple of SEO. These days some publications are not willing to give a link, merely a brand mention. But in the modern world, that’s not the end of the world. A Ahrefs study on factors that correlate with brand appearance in AI overviews found that branded web mentions showed the highest correlation with AI overview appearances.

factors that correlate with brand appearances in AI overviews

So your brand web presence is still everything. Continue to use digital PR services to target highly credible, relevant domains to link to and mention your brand name in a positive light.

6. Don’t neglect technical SEO:

All the content in the world won’t help if Google can’t properly crawl or trust your site. Make sure your technical SEO is solid: good site speed, mobile usability, proper indexing of your content, and using structured data where appropriate. A technically sound site is the foundation for any SEO, AI or not. Also, keep optimising your transactional pages (product and category pages) for their keywords. Since those likely won’t have AI summaries competing above them, you want to capture those clicks by ranking as high as possible. For example, ensure your product & category page SEO (title tags, meta descriptions, keyword distribution, internal linking, core web vitals, structured data with ratings/prices, etc.) is on point for queries like “<Brand Name> <Product> review” or “buy <Product> online”. Those are still going to be traditional search results, and you want to win them. Basically, balance your efforts. Dedicate resources to content for informational queries and maintain your e-commerce SEO for the transactional keywords.

By implementing these strategies, you’ll be positioning your beauty website to work with Google’s AI, not against it. You’ll capture the informational queries by providing genuinely helpful content, and you’ll preserve your transactional & commercial traffic by continuing to excel in traditional SEO areas that AI hasn’t touched.

Conclusion

Traditional SEO and AI optimisation work best together. Think of AI search optimisation as an evolution of what you already know.

At Foundation, the beauty marketing agency, we often tell clients that lasting SEO success comes from mastering the three pillars: technical SEO, content, and digital PR. The same principles apply in the new era of AI search. Optimising your beauty website for AI-driven search is simply the next step in SEO and content marketing. It’s about showing up in front of your customer’s eyes where your customers are asking their questions.

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How to optimise your beauty e‑commerce store for ChatGPT

AI SEO women
Dermatology, skincare and portrait of woman with overlay isolated in a studio purple background for wellness. Beauty, care and person with analysis of skin, product benefits and facial information

Consumer product search is changing. ChatGPT and other AI assistants are becoming the go-to tools for asking questions and getting product recommendations, particularly in beauty. ChatGPT is now in the top 10 most visited sites in the world and usage is growing fast. However, it still lags someway behind Google and other traditional search engines. With the latest figures for July 2025 showing Google received 41.91% of all web traffic, whereas ChatGPT saw 0.19%, Perplexity saw 0.02% and Copilot 0.01%. So, don’t take your eye off the Google ball, but as we will show, if you’re doing SEO well, then you’re enhancing your GEO also.

Looking at beauty specifically, Google’s traffic share was 39.3%, Bing 0.5%, ChatGPT 0.1%, with Perplexity and Copilot barely registering.

These AI models allow users to ask natural questions like “What’s a good paraben-free shampoo for color-treated hair?” and get a conversational answer with suggestions. OpenAI’s ChatGPT can even return product recommendations with descriptions, images and shopping links for certain search queries.

For beauty brand owners and marketing teams, this means a new era of optimising for AI search or as starting to become known as GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation). Instead of just relying on Google rankings you now have to think about how to get your brand and products mentioned by AI assistants. Optimising for ChatGPT (and similar models like Perplexity, Copilot and Gemini) means making sure the AI has access to your content and recognises your brand as trustworthy, relevant and authoritative when answering questions.

How AI search (ChatGPT) differs from traditional search

Optimising for ChatGPT isn’t identical to traditional SEO, because the user experience and AI’s approach to information are very different:

  • Conversational Q&A vs. link lists: Traditional search gives a list of links for the user to choose from; ChatGPT delivers a single, synthesised answer in a conversational tone. This means if your content is used, it might be paraphrased or summarised rather than quoted directly.
  • AI chooses on credibility, not just keywords: ChatGPT doesn’t have an index of the latest web pages (especially if working off its trained data), but it does use signals of credibility and relevance learned from training or via live browsing. Factors like content quality, brand mentions, and authority influence what it “knows” or finds worthy to mention. 

Unlike Google’s algorithm, which heavily weights backlinks and structured data, ChatGPT’s answers are shaped by overall knowledge and consensus from its training data, plus any live search results it checks for up-to-date info. In essence, ChatGPT is like a well-read expert; it will recommend brands and products it has “seen” frequently praised or described positively.

belif glass skin feature in Marie Claire
  • Context and follow-up: Users can ask follow-up questions to ChatGPT. For example, after “What’s a good moisturiser for oily skin?” they might say “Can I buy it on sale somewhere?”. The AI needs to handle that continuity. 

This means having content that covers various angles (product details, pricing, where to buy, etc.) can be beneficial, so the AI has more ammo to continue the conversation.

Understanding these differences, the challenge is clear, how do you become one of the “go-to” sources that AI references or bases its answers on? The following tips will help you align your SEO and content efforts with the way AI models like ChatGPT operate, otherwise known as GEO.

Create high-quality content with E-E-A-T principles

ChatGPT doesn’t “rank” sites, but it absolutely differentiates between high-quality content and fluff. When asked for recommendations or information, the AI is more likely to pull from content that it deems credible, relevant, and comprehensive. To meet that bar, your site’s content strategy should double down on E-E-A-T: Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness.

  • Write comprehensive, solution-oriented content: Cover topics in depth. If a user asks the AI “How do I reduce redness in my skin?”, a superficial 300-word article on your blog won’t cut it. But a 1500-word guide on calming redness, covering causes, ingredients to look for (and avoid), routine tips, and product recommendations (including yours), positions you as a thorough resource. Don’t create thin, “scanty” articles; be as comprehensive as possible while staying on-topic.
  • Organise content for easy digestibility: Use clear headings (with keywords and questions), bullet points, and concise paragraphs. A well-structured article helps ChatGPT scan your content faster and extract useful information. For example, an article titled “The Ultimate Guide to Anti-Aging Skincare” could have H2s like “What Causes Premature Skin Aging?”, “Top 5 Anti-Aging Ingredients and How They Work”. If a user asks ChatGPT about ingredients, it might pull from that clearly marked section. Good formatting = easier for AI to find relevant chunks.
  • Fact-check and cite sources: Ensure everything you claim can be backed up. While your page might not show citations to the user, by citing authoritative sources (scientific studies, reputable industry stats) in your content can indirectly boost your credibility and help improve the chances that your website appears in AI searches.
  • Keep content up-to-date: Regularly update blog posts or guides, especially if they contain time-sensitive info (like “Top 2024 Beauty Trends” should be updated for 2025, etc.). A recent AHREFs study showed AI assistants prefer to cite “fresher” content.

Write in a conversational, question-focused style

One of the keys to “AI optimisation” or GEO is to align your content with the conversational nature of queries. People using ChatGPT or other LLMs often phrase searches as questions or requests, like they’re talking to a human expert. You want your content to anticipate and directly answer those questions in a natural tone.

  • Use question-based headings and content: Identify the common questions your customers have and make those the headings or subheadings on your pages. For example, on a product page for a facial oil, you might have an FAQ section with questions like “Will this oil cause breakouts?” or “How should I layer this with other products?” By phrasing content as Q&A, you match the format ChatGPT often uses to provide answers, making it easy for the AI to extract and reuse your text.
  • Incorporate user intent and context in answers: When you answer a question in your content, consider the intent behind it. If someone asks “best foundation for flash photography,” they really care about no flashback and long wear. So your answer should directly address that: “For flash photography, you want a foundation with no SPF (to avoid white flashback) and a long-wearing matte finish so you don’t get shiny.” 

Addressing these nuances makes your content more likely to be deemed relevant when ChatGPT parses it for an answer.

  • Include FAQ sections site-wide: Beyond product pages, consider an FAQ page or knowledge base for your brand. Questions like “Is your packaging recyclable?”, “Do you test on animals?”, or “How long does shipping take?”, these are all potential user queries. If ChatGPT is asked about your brand’s policies or practical info, it might just pull from your FAQ page. Mark this page up with FAQ schema too.

Basically, shape your content like the answers to the questions people ask. Not only does this improve your chances with ChatGPT, but it also enhances user experience on your site. If your content reads like a helpful answer, the AI can confidently use it as such.

Leverage customer reviews and mentions for credibility

In an AI-driven search world, your brand’s reputation and the “buzz” about your products significantly influence whether an AI recommends you. ChatGPT’s knowledge includes the collective voices of the internet, things like reviews, ratings, and blog mentions of your brand. You’ll want to create a positive UGC and external validation.

  • Grow and highlight reviews on your site: Integrating reviews into product pages is important. For example, if a user asks, “What do people say about [Your Brand]’s moisturiser?” ChatGPT might summarise common sentiments from reviews (“Users frequently praise its lightweight feel and pleasant scent”). Encourage customers to leave detailed reviews, and consider questions in review forms like “What did you like most about this product?” to mention specific benefits (e.g. “absorbs quickly, no oily residue”). The language real customers use often aligns with how potential customers might inquire (someone else might ask the AI “Is it greasy or does it absorb quickly?” and the AI, recalling reviews, can answer).
  • Off-site reviews and ratings: Don’t ignore platforms like Google Maps (if you have a physical store or spa), Yelp, Amazon (if you sell there), Sephora/Ulta reviews, etc. Happy customers should be gently nudged to share feedback on third-party sites. If ChatGPT has access to that information via its training, a strong overall rating and positive sentiment can tip the balance. ChatGPT cites Reddit 11.3% of the time according to a Profund study, so get people talking about your beauty brand there also.

Digital PR and brand mentions: Work on getting your brand featured in relevant contexts. For mid-size beauty brands, this could mean pitching to “best of” list roundups (e.g. an editor’s “Top 10 Organic Skincare Brands” blog) or collaborating with influencers whose content might be scraped or summarised by AI. If ChatGPT has seen “XYZ Brand’s cleanser” recommended in multiple articles, it adds to the AI’s confidence to suggest that brand. Essentially, the more your brand is talked about online in a positive light, the more it seeps into the AI’s knowledge. An Organic Labs study put brand mentions and digital PR, near the top of it’s list when it comes to confidence for LLM optimisation strategies.

To cultivate a strong, positive presence in user-generated content and third-party validations, ChatGPT strives to give recommendations that it “feels” are proven and safe. By making sure lots of real users vouch for you, you increase the likelihood that an AI will feel confident recommending your beauty products as well.

Optimise money pages, product & category pages

We’ve covered content and credibility broadly; now let’s zero in on how to fine-tune your product and category pages themselves for AI contexts, since these are the bread-and-butter of your e-commerce store.

  • Product pages with AI-friendly summaries: Think of your product page as something that should still “make sense” to users, search engines and AI. Start with a concise, benefit-driven intro sentence or two at the top of each product description (before any “Read more” cut or accordion). For example: “Our BrightGlow Serum is a vitamin C treatment that fades dark spots and boosts radiance in just 2 weeks.” This acts like an executive summary. Should an AI scan the page, that line can serve as a quick answer to “What does this product do and who is it for?” Many AI models will grab the first relevant lines they see. By front-loading the key info (product purpose, key benefits, timeframes, skin types, etc.), you ensure the AI picks up the right context
  • Category pages (or product listing pages) with context and UGC: Category pages are tricky for AI, they often have lists of products but not much descriptive text. To fix that, add a brief, helpful paragraph at the top of each category page describing what’s in the category and offering shopping tips. E.g., on a “Moisturisers” category, “Find our range of face moisturisers for all skin types, from lightweight gels for oily skin to rich creams for deep hydration. Learn how to pick the perfect moisturiser in our guide below.” Keep it natural and not just SEO keyword stuffing.
  • Interlinking and context: Within product descriptions, you can subtly link to educational content (“Read our blog on how to layer serums and moisturisers”), which not only helps users but also shows the AI you have supporting content. Also, on blog pages or buying guides, link to the relevant products or categories. This helps create an internal knowledge graph for your site, which might be mirrored in how AI perceives associations.
Pai skincare category page description

Tuning your product and category pages in these ways makes them much more legible and appealing to AI systems. Essentially, you’re laying out the information such that if ChatGPT “scanned” your page, it would instantly grasp the key points a human would care about (and therefore it can relay those to a user). This increases the likelihood that your specific products are the ones the AI ends up recommending or at least mentioning in its answers.

Strengthen technical soundness

Behind the scenes of great content is a solid technical foundation. ChatGPT and similar AIs, when browsing, behave like supercharged web crawlers. They need to be able to find, crawl, and interpret your content quickly and accurately. That’s where technical SEO comes in.

  • Ensure your site can be crawled: ChatGPT can only access content that’s publicly available and easily indexed. So make sure your website doesn’t have any technical barriers that would prevent AI from reading it. Check your robots.txt file and meta tags: Nothing should limit the crawlability of important content. Fast loading times and a clean HTML structure also make it easier for AI systems to process your pages.
  • Get indexed on Bing: Since ChatGPT with browsing relies on Bing’s results, it’s critical that Bing has your latest content. Use Bing Webmaster Tools to submit your XML sitemap and monitor indexing Just as you would with Google, ensure Bing knows about new product pages, blog posts, etc. If your site is well-indexed on Bing, ChatGPT is more likely to “see” it when looking for an answer. However, there are now reports that ChatGPT is also using Google to train and power ChatGPT results.
  • Monitor crawl activity: Check your server logs or use analytics to detect AI bot visits. You might see Mozilla/5.0 (compatible; OpenAI-GPTBot/1.0; +https://openai.com/gptbot) in your logs, that’s GPTBot. If you notice certain sections being crawled heavily, make sure those areas are well-optimised. If, say, your ingredients glossary is being hit often (maybe people ask ChatGPT about ingredient definitions), you’d want to ensure that the glossary is comprehensive and up-to-date.
  • Static, crawlable content and avoid heavy scripts: Ensure that important info on product and category pages is in the HTML. Some e-commerce sites load descriptions or reviews in via JavaScript after the fact; this might be missed by crawlers. Use server-side rendering, or at least the initial content should contain the essentials. Also, avoid putting text in images. If you have a comparison chart or a table on a category page (“Our Vitamin C Serums Comparison”), also provide that info in text form or HTML table format. You want every fact and feature to be something an AI can read.

Treat AI crawlers with the same importance as search engine crawlers. By making your site fully accessible to them, you set the stage for your content to be consumed and learned by AI models. This is the foundational step to any further optimisation.

Conclusion

Remember, traditional SEO and AI optimisation go hand in hand. Think of AI search optimisation (or GEO) as building on what you already know about SEO, but with more emphasis on conversational language, E-E-A-T, and positive brand mentions across the internet. So you’re not throwing away what you know, you’re improving it. 

At Foundation, a specialist beauty marketing agency, we tell clients the secret to SEO success is attacking all three areas, technical SEO, content and digital PR. The same three principles are also the same for the new age of AI search and GEO. Optimising your beauty website for ChatGPT and AI search is the next step in SEO and content marketing. It’s about meeting your customers where they’re asking the questions.

As AI search grows, those who get in early will have a strong presence in this space. You can get ahead of the competition by being the answer that consumers trust. So keep an eye on the landscape, keep your content fresh and user-focused and adapt fast to new developments.

Get in touch with a member of our team to find out how we can help your beauty brand appear in more AI search results and ensure your website is fully optimised for AI. Optimising for AI is no longer just a nice-to-have; it’s essential.

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Uncategorized

Double the Power, Double the Growth: How SEO and PPC Teams Can Grow Together

Webinar blog image

In beauty and wellness marketing, performance is everything, but performance doesn’t live in a silo. That was the core message behind Double the Power, Double the Growth, our latest webinar hosted by Olivia Ford (Performance Lead) and Sophie Fell (Head of Paid Media).  

As a performance marketing agency specialising in beauty and wellness, we understand how crucial it is to bring all channels together. This session explored how SEO and PPC teams can do just that, working as one to unlock faster growth, better ROI, and stronger SERP presence. 

Watch the talk below or read this article to get our key takeaways. 

Why SEO and PPC must work together 

SEO and PPC share a goal: drive high-quality traffic from search engines to your website. Yet despite this, the two functions often operate separately, with little collaboration. 

Internal factors

Teams often report into different structures, use different tools, and chase different KPIs. This can cause misaligned strategies and even competition over the same keywords, wasting time and budget. 

External factors

Algorithm updates, tool discrepancies, and differing stakeholder priorities (e.g. pressure for short-term PPC results over long-term organic growth) can widen the gap further. 

The real power of collaboration

When PPC and SEO align, the outcomes are impressive. For example, a campaign for Tropic Skincare, where collaboration between both teams led to a 450% increase in non-branded revenue. That result wasn’t just a happy accident, it came from shared insights, a unified strategy, and close day-to-day alignment. You can read the full case study here.

The benefits of blending SEO + PPC

Here’s what the two teams can offer each other:

For SEO teams:

  • Use PPC search term reports to discover new keyword opportunities 
  • Get quicker learnings from paid traffic on new content or landing pages 
  • Repurpose high-performing PPC headlines into organic metadata to boost CTR 

For PPC teams:

  • Save budget by pausing spend on keywords already winning organically 
  • Improve Quality Scores through optimised, content-rich landing pages 
  • Tap into organic insights to better define high-converting user behaviours 

For brands:

  • Create a seamless, omnichannel experience across the SERP 
  • Increase return on ad spend and organic investment 
  • Speed up time to revenue with unified, efficient strategies 

For the user:

  • See consistent messaging and offers across ads and pages 
  • Get to conversion faster, with less friction or confusion 

How to collaborate in practice

At Foundation we don’t stop at theory. Olivia and Sophie offered concrete takeaways for how to bridge the gap between PPC and SEO teams. It starts with three key changes: 

Shared keyword strategies: Align your keyword research into one plan to avoid duplication and focus effort where it counts. 

Open feedback loops:  Whether it’s via Slack or monthly check-ins, make insight-sharing a habit, not an exception. 

Unified tools and reporting: Platforms like Google Keyword Planner and Looker Studio give both teams a shared source of truth. 

Shared tools and shared success

Finally, invest in shared tools and agree on a single source of truth for reporting, such as GA4. This removes confusion and helps both teams make informed, unified decisions. 

Where possible, consider combining budgets for tools and resources. This can eliminate historical biases and give both SEO and PPC access to the same high-quality data. 

Measuring success

To track progress, monitor: 

  • Growth in organic and paid traffic 
  • Improvements in keyword rankings and new page performance 
  • Reductions in traffic from irrelevant or low-quality sources 
  • Better PPC metrics—like CTR, CPC, and ad rank 
  • Improved conversion rates and impression share 

What next?

Collaboration between SEO and PPC isn’t just a nice-to-have, it’s a growth strategy. For beauty brands navigating an increasingly saturated market, aligning the two teams can be the edge that delivers faster, more sustainable success.

Here are some key takeaways from our talk:

  • Audit how your teams are currently working together (or not).
  • Build a plan for collaboration: shared channels, regular updates, mutual KPIs.
  • Baseline and benchmark performance to measure future impact.

When SEO and PPC stop operating in silos and start working in sync, they unlock powerful, sustainable growth.

Are you ready to break down the silos and accelerate your growth? Get in touch and let us show you how.

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How To's

TikTok SEO: How to use SEO on TikTok

In recent years, the ByteDance-owned social media platform TikTok has been used more and more as a search engine, as opposed to the short-form video website that it was initially positioned as.

While content on TikTok, like most social media platforms, has always been algorithmically ranked and organised, this push towards more search-engine-like behaviour has meant an increased desire to make it as optimised and visible as possible.

As a beauty marketing agency that’s helped hundreds of beauty brands rank higher on Google, we’re here to divulge our SEO best practice tips for TikTok to help you make more optimised content on the platform.

What is SEO on TikTok?

SEO is often seen as applicable purely to search engines, such as Google and Bing. But, in fact, a lot of the SEO tropes and best practices applied on such platforms are also useful on sites that feature algorithmically sorted, searchable content – like TikTok.

SEO on TikTok is the process of optimising your profile and content so that it appears higher than others in search results. There’s strong reasoning why a brand may wish to do this, with Google execs claiming that 40% of younger generations will use a site like TikTok over Google Maps for things like restaurant recommendations.

Search on TikTok

Functionality-wise, TikTok’s search tools are quite similar to those of search engines. There’s a search box, recommended searches based on past behaviour, the ability to set titles and descriptions on your content, and results that are determined based on a set of different characteristics.

TikTok ranking factors

TikTok’s algorithm operates on an engagement basis. This means that the way users interact with content on the site has a major influence on what subsequent content is recommended/shown to them on their travels through the app.

As TikTok describes it:

“On TikTok, the For You feed reflects preferences unique to each user. The system recommends content by ranking videos based on a combination of factors – starting from interests you express as a new user and adjusting for things you indicate you’re not interested in, too – to form your personalized For You feed.”

TikTok Newsroom ‘How TikTok recommends videos #ForYou’.

Optimising for engagement-based algorithms requires a mixture of traditional SEO best practices and some interaction-specific requirements to fulfil.

How to rank on TikTok

So, we know how TikTok’s For You algorithm works, and we also know that TikTok is likely to become a much more important part of the way people search, especially in younger generations. Based on this, we’ve highlighted some TikTok SEO tips, here:

Research your content

To those that create TikTok content based on impulse, the idea of strategically planning and researching content for the platform may feel a touch out of place. Though, when done correctly, content research can not only help with planning and creating content, but also with ensuring that it reaches your desired audience.

Once you arrive at an idea, spend some time searching for it on the platform. Note down links to some of the pieces that appear higher up in search results, while also writing down any similarities and differences you see between the higher/lower performing posts. This will allow you to build a profile of what does and doesn’t work, helping you optimise your content for success.

Check out the competition

This point goes hand-in-hand with our previous note about research, but perhaps applies more to cases where you’re searching for ideas.

Select some fellow brands in a similar industry/position to yourself, and start building a list of keywords/hashtags that appear more frequently

Conduct keyword research

Once you’ve settled on an idea and researched how others have tackled it in the past, you should be left with a long list of phrases and words that are commonly associated with said posts.

Rather than just blindly working with these keywords, spend some time evaluating and assessing them for their overall value. By this, we mean using tools like TikTok’s keyword insights.

This easy-to-use tool extracts data directly from TikTok itself, allowing users to determine just how popular their keywords and hashtags are. Granted, this tool operates based on the keywords used in voice-overs, text overlay, and ad copy, not post captions or titles, but it can give a quick glimpse into what keywords should be prioritised in your content.

Inject relevant keywords (or hashtags)

On TikTok, your hashtags are especially important. They are what tags your post onto others, and they appear frequently as suggested search results. After you’ve prioritised a mixture of both low and high search volume hashtags, it’s simply a case of injecting them into your content in a tasteful manner.

Hashtags and keywords can be placed within video titles, captions, and even inside the video itself with TikTok’s built-in video editor.

Incentivise engagement

TikTok is a heavily engagement-focused social platform. Reviewing some of the most popular keywords on the platform via the aforementioned keyword insights tool, we can see that most of the popular keywords are focused on incentivising engagement. Phrases such as “free shipping”, “for free”, “download now”, and “try it” all make frequent appearances in the top 10 keywords used on the platform.

Adding text such as this to your script and video overlay can encourage your readers to participate in an element of your post, be that clicking through to a webpage or sharing the post with others.

Utilise trending audio

In addition to its search function, TikTok also groups posts based on the music/audio that’s used in the background. This too can be leveraged in order to bring visitors to your post.

Anticipate trends

Anticipating trends can feel a bit like crystal ball gazing. But, if done correctly, it can lead to some pretty substantial gains.

Utilising tools like Google Trends, for example, is a great way to get a visual interpretation of what the world is searching for and to highlight some emerging trends which may migrate to TikTok in the future. Remember, TikTok is all about the trends.

Stay ahead of the curve, not behind it.

Refine your TikTok strategy with Foundation

Whether you’re starting from scratch or adding to a pre-existing social media strategy, the social media team at Foundation can help you develop a plan that gets your brand heard by the masses.

Contact us to speak about your social media goals, and we’ll be happy to help.

Categories
How To's

SEO for e-commerce product pages- The do’s and don’ts

ecommerce product pages
A high-converting product page in the beauty and skincare industry is worth its weight in gold, and knowing how you can improve your product pages for SEO is vital to the success of your brand.

Product page optimisation not only helps increase traffic but helps convert browsers into buyers having a direct impact on sales. 

Of course, in such a competitive market the ultimate goal is to rank in position one on Google, and while driving traffic to the homepage is important, it’s arguably more business-critical to have users land on category and product pages. Therefore, SEO for product pages isn’t something that should be overlooked in a marketing strategy.

This is our guide to SEO for product pages…

Start with keyword research

Any great SEO strategy starts with some extensive keyword research. This will highlight the terms that users are searching. Keyword research gives brands insight into the volumes behind phrases and relevant terms, helping to identify the keywords they should then be using on-page.

Keyword research can also be really useful to rename or brand products. Often it’s appealing to label products using branded terminology, but this can limit organic traffic due to having very little search volume. Therefore, using consumer-generated language, often synonyms of internal jargon, prevents confusion and attracts a wider audience.

Make sure to include keywords in the page’s title tags and product descriptions.

Don’t:

  • Use brand names or branded language that doesn’t make sense to users! Use the consumer-led language the keyword research has discovered.
  • Don’t fixate on volume, relevancy is what’s key.

Optimise your URLs

The keyword research you’ve done will help influence the content of your product pages, including their URLs. URLs are one of the first elements of your product page that consumers see when they’re searching through results pages. So, if your URL looks confusing or doesn’t feature your product name, users are less likely to click through. Make sure you use the same keywords from your metadata in the URL too so they are all targeting the same phrase or words.

Some great examples of well-optimised URLs are: 

  • spectrumcollections.com/collections/skin/products/glowful-primer
  • charlottetilbury.com/uk/product/filmstar-bronze-glow-kit
  • refybeauty.com/collections/refy-lips/products/lip-buff

When optimising your URLs, don’t:

  • Just use brand names. Remember to give the name of the product.
  • Fill URLs with SKU numbers or random code that doesn’t mean anything to users. Long or unattractive URLs are off-putting and they don’t index in Google as well because crawlers don’t understand the URL enough to index it correctly.

Meta titles and descriptions

Put your keyword research to good use and use the phrases people are searching for to form your metadata. Metadata is a useful bit of information for both users and search engines and can be the difference between users clicking on your product or scrolling right past.

Your metadata should always include:

  • Product name
  • The relevant keyword/phrase people are searching for
  • An engaging call to action to encourage that click-through
  • An incentive, if relevant (free delivery, sale etc)

The meta title is the first title users see in search results and should always include the product name first. As they’re restricted to 65 characters, you have to include the most important elements first.

A great example of well-optimised metadata for a product page can be seen on John Lewis’ website, for the search term ‘lipstick’

There is an ongoing argument in the SEO industry about the importance of meta descriptions but they’re still visible in search results and should therefore be optimised too (even if they’re not a direct ranking factor).

Use the description to mention the product name, the keyword phrase and anything else you want consumers to action like ‘read more’, ‘find out more about’ or even an incentive offer. Meta descriptions are also restricted to 155 characters, so make sure to include the most valuable information first.

Don’t:

  • Put your brand name first in either meta title or description, apart from on the home page. 
  • Duplicate any of the product titles or descriptions. They should always be unique. 

Duplicating metadata causes issues in search results and has a negative impact on your SEO efforts, so at minimum, every product should have its own title and description.

Use structured data

Marked-up or structured data helps Google crawlers spot and understand what a page’s content is about. Google then serves this information in its search results as rich snippets. Rich snippets are organic results that display content in a particular way in Google.

Using schema can apply the right HTML language to your content that structures or marks up elements for Google to then crawl and understand. All product pages should have product schema which will help with:

  • CTR and ultimately sales
  • Driving higher clicks, impressions and hopefully conversions

A great example of using schema in beauty is from Byrdie.

And another from the search ‘oil cleanser vs foaming cleanser’ shows schema being used on video content.

The schema has bookmarked various points of the video, giving a user the option to find and watch the section they’re most interested in.

If you’re unsure of all the schema markups available, you can find a comprehensive list here.

Don’t:

  • Use structured data solely as a tool for ranking– it doesn’t guarantee a top spot in search, it just organises the information for Google to understand.
  • Use the wrong kind of markup (eg. news instead of video).

Quality on-page content

Another great feature for a well-optimised, high-performing product page is quality on-page copy. Brands often publish product pages that centre around the “Buy Now” button,  overlooking the importance of having great copy alongside it.

Use your keyword research to create FAQs that help answer things people are actively searching for. FAQs often pull through from product pages in search results under ‘people also ask’ so make sure to optimise your on-page content with valuable content like longtail queries. 

If possible, include star-reviews from previous customers to help increase the chances of someone converting too. Product pages are a great place for consumer-generated content to showcase your products so including content like reviews and even Instagram posts can help at the decision-making stage of the buying journey.

Use high-quality product images and video content too to help showcase your products in the best light. A great example of a quality landing page is Beauty Pie’s page for retinol serum as they use a star rating and a very descriptive piece on how to use the product before scrolling down to the ingredients.

Don’t:

  • Use poor-quality imagery
  • Leave product descriptions blank
  • Be too brief or leave out consumer reviews
  • Have broken internal links or poor navigation between product pages

A great call to action

One of the key parts of optimising product pages is a great call to action (CTA )- one of the final steps to convert a potential customer into a paying customer or to encourage them to delve deeper into the site. Calls to action should be catchy, enticing and obvious to get potential customers over the line. This can be anything from optimised copy encouraging a user to buy now before products run out, to a visual which advertises a gift set or add-on products.

CTAs can be positioned anywhere on the page, as long as they’re clear and obvious. A lot of brands A/B test CTAs, changing small elements such as the language used or position on the page. Why not experiment with your call-to-actions to find the right mix for your audiences.

Don’t:

  • Have multiple click-through actions from your CTAs- make it an easy journey
  • Place just one CTA right at the bottom of the page or away from the product
  • Use complex language

A great call-to-action example is Look Fantastic’s homepage CTA which directs you straight to the shop with a discount code (double incentives!)

Using entities to optimise product pages

To further refine your product pages, you may wish to take some advice from the practice of entity SEO. When analysing a webpage, one of Google’s core tasks is to determine the content of a webpage.

With webpages sometimes having high character counts, conflicting information and various other avenues to travel down, determining such a thing can be complex.

Thankfully, Google has become very adept to this practice, moving away from a keywords-only approach to rankings and instead preferring to opt for the underlying content of a page to determine its relevance to a given search. This transition has prompted the invention of entity SEO; a practice that serves to assign each webpage a core subject or topic, optimising it for relevancy to that subject.

Start by choosing the core topic of your webpage, before identifying the core keyword associated with that page. For example, your lipstick category page would have a core keyword of “lipstick”. Then, plug your current landing page copy into Google’s Natural Language API tool.

In the example above, you can see that Google has determined that “lipsticks” is the 10th most relevant entity for the copy on our hypothetical lipstick category page. Ideally, this core entity would be higher up in the order, preferably at position one.

After some editing, not only are we able to improve the sheer number of relevant entities within the copy, we’re also able to directly target a few more highly relevant entities, such as the “lipstick” phrase, which Google has even identified as a Consumer Good.

Although it may feel tedious, optimising your product pages for entities can allow them to rank for a more diverse range of queries, even those relating to the type of product on offer, instead of the product name alone.

Granted, in the beauty industry, high profile retailers like Boots and Superdrug tend to dominate the space when it comes to entities, but don’t let this deter you from making your pages even easier for Google to understand.

Need help optimising your product pages?

Optimising product pages is a key part of any good digital strategy and creates longevity for brands as an online presence continues to be an essential part of any marketing strategy. 

Ensuring you optimise all product pages as part of your ongoing strategy means they’re far more likely to gain presence in search, achieve increased CTRs, drive more traffic to your website and ultimately help to convert more consumers.

In a busy e-commerce marketplace, beauty and skincare brands can’t afford to skip optimising their product pages because it means overlooking a major part of their digital potential. If you’re unsure of where to start with reviewing your existing content or want to learn more about how our digital services can help your product pages perform, get in touch with our content marketing team today.

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