Page structure for AI re theme template pages

AI Build Your Business
1

I am starting to update my Shopify, it needs a total refresh. I would like to concentrate on AI crawling and would like to know if it is best to use a standard page template for everything and use bullet points for specs or use theme templates and add the bullet points there? would it make a difference or is it best to keep it simple with bullets on main page?

3

One thing worth doing during your refresh is adding structured data (JSON-LD schema) to your product pages if you haven’t already.

4

I have read about this, I am not entirely sure what it is, is it something that goes in the liquid pages or somewhere on the shopify product page?

5

First confirm if you don’t have it already, paste any product URL into Google’s Rich Results Test (search for it) to confirm.
If you dont or if it incomplete try this

In your theme code editor go to Snippets and create a new file called product-schema.liquid, then paste this:

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org/",
  "@type": "Product",
  "name": {{ product.title | json }},
  "description": {{ product.description | strip_html | truncatewords: 50 | json }},
  "url": {{ shop.url | append: product.url | json }},
  "image": {{ product.featured_image | image_url: width: 800 | prepend: 'https:' | json }},
  "brand": {
    "@type": "Brand",
    "name": {{ product.vendor | json }}
  },
  "offers": {
    "@type": "Offer",
    "priceCurrency": {{ cart.currency.iso_code | json }},
    "price": {{ product.price | money_without_currency | remove: ',' }},
    "availability": {% if product.available %}"https://schema.org/InStock"{% else %}"https://schema.org/OutOfStock"{% endif %},
    "url": {{ shop.url | append: product.url | json }}
  }
}
</script>

Open templates/product.json or sections/main-product.liquid depending on your theme, and add this line near the top:

liquid

{% render 'product-schema' %}
7

Thank you. I did test a page, it all came back with green ticks but added amber advice notes.

Can I also ask, what is schema? is that description? Would you put the bullet points first and then a small description? My size specs are currently inside a dropdown box which a have different pages ie; my games come in different sizes so I have a page I use for A4 games, a Page for A6 and so on. Should I take the size info out the dropdown box on those pages and bullet point it instead?

Also, do you have a link to a shopify page that is the best example of layout at all? I have tried watching youtubes and they are all so conflicting!

Thank you for your replies :slight_smile:

9

The template choice matters less than what ends up in the rendered HTML. AI crawlers read the server-rendered page, so the rule is simple: anything you want an AI engine to use has to be real text in the HTML on load. Not loaded in by JavaScript after, and not locked inside an image or a tab that only opens on click.

Practical version for your refresh:

  • Specs as a real bulleted list in the page body, with clear labels (material, size, weight, use case). Models read these cleanly.

  • One H1 per page, then H2 and H3 that match how a customer would ask the question out loud.

  • Liquidshop is right about the schema. Put the same facts into Product schema (JSON-LD) so the data exists both as prose and as machine-readable markup, and make sure it lands in the page source rather than getting injected by JavaScript, or AI crawlers can miss it. Brand, price, availability, and barcode/GTIN if you have it.

  • A short FAQ block for the 3 to 5 questions you actually get, in plain question-and-answer text.

Standard page or theme template, either works. Keep it simple and consistent across page types. Do not split content across template variants just for AI.

One quick check: open a product page, right click, View Page Source, and search for your spec text. If it is in the source, crawlers can see it. If it only shows up in the live page but not the source, it is being injected by JavaScript, and that is the first thing to fix.

10

for AI crawlers specifically, the template structure doesn’t matter nearly as much as the actual content on the page. AI reads the text, not the HTML template, so whether you use standard pages or theme templates the crawlers see the same thing.

what does matter is having natural language descriptions alongside your specs, not just bullet points. AI crawlers pull context way better from sentences like “this drill runs at 2000 RPM and handles concrete easily” than a spec list that just says “2000 RPM.” keep the bullets for human skimmers but add a paragraph or two of real description and you’ll be in much better shape for AI discovery.