How to Structure Your Product Data for AI Crawlers

Alright, let's talk about your product pages.

You spent weeks getting the photos right. You agonized over the perfect marketing copy. You've got a great product, maybe the best in your category. So you ask an AI, "what's a good [product you sell] for [a specific use case]?"

And it recommends your competitor. Or three of them. You're nowhere. It's like you don't even exist.

Sound familiar? It’s not a bug. It’s a data problem. Your data problem. AI can't recommend what it can't understand, and right now, your website is probably speaking gibberish to it.

Want to know if your product data is a mess? Run a free Recomaze audit. It'll crawl your store and give each product a score, showing you exactly which ones have weak titles, missing descriptions, or incomplete specs. Takes about a minute.

Why Structure Beats "Good Copy"

For years, we wrote for humans. We used persuasive language, emotional triggers, and flowery descriptions. That still matters. But now you have a second audience: AI crawlers.

And they don't care about your brand's "journey."

AI crawlers from Google, OpenAI (ChatGPT), and Perplexity are scanning your site, trying to build a structured database of what you sell. They’re looking for facts. Attributes. Specifications.

If your product's key features are buried in a long paragraph of marketing fluff, the AI just skips it. It can't parse it. It moves on to your competitor, who listed everything in a neat little table.

Clarity beats persuasion. Structure beats storytelling. This isn't just for some far-off future; it's for Google's AI Overviews and ChatGPT recommendations that are happening right now.

1. Stop Writing Vague Product Titles

This is the single biggest and easiest fix. Your product title is the primary identifier for humans and AI. Stop being cute and start being descriptive.

Think like a search query. Nobody searches for "The Wanderer." They search for "Men's Waterproof Hiking Boot."

Bad:

• Blue T-Shirt
• Pro Laptop
• Kitchen Knife

Better:

• Men's Classic Crewneck T-Shirt - Navy Blue - 100% Cotton
• 14-inch Pro Laptop (M3 Chip, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD) - Space Grey
• 8-Inch Chef's Knife - High-Carbon German Steel with Pakkawood Handle

The "better" versions include the category, key attributes, color, and material. An AI can instantly understand what this product IS and who it's for. This is how you show up when someone asks ChatGPT for "a good chef's knife made from German steel."

2. Your Product Descriptions Are for AI, Too

That beautiful paragraph about how your product will change your customer's life? Great. Keep it. But put it after the important stuff.

Lead with facts. Use bullet points. Answer the questions a customer (and an AI) would have.

• What is it made of?
• What are the dimensions/size/weight?
• Who is this for? (e.g., beginner photographers, advanced skiers)
• What problem does it solve? (e.g., "Keeps drinks cold for 24 hours")
• What does it come with? (e.g., "Includes USB-C cable and power adapter")

Bad: > "Experience culinary perfection with the blade that chefs are raving about. Forged with passion and designed for the modern kitchen, this knife will transform the way you cook, turning every chop into a moment of pure joy. Unlock your inner chef."

Better: > "The professional-grade 8-inch chef's knife for home cooks and culinary experts. Made from high-carbon X50CrMoV15 German steel for exceptional edge retention and stain resistance. > - Blade: 8-inch, full-tang construction > - Material: German High-Carbon Stainless Steel > - Handle: Ergonomic Pakkawood, moisture-resistant > - Hardness: 58 Rockwell > - Best for: Slicing, dicing, and mincing vegetables, meat, and fish."

See the difference? The first is marketing. The second is data. AI can read and understand the second one. The first is just a block of text with low-value keywords.

3. Use Schema Markup (This is Non-Negotiable)

This is the most technical part, but it's also the most important.

Schema markup is a code vocabulary you add to your website's HTML. It doesn't change how your page looks to a human, but it explicitly tells AI crawlers, "Hey, this is a product, this is its price, here are its reviews."

It's like spoon-feeding the exact information to Google and ChatGPT in a format they are built to understand.

The most important type for an e-commerce site is Product schema. A good implementation should include:

• name: The full, descriptive product title.
• description: The clear, factual product description.
• sku: Your unique stock-keeping unit.
• gtin or mpn: Global Trade Item Number (like a UPC/EAN) or Manufacturer Part Number. These are HUGE for AI.
• brand: The product's brand.
• image: A high-quality product image URL.
• offers: This contains the price (price), currency (priceCurrency), and availability (availability, e.g., InStock/OutOfStock).
• aggregateRating: The average star rating and number of reviews.

Don't know how to code this? You don't have to.

• For Shopify: Use an app like "JSON-LD for SEO" or "SearchPie: SEO & Speed." They automate most of this.
• For WooCommerce/WordPress: Get a good SEO plugin. "Rank Math" (free or pro) and "Yoast SEO" have solid schema features built-in. For more control, "Schema Pro" is a dedicated plugin that does it all.

Pro tip: run a Recomaze audit on your site AND on your top competitor's site. Compare the schema markup reports side-by-side. You’ll see if they're using Product, FAQ, and Review schema correctly and you’re not. The report shows you exactly what the audit found, so you know what to aim for.

4. Organize Your Specs in Tables and Lists

Remember what we said about AI parsing facts? The easiest way for a machine to read facts is when they're in a structured format.

Stop burying specifications in a paragraph. Start using HTML tables (

) or unordered lists (

).

Bad: > "This tent is 8 feet by 10 feet and 6 feet tall at the center. It weighs 15 pounds and is made of 75D polyester with a 1500mm waterproof coating. It sleeps 4 people and comes with a rainfly."

Better:

Specification	Detail
Capacity	4-Person
Dimensions	8 ft x 10 ft
Center Height	6 ft
Packed Weight	15 lbs
Material	75D Polyester
Waterproofing	1500mm PU Coating

An AI crawler can instantly pull every attribute and its value from this table. It's clean, unambiguous data. This is how you get recommended when a user asks for "a 4-person tent that weighs under 20 lbs."

5. Get Your Image Alt-Text Right

Alt-text isn't just for accessibility and old-school SEO anymore. Vision models are getting better, but descriptive alt-text is still a direct, simple way to tell an AI exactly what's in your image.

Bad: alt="product image" or alt="jacket"

Better: alt="Front view of the Men's Apex Down Ski Jacket in red"

Even Better: alt="Model wearing the Men's Apex Down Ski Jacket in red on a snowy mountain"

This adds context that AI can use. It confirms the product's color, type, and intended use. It's one more piece of structured data that reinforces what your product is.

Common Mistakes That Make AI Ignore You

Watch out for these. They're easy to make and they kill your AI readiness.

• Hiding Specs in Images or PDFs: AI crawlers primarily read text. If your size chart is a JPG or your technical specs are in a downloadable PDF, that data is invisible. Put it on the page as HTML text.
• Inconsistent Naming: Calling a product "The Trailblazer Boot" on the product page, "Men's Hiking Boot" in the category, and "TB-5000" in the sitemap confuses crawlers. Be consistent.
• Using Jargon Over Attributes: "Our proprietary Hydro-Shell fabric technology" sounds cool. "Waterproof and breathable 3-layer nylon fabric" is useful data. Use the second one in your specs. You can use the first in your marketing copy.
• Forgetting Variants: You have a shirt in 5 colors and 4 sizes. Are these set up as proper variants with their own SKUs and availability? Or are they just text on a page? AI needs to know that the "Blue, Large" shirt is in stock but the "Red, Small" is not. Shopify and WooCommerce handle this well, but you have to set it up correctly.

Your Action Plan for Today

Feeling overwhelmed? Don't be. Start here.

• Pick your top 5 products. You don't have to fix everything at once.
• Rewrite their titles. Make them descriptive using the "Category + Key Attribute + Color/Material" formula.
• Add a bulleted list or a spec table to the top of their descriptions with the most important facts.
• Install a schema plugin/app. Run it and check that it's generating Product schema with price, availability, and SKU.
• Fix the alt-text for the main product image on those 5 pages.

That's it. Doing just this for your most important products will put you miles ahead of competitors who are still just writing pretty paragraphs.

This isn't about gaming an algorithm. It's about providing clear, structured, and honest information about what you sell. The platforms that do this best are the ones AI will trust and recommend.

Check your product data readiness - free, takes 2 minutes, and you'll get a prioritized list of exactly which products need better data to get seen by AI. No account needed.