A few years ago, understanding how customers found your products felt straightforward. You’d check Google Analytics, run surveys, track your paid search performance. There was a logic to it, a predictability.

Now? Customers start their search on TikTok. They ask ChatGPT for recommendations. They head straight to Amazon without considering your website. Even search engine optimisation, the strategy behind how customers find you, has always felt like someone else’s responsibility. Buried in the marketing department in the safe hands of the e-commerce team.

But there’s a growing sense that the SEO ground is shifting. And many of us aren’t sure what’s happening or what to do about it.

That’s why I wanted to talk with Paul Culshaw. Paul has spent over two decades in the SEO space, watching it transform from simple keyword matching into something far more complicated and probably more human.

I wanted to know if a proper retail SEO strategy should actually be part of your customer experience approach, not just a technical channel that lives in marketing. Because I suspect SEO isn’t really about search engines anymore. It’s about understanding how people make decisions. Where they go for information, what builds their trust, how they move through the messy, fragmented journey from “I need something” to “I’m buying this specific thing from this specific place right now.”

If that’s true, then ignoring retail SEO strategy isn’t just a marketing miss. It’s a customer experience blind spot.

When Discovery Happens Everywhere Except the Expected Places

Discoverability isn’t simply a game of ‘Google versus other platforms’. It’s about customer behaviour. Customers still use Google, but they’re not necessarily clicking through to your website from there anymore. The landscape has fragmented:

• Amazon has become its own search ecosystem – People go directly there, or use the app as their default starting point
• TikTok Shop is driving discovery – Paul’s teenage daughter and her friends find and buy products there regularly
• YouTube unboxing videos influence decisions – Product reviews and demonstrations carry more weight
• Pinterest serves entrepreneurs – Visual discovery leads to ideas and purchases
• Reddit forums shape opinions – And increasingly, AI tools pull recommendations from these conversations

The journey has become fragmented across many platforms most retail teams don’t actively monitor or optimise for.

If you’re in category management and you’ve never thought about retail SEO strategy before, Paul’s perspective is blunt but fair: if you’re not visible in search results, you’re not getting category sales.

That means understanding what your target audience is actually searching for. Really understanding something called search intent: the questions they’re asking, the products they’re looking for, the information they need at different stages of their purchase journey.

The Multi-Visit Buyer Journey (And Why One Landing Page Isn’t Enough)

The journey isn’t linear anymore. People don’t search once, land on your product page, and buy.

They’re going through what Paul calls a “multi-visit buyer journey.” They start with research: What are the best red boots? (Yes, we used my mum’s red Kickers as an example.) Who are the best retailers for winter boots versus going-out boots? Then they might compare prices. Read reviews. Check social proof.

Each of these searches requires different content. If you only optimise product pages for specific keywords, you’re missing all the earlier touchpoints where someone is still forming their opinion about where to buy.

Customers are adding up little pieces of information across multiple visits to make a qualified decision. Your retail SEO strategy needs content and experiences that support someone along that entire journey. When they finally decide to buy, you want them to remember that you were helpful throughout.

That’s how Search becomes Customer Experience.

What Winners Actually Do Differently

The retailers winning at search treat retail SEO strategy as part of customer experience, not just as a technical aspect of online marketing.

Here’s what they’re getting right:

• Page speed matters – Fast-loading pages serve both SEO and customer experience. Nobody wants to wait.
• Mobile-first is essential – Your site needs to be easy to use and navigate on any device.
• Complete product information builds trust – Return policies, reviews, size guides, shipping details all live together.
• Category pages get investment – Not just inspirational blog posts, but robust category and product-level content.
• Brand authority comes from multiple sources – PR, reviews, social proof, mentions across platforms.

The winning retailers understand their retail SEO strategy supports the whole customer journey. Is there a clear path to find products? Can someone buy easily? Does every page provide genuine value?

The retailers who struggle with discoverability are still treating SEO like a checkbox exercise. They’re obsessing over individual keywords and wondering why they’re not ranking when they’re “so relevant.” They’re not connecting the dots between search visibility and the actual customer journey.

Paul’s advice: stay curious. If you’re not winning at SEO, keep learning about it. It’s more than keywords now.

Search Intent, EE-A-T, and Why Reviews Matter More Than Ever

Google and AI tools are looking for signals that you’re a real, trustworthy retailer. That’s where EE-A-T comes in: Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust.

Third-party endorsements (reviews, mentions, recommendations) carry far more weight than anything you say about yourself. We can all claim our products are great. But when a customer says it? That’s more powerful.

AI tools like ChatGPT are actively searching for these trust signals too. They’re looking at Reddit discussions, Quora responses, forums where real people share opinions. That means your retail SEO strategy needs to think beyond your own website. Where else should you have a presence? Where are AI tools gathering training data?

That’s the strategic intelligence you need now.

A Practical Starting Point: Category Page Optimisation

If you’re wondering where to begin with your retail SEO strategy, Paul recommends focusing on category pages first.

Your homepage matters, yes. But your category pages (‘footwear’, ‘boots’, ‘red boots’) are where search volume lives. Your task is to create the best footwear page online. Give Google (and ChatGPT, and TikTok’s algorithm) reasons to consider ranking you highly.

Here’s an example of the approach:

• Start with main category pages – Optimise your top-level categories (footwear, clothing, accessories) with robust, informational content
• Move to subcategories – Then tackle boots, trainers, sandals with the same level of detail
• Optimise popular variations – If red boots are a popular search, create optimised pages for those specific colours
• Use faceted navigation strategically – Your filters (brand, colour, style, occasion) can also become optimised landing pages if certain combinations are popular
• Link related pages together – Internal linking helps both customers and search engines understand relationships between categories

It’s a lot of work, so Paul suggests treating this as a phased delivery. Audit your site, create a prioritised to-do list, and work through it month by month. Your first 30 days might just tackle the highest-impact pages. Then you build from there.

This practical approach to retail SEO strategy gives you wins without requiring massive resources upfront.

Questions to Ask Your E-Commerce Team or Agency

Many retail teams are removed from day-to-day SEO because agencies manage it.

Here’s what Paul thinks you should be asking them:

Are you optimising category pages, or just product pages? You need both, but category pages often get neglected. This is where your retail SEO strategy should focus significant effort.

Are you using structured data (schema markup)? This is code that tells Google everything about your products (SKUs, brands, colours) in a way algorithms understand. It’s technical but essential for modern search.

Are you monitoring internal site search? What are customers typing into your search bar? That tells you about product demand and helps you surface popular items more prominently. This data can inform your broader retail SEO strategy.

Do you have a plan for AI-driven discovery? This isn’t just playing with ChatGPT anymore. Ask your agency how they plan on integrating AI search into your strategy over the next few years.

Getting Broader Buy-In (The Diplomacy Required)

Paul’s experience working in large retail organisations taught him that getting buy-in for retail SEO strategy requires diplomacy and patience.

The bigger the organisation, the more you need both.

His approach is to talk in the language of other teams. Understand what category managers care about. Know what the merchandising team is prioritising. Go to those key players and understand their departmental goals.

Then show how SEO can help them smash those goals.

You can’t do SEO in isolation. You’re not qualified in merchandising or category management. But you need those colleagues as part of your team. And they need to understand what you’re doing too. SEO now requires genuine teamwork across the business.

Four Mistakes Retailers Keep Making

Paul sees four recurring mistakes when it comes to retail SEO strategy:

1. Treating SEO as a channel

It’s not like Google Ads where you pay X and get Y sales back. A proper retail SEO strategy is a way of doing optimised marketing. It’s holistic; keyword research, site optimisation, PR for reputation, customer experience improvements, integrated journeys. That’s not a channel. That’s a CX approach.

2. Focusing only on keywords

Yes, keywords are the language people use. But modern retail SEO strategy is also about semantics, intent, earning trust, and delivering good experiences. The context matters as much as the specific words.

3. Ignoring digital PR and brand building

You need to build authority to get cited in trade publications, the press, and by AI tools. That means marketing, category, SEO and PR teams need to work together. Your retail SEO strategy can’t succeed in isolation.

4. Not adapting to AI search behaviour

Paul puts it this way: you could say we’re in October 1998 right now, in terms of the internet growth opportunity. The AI opportunity is here. Start building your strategy for AI-driven discovery now, even if it’s small at first. AI search adoption may be slow to begin with, but it is not going anywhere.

Where This Is All Heading

In short, SEO hasn’t died. It’s not gone. It’s evolved. It always has.

The foundation you build now, such as optimised content, good customer experience, trust signals, reviews, presence on the right platforms. This is what allows AI tools to cite you. ChatGPT and Google’s AI overviews pull their information from the internet (Bing, actually). If your content isn’t optimised and indexed, AI tools can’t see it and recommend it.

That’s why a thoughtful retail SEO strategy still matters. Perhaps more than ever.

But it matters differently now. It’s less about gaming algorithms and more about genuinely serving your customer across every touchpoint where they might encounter you – the expected places and and the unexpected.

About Paul Culshaw

Paul Culshaw is a certified business strategist and AI integration specialist with over 25 years experience in online marketing. He’s worked in-house with major UK retailers including Littlewoods Shop Direct, N Brown (JD Williams, Simply Be), and agency-side with clients like Little Greene and High Street TV.

He’s now helping businesses understand AI-driven discovery through his Authority Engine framework, which systemises content creation to get cited by AI tools.

You can find Paul at Paul Culshaw.com or connect with him on Instagram @CoachPaulCulshaw.

Key Takeaways

1. Search has fragmented across multiple platforms. Your retail SEO strategy needs to account for TikTok, Amazon, Reddit, ChatGPT, and traditional search engines working together.
2. SEO is customer experience. Fast-loading pages, easy navigation, comprehensive product information, and trust signals all matter for both rankings and conversions. This is why retail SEO strategy belongs in your CX discussions.
3. The multi-visit buyer journey requires content for every stage. Research, comparison, decision—not just product pages optimised for purchase keywords.
4. Category page optimisation offers quick wins. Focus on creating the best category pages in your niche, then expand to subcategories and filtered variations.
5. EE-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust) is what search engines look for. Third-party reviews and social proof matter more than your own claims. Build this into your retail SEO strategy from the start.
6. Organisational buy-in requires speaking departmental languages. Show how SEO supports specific team goals rather than treating it as a separate initiative.
7. AI-driven discovery is here now. The retailers who start building their retail SEO strategy around AI search today will have significant advantages in the coming years.

---

If this episode resonated with you, I’d love to hear your thoughts. What’s one insight you’re planning to put into practice?

Let’s connect – Find me on Linkedinlinkedin.com/in/jo-williams-ccxp

Never miss an episode – Subscribe to Where’s Your Customer? on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Found this valuable? Please leave a review. It helps other retail professionals discover these conversations.

Share the knowledge – If someone in your network could benefit from rethinking their approach to search, share this episode with them.