Google, AI and the new visibility game - are you ready?
What sounded like a dream of the future in recent months is now becoming a reality: Google is driving the technological realignment of e-commerce with the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP). At the same time, AI Overviews, AI Mode and AI search systems such as Perplexity are changing the rules of the game for visibility, content and purchasing processes. Many companies are currently asking themselves: Do we have to rethink everything? Will SEO be replaced by AI? And how do we stay visible in the age of AI?
In this issue, we show you why product data is suddenly becoming the decisive currency, why strategic SEO is more important than ever, how you can already measure whether your content plays a role in AI searches and what else is currently relevant for you.
Online Marketing Aktuell 02/26
- Our focus topics
Google gets serious: UCP makes AI shopping the new basis for e-commerce
With the Universal Commerce Protocol (UCP), Google has initiated a far-reaching technological change in online retail - a fundamental redefinition of the entire commerce infrastructure. Instead of only listing product data in traditional search and shopping results, UCP creates a common, open intelligence layer that enables AI agents to understand, compare and directly act on products - from product search to recommendation to checkout.
UCP was developed together with leading retail partners such as Shopify, Walmart, Wayfair, Etsy and Zalando and integrates payment providers such as Visa, Mastercard and others, with PayPal expected to follow soon. This will create an industry-wide standard for the first time, standardising the previously fragmented product, offer and checkout processes and seamlessly enabling AI-powered shopping experiences.
Why this is important for you:
Visibility in AI shopping becomes a competitive advantage: classic rankings or ads alone are no longer enough - AI agents select products based on data quality, attribute depth and availability, which clearly changes the priority.
Product feeds become strategic: Instead of just serving channel distribution, feed quality and consistency directly determine whether products appear in AI responses.
Smooth, AI-powered buying processes: UCP enables end-to-end shopping journeys in which AI assistants accompany the user from discovery to checkout - often without traditional shop visits.
Standard instead of isolated solutions: Once implemented, UCP integration can work across different platforms - be it in Google AI Mode, Gemini or AI agents from other providers.
However, UCP is still in its infancy and not all features are yet available across the board or in all markets. Although Shopify customers receive the underlying technology automatically, a clean setup, structured implementation and continuous data maintenance remain crucial in order to actually utilise the potential of AI-supported shopping.
Whoever is missing from Google is also missing from AI
In recent weeks, an interview with the AI search service Perplexity AI has caused lively debate in the marketing and SEO community. In specialist circles, SEO experts and marketing managers are intensively discussing how AI-based search systems will process information and generate answers in the future and what consequences this will have for visibility and optimisation strategies - far beyond traditional ranking factors.
In our view, however, one crucial point is often misinterpreted: AI Search is an evolutionary step - but not a replacement for strategic SEO. Our Managing Director Matthias Kampmann categorises: " Perplexity shows where the journey is heading. Google decides who drives.
Why this is important for you:
SEO criteria still apply: relevance, expertise and trustworthiness are also crucial for AI selection processes.
Panic is not a plan: If you are now frantically converting your entire content strategy to "AI optimisation", you are chasing a supposed shortcut.
Better content beats AI tactics: Those who provide clear answers along the user intent and make real expertise visible will automatically also appear in AI Overviews, Gemini, ChatGPT or Perplexity.
Our conclusion: AI search is not a hype that should be ignored. But it is also no reason to throw proven SEO strategies overboard. The right strategy is not an "either-or", but an "SEO first - AI follows automatically". If you prioritise the player with the greatest potential - Google - and build up sustainable visibility there, you also create the basis for a presence in AI systems.
Make AI Mode & AI Overviews visible in the Google Search Console
With AI Mode and AI Overviews, Google is currently fundamentally changing how search queries are answered - and how users interact with content. Traditional click paths are disappearing, answers are displayed directly and many search queries end without a website visit. These queries do appear in the Google Search Console, but not as a separate category.
Our SEO expert Antonella Deuster says: "This is exactly where regex filters come in. They can be used to identify typical formulations or prompts that are highly likely to trigger an AI response - such as longer search queries or W questions. This allows you to visualise where your content may already be taken into account in AI Overviews or AI Mode - even if Google only displays this data in aggregated form. The insights gained show which questions users are really asking, what the underlying intent is and where content has not yet been prepared precisely enough."
Why this is important for you:
You recognise at which prompts your content is already serving as a source for AI answers.
You can read the actual user intent better than via traditional keywords.
Content can be optimised or rebuilt in a targeted question-and-answer style.
They also evaluate SEO success where clicks no longer take place.
Those who only use the Google Search Console for rankings and clicks are overlooking a growing part of the search reality. Regex-based prompt analyses help to make AI visibility measurable and strategically align content with the new search.
Would you like to know how visible your content already is in AI Overviews and AI Mode? We would be happy to support you!
P.S.: Short, crisp, important!
You also don't want to miss these online marketing updates.
In addition to the previously mentioned topics, we've picked up some fresh online marketing news that's too exciting to keep to ourselves. Here are the highlights:
SEO x AI:
Bing Webmaster Tools: Microsoft has announced the public preview of "AI Performance" in Bing Webmaster Tools - a new dashboard that shows website owners how often and where their content is cited as a source in AI-generated responses (e.g. Microsoft Copilot and Bing AI Summaries). The function provides key AI metrics for the first time and should help to better understand and optimise visibility in AI responses in the future. ' Read more
GEA:
ChatGPT Ads get serious: OpenAI starts first tests with ads in ChatGPT in the USA: Users of the free Free and Go plans will in future see ads clearly labelled as "sponsored" that appear below chat replies, while premium plans such as Plus or Pro will remain ad-free. ' Read more
Social media:
TikTok: The platform introduces "Local Feed", a new tab on the home screen that helps users discover posts from their immediate neighbourhood - from local restaurants and events to small businesses and creator content. ' Read more
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