This is not a future trend. It is already happening.

From keywords to answers

Traditional search rewarded keyword matching and backlinks. AI-driven search operates in a distinct manner. Instead of returning a list of links, AI systems synthesise answers. They compare products, assess suitability, and check availability. They usually limit options to one or two suggestions before a customer goes to a website.

In practice, this means the shortlist is decided more frequently upstream.

To do this, AI systems rely on structured, trustworthy signals. Clean product data, consistent attributes, clear policies, fast-loading pages, and predictable URLs all matter. Platforms that can’t reliably provide these signals are hard to interpret, trust, or recommend for an AI system. Thin descriptions, broken data, slow speeds, and old URL structures hurt user experience. They actively reduce visibility in AI-mediated discovery; if it can’t read it, it can’t recommend it.

Why are legacy platforms becoming invisible?

AI-driven search is taking more attention from traditional blue links. More users are turning to AI for summaries, shopping help, and chat. Retailers that aren’t AI-friendly might experience a significant decline in traffic. These drops can be confusing and hard to explain with traditional analytics.

The risk compounds when product data is incomplete or inconsistent. AI systems do not conceal poor data. They propagate it. Gaps, inaccuracies, or ambiguities can appear in search results, assistants, marketplaces, and integrations. This repetition makes issues that once stayed on a single product page even bigger.

Messy data now travels faster and further than ever before.

The hidden cost of staying on outdated platforms.

Older ecommerce platforms were not designed for this environment. Many find it hard to support modern data standards, advanced internal search, or clear API integrations. As a result, teams compensate manually through spreadsheets, duplicated content, and one-off fixes. Operational effort increases, but outcomes still fall short of what AI systems expect.

Performance is another quiet liability. Slow load times, old security standards, and rigid checkout processes hurt trust for both AI and human customers. Over time, this lowers conversion rates, repeat purchases, and brand trust, even if daily trading seems stable.

What looks like making do, often masks a steady loss of competitiveness.

What AI-ready e-commerce looks like in practice

AI-ready platforms treat product data as a single source of truth. Product pages contain complete specifications, attributes, compatibility details, use cases, availability, delivery terms, and policies. This information uses consistent, machine-readable formats. These formats can be reused in search, assistants, and integrations.

We structure content around real customer questions, not marketing copy. Categories, guides, and help content match natural language questions. For example, “Which Castor wheels are best for rough surfaces?” or “Which router cutter is good for oak?” This gives AI systems clear material to reference, quote, and justify recommendations.

Performance, security, and updates are considered platform characteristics rather than ongoing projects. This lets teams focus on merchandising, marketing, and growth. They can spend less time on maintenance and fixing issues.

Why can this not wait for the next rebuild cycle?

AI shopping assistants are appearing rapidly on major platforms. They’re usually free for users and don’t require personal information. The window to influence discovery is shrinking from days to minutes. Retailers that delay modernisation risk a double penalty. Reduced visibility at the discovery stage is followed by lower conversion once traffic arrives.

Meanwhile, competitors operating on modern platforms are capturing both sides of the equation. They are easier for AI to recommend and easier for customers to buy from.

The question is no longer whether AI search will matter to e-commerce. It’s about whether your platform helps or hurts your visibility, trust, and appeal in an AI-driven market.

A note from teClan

At teClan, we work as technical partners to businesses navigating this shift. This means helping teams see when limitations are due to structure, not tactics. It also means knowing what being AI-ready means for their products, data, and operations.

Modernisation does not have to be rushed or disruptive. But it does need to be deliberate.

AI systems are now key gatekeepers of e-commerce visibility. So, the platform behind your store is more important than ever. Talk to us today about AeroCommerce, WooCommerce and Shopify.

The post AI Search Is Redefining Ecommerce Visibility appeared first on Digital Marketing Experts.

Ever since the introduction of online Search Engines (I’m looking at you Yahoo and Ask Jeeves), the methods in which people browse for information has been constantly changing course. This changing pattern has only been accelerated by COVID-19, with the number of certain Google searches, such as ‘takeout restaurants’, increasing by over 5,000%. It is important for businesses to take into account online consumer behavioural changes.

The Solution? Responsive Search Ads.

Responsive Search Ads are adverts created by you (or us!), adapting to show more relevant information to your audience. When creating these ads, multiple headlines and descriptions are entered so that over time Google can test and learn which combinations perform best for your business. Machine learning identifies the headlines and descriptions which will deliver your advert to the right person.

There are a number of benefits that come from the use of Responsive Search Ads for your business. These include:

Flexibility to create ads that change depending on the device on which they appear. This allows more room to share your message with your audience.

Efficiency that enables you to focus on other important elements of your business. By providing multiple headlines and descriptions at once when creating ads, Google is able to show those most relevant to your potential customers meaning they are more likely to click and convert without you having to continuously edit ad content.

Adaptability as headlines and descriptions can be tailored to match your audience’s favourite locations.

Reach a wider audience as multiple headlines and descriptions affords the opportunity to compete in more auctions and match more search queries.

Google has certainly picked up on these benefits and growing results as Responsive Search Ads are now the default ad type when creating search ads.

While Extended Text Ads continue to be an option, the Google Ads accredited experts at teclan ensure that our clients’ campaigns include Responsive Search Ads as a best practice. We are a results driven team with a proven track record of increasing revenue using effective marketing strategies. Get in touch with any questions you may have about Google Ads or to learn more about how we can drive your sales online.

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Today is National Proofreading Day, and every year on 8th March it highlights the importance of mistake-free writing. Corporate Trainer Judy Beaver created National Proofreading Day in 2011, choosing the date of her mother’s birthday, to honour her mother and her love of correcting people.

It pays to review your letters, documents and website content in order to make a positive and professional impression. We discussed the importance of making sure your content avoids typos and spelling errors in our Blog here.

Proofreading is not to be confused with editing; they are different steps in the process of revising text.

Editing comes first, and can involve major changes to content, structure, language, grammar and style. Proofreading is the final stage of checking a text before it is published or shared and focuses on correcting minor errors and inconsistencies like punctuation and capitalisation.

When proofreading it can help to have a few tips handy to catch mistakes that are often overlooked. Use several of them and mix them up from time to time for the most effective proofreading.

Tips for Effective Proofreading

Let the content sit. If time permits, set aside your work to gain distance. When you come back to your work, you will see it with fresh eyes and renewed attention.

Approach each proofreading and editing task separately. Check spelling. Then sentence structure. Then word choice. Then punctuation etc. If you try to identify and fix too much at once, you risk losing focus and your proofing will be less effective.

Reading aloud forces you to say each word and hear how the words sound. Whereas reading silently allows you to skip over errors or make unconscious corrections. Reading aloud also helps us discern when something does not sound right — even if it’s grammatically correct.

Review headings separately from body copy. By approaching them separately you check both types of text. Reviewing headings alone draws attention to inconsistencies and errors.

National Proofreading Day is a day to have a goal of 100% accuracy for everything you and your business generate. How will you get on?

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Cyber security is just as important as all of these elements. Without it, your business could face serious repercussions and damage your customers’ trust.

Don’t Fall Victim

Everyday websites suffer from all types of attacks impacting businesses of all sizes. You may have recently become aware of the ‘highly sophisticated cyber-attack‘ faced by easyJet, affecting around nine million of their customers. Data breaches such as this give hackers access to personal details and information that should be secure and private. While this is an extreme example, it is important you have the peace of mind that your company is protected.

We Offer Peace of Mind

Our Gatekeeper Packages are ideal for businesses who want to be assured that their customers’, and their own data, is safe. At teclan, we offer security packages which cover the likes of daily scanning for compromised files and malware, and installing a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to protect your site from bots and unwanted access. By performing regular backups, we make sure that you are covered should the worst ever happen.
You can view our range of Gatekeeper security packages here.

Your Website is Secure — What Next?

Modern Internet browsers highlight to visitors sites that do not have a security certificate in place. An SSL allows an encrypted connection between the visitor and the website. This ensures that data cannot be easily accessed by third parties. SSL certificates provide customers with the knowledge that they are protected and that your company is one that they can trust. It is vital to display an SSL certificate if your business plans to advertise on Google Shopping and is used as a factor for SEO ranking.

We Are Here To Help

Our team of experts are always here to provide support and advice regarding SSL and all forms of cyber security. Just get in touch and we will be happy to help!

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We are committed to helping you.

Like the majority of the country, the entire teclan team is now working remotely from home so the best way to contact us is via email or telephone. Although we are no longer in the office, it is ‘business as usual’ for us. We are here to help you during these unprecedented times. Our systems and digital platforms ensure that we can continue to provide the same services and support you have come to know and expect.

How can we help?

All of our Digital Marketing services and products are available for you to use to support with communications. Whether you need to send an email to your mailing list, change your paid advertising strategy or continue with web mastering services, we are fully committed to supporting your business in whichever way you see fit as things develop. We are aware of how daunting this situation can be but we want to assure our clients that we are here for you throughout.

If you have any questions about our services or how we can help you during these times, please do not hesitate to get in touch. The teclan team is happy to chat about anything you need to discuss as we want to help in any way that we can.

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To keep this promise of transparency, Facebook have been rolling out a prompt for users to review their privacy settings. This prompt will appear in the newsfeed of almost two billion people, directing them to the Privacy Checkup tool, making it easier to adjust who can see posts and profile information.

Additionally, users will be able to access the new ‘Off-Facebook Activity’ tool which allows people to access the data Facebook has obtained about their activity on other sites. From there, users will be able to clear this information from their account.

Further to their new privacy focused initiatives, Facebook has stated that their intention is to also help users understand their algorithm, and as such, Facebook is taking control of ranking signals.

So, what are ranking signals?

Simply, they are factors determining the order in which users see posts appear in their Facebook newsfeeds. The three major categories of ranking signals are:

1. Who a user typically interacts with
2. The media type included in the post (e.g. Gif, photo, video)
3. The post’s popularity

What do these changes mean for Facebook marketing?

Firstly, companies should be aware of the importance of an engaging organic post. One of the key ranking signals in place is whether someone has previously engaged with your page. To ensure consistent engagement, Facebook posts should encourage users to interact with your content. From there, posts are more likely to be seen first.

Additionally, it is important to post when audiences are online. Recency is another ranking signal within the algorithm so the newer the post, the more likely it is to appear in a feed. To complement engaging posts, it is recommended that posts are uploaded often and consistently. According to Facebook, pages with frequent posts are more likely to be meaningful to their audiences.

So, what do teclan think?

Clearly, transparency is important across all aspects of Social Media and marketing, so it is no surprise that Facebook has implemented focus on this.

Regarding Social Media marketing, you may be worrying that audiences will no longer see your content due to these changes. However, these changes allow for highly targeted marketing because those who see the posts are much more likely to be interested in them and so may help to direct quality traffic to your business. If you have fears regarding the ranking of organic posts then there is always the option of supporting these with paid Ads.

With that being said, it will be interesting to see the changes Facebook makes throughout 2020 and beyond as the Social Media age develops and users continue to seek (and demand) privacy.

teclan are long-time Google Partners and provide a wide range of Digital Marketing channels and services. Contact us today on 01463 898043 to discuss which digital channels would work best for you and how we can grow your online business.

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Google recently notified advertisers that standard Shopping campaigns will soon be rolled out to Gmail users. According to Google, these Shopping Ads will begin to appear on Gmail commencing the week of March 4^th this year. This roll-out includes both Showcase Shopping Ads and Product Shopping Ads.

With the implementation of this ad spot, data will be recorded in the Google Display network. If campaigns are opted into YouTube, Gmail and Discover, Standard Shopping campaigns will then automatically be enabled to run on Gmail. However, Google will combine the performance metrics from these channels so there is no real way to see performance by property.

How do you check if your campaign is opted into this network?

Follow these steps:

1. Sign in to your Google Ads account
2. Click the ‘Campaigns’ tab, then click the Standard Shopping campaign you would like to verify
3. Click the ‘Settings’ tab
4. Look for a checkbox under ‘Networks’ next to ‘YouTube, Gmail and Discover’. If it’s checked your campaign is opted into this network

Why is this an important update?

Well, Gmail is the most popular email client in the world with over one billion users, so the potential reach for these Ads is far and wide. It could be a strong addition as a marketing spot because already audiences often expect email newsletters from their favourite brands. This additional brand presence within their inbox may therefore prove beneficial. An optimised and well-targeted Shopping Ad appearing in Gmail could perform well in comparison to other Shopping Ad spots.

teclan are long-time Google Partners and provide a wide range of Digital Marketing channels and services. Contact us today on 01463 898043 to discuss which digital channels would work best for you and how we can grow your online business.

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So, what’s new? Paid ad results now have a bolded ‘Ad’ label in black text above the site heading, alongside the site URL. Formerly, this ‘Ad’ was written in green text inside a green box.

The new look is very similar to that of new organic search display as the URL has been changed from green to black. Additionally, like paid ads, the URL appears above the title page.

Say hello to favicons

But, perhaps the most prominent change for organic search results is the introduction of favicons. Favicons, or brand icons, will appear next to the organic result. Google has stated that this allows website branding to be ‘front and centre’ and enables users to “better understand where the information is coming from and which pages have what you’re looking for.”

However, feedback has indicated that users are now finding it harder to distinguish between adverts and organic results.

Due to this feedback, Google has announced it will continue to experiment with the new look. This means that they are changing where favicons may be placed to determine what best suits a modern Google desktop feed. Of course, these changes will benefit Google in terms of advertising as it is likely due to audience ‘banner blindness’ that there will be a higher click-through rate on paid ads.

However, it is also a benefit for businesses as it will direct more traffic to websites. teclan will take advantage of these changes as they roll out and continue to strive to achieve quality traffic for our clients, decreasing their costs while increasing their revenue.

teclan are long-time Google Partners and provide a wide range of Digital Marketing channels and services. Contact us today on 01463 898043 to discuss which digital channels would work best for you and how we can grow your online business.

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