Strategy Briefing
This is the system I run for growth-stage Shopify brands, laid out page by page: closing the gap between what already ranks and what should, and making sure AI platforms send customers to the brand’s own site, not a reseller.
98.8%
of organic traffic was branded — driven by ads and influencers, not category demand.
1.2%
came from non-branded searches — the people who don’t know the brand yet.
0
AI citations pointed at the brand’s own site. The answer named the brand, then linked a reseller.
The Diagnosis
Everything below comes from a full audit and strategy built for a $10M+ DTC supplement brand, with the identifying details removed. If your brand grew on ads and influencers, some of these numbers will look familiar.
The Framework
Search demand, technical crawlability, content, and AI discovery all feed each other. I run them as one connected loop, not five disconnected work streams.
01
Discover & Prioritize
Map demand, visibility and content gaps against what actually drives revenue.
02
Optimize Foundations
Fix crawlability, indexation and structure so key pages can be found.
03
Improve & Expand
Rewrite and expand priority pages, then link them together with intent.
04
Prepare for AI Discovery
Structure product and brand data so AI platforms cite the brand.
05
Measure, Learn, Refine
Track what is moving revenue and feed it back into focus.
The Page-by-Page Playbook
This is the site rebuilt template by template: each card turns an audit finding into a fix that has a clear reason to exist.
Homepage
Stop the homepage ranking for everything
Tighten what the homepage targets and build intent-matched landing pages so clicks land where people can buy.
Collection pages
Build the collections that don’t exist yet
Core collections around real parent intent give category demand somewhere to land.
Product pages
Rewrite for how buyers actually search
Optimize PDPs around the need solved, not just the brand product name.
Content engine
Topic hubs, comparisons and product paths
Informational content passes authority to commercial pages instead of sitting in a silo.
Technical layer
Reclaim crawl budget and product eligibility
Robots, redirects, Merchant Center and deeper schema make the catalog machine-readable.
The Content Engine
Supplement buyers rarely search the brand first. They search a goal, compare options, investigate commercial choices, then choose.
Top of funnel / Discover
Goal-led questions
“how to support gut health daily”
“what to eat for more energy”
Build trust and topical authority early, then link contextually to the relevant collection.
Mid funnel / Evaluate
“Best” queries
“best greens supplement for energy”
“best kids multivitamin gummies”
Commercial investigation in plain sight, where publishers and marketplaces currently own demand.
Commercial
Money-page support
“greens supplement benefits”
“daily nutrition supplement”
Content that supports collections and PDPs directly, using intent-led copy that moves buyers toward the right product page.
Bottom of funnel / Decide
“Vs” comparisons
“greens powder vs multivitamin”
“[brand] vs [competitor]”
Intercept demand headed to competitors and give AI platforms a structured answer at the decision point.
AI Visibility
Discovery was happening. Selection was happening somewhere else. Fixing that is a build, not a mystery, and it runs on four work streams.
01
Define the brand as an entity
Expanded Organization schema, a proper About page, consistent details and verified profiles all referencing the main domain.
02
Cover the benefits people ask about
Content mapped to energy, gut health, daily routine and convenience — the questions behind recommendations.
03
Structure content so machines can quote it
Factual, organized pages with clean schema that AI systems can summarize and cite with confidence.
04
Make retailers reinforce the brand
Standardized product data and where-to-buy paths so retailers support availability while the brand remains the source.
The Roadmap
Capture the demand that already exists first, then build the structures that grow it, then the authority that defends it.
Phase 01
Capture existing demand
Resolve 404s and crawl waste; expand product schema; optimize PDPs; align retailer paths.
Phase 02
Build discoverability
Core collections, commercial landing pages, SERP-aligned FAQs and AI Overview optimization.
Phase 03
Authority & recommendation
Topic hubs, citation campaigns, creator partnerships and entity reinforcement.
Phase 04
Scale & defend
Monitor AI prompt visibility, expand winning topics and support product launches.
Why This Works
Technical SEO, content, organic Shopping and AI visibility are usually run by different teams. I run them as one system, because that’s how the platforms evaluate a brand.
Fixing one in isolation just moves the bottleneck. A product page can be well written and still lose visibility because the schema is broken, or because the collection it should belong to doesn’t exist yet.
This is the same connected approach I bring to growth-stage Shopify brands, adapted to what your data actually shows rather than a generic checklist.
Let’s Talk About Your Brand
Send a few details and I’ll come back with what I’d prioritize first, based on what I can see in your search and AI visibility today.
Start a conversation
