How Australian eCommerce Brands Can Rank in AI Overviews (AIO) in 2026

AI is changing how Australians discover and buy products online.

In this episode, Ryan Martin sits down with Patrick Dhital one of Australia's leading SEO and AIO specialists — to break down exactly what eCommerce founders need to do right now to appear in AI-generated search results across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude.

If your brand isn't showing up when a CEO or customer searches for your category on an AI engine, this episode is for you.

AI engines read structured data. That means moving your most important claims out of body paragraphs and into clear, structured page elements — headings, quick-facts boxes, certifications, awards — so AI can find and weight them correctly.

Stop saying "award-winning product." Say which award you actually won, and give it its own heading on the page.

This also includes schema markup and ensuring your meta copy is specific, not vague. Specificity signals trust to AI engines.

Search behaviour has shifted from "best compression socks" to "what compression socks help me recover after a long-haul flight?" Your content strategy needs to follow. That means blogs and articles built around real customer questions — not AI-generated filler.

The best content comes from knowing your customer better than any agency can. What questions do they ask you? Start there.

Within those articles, include product carousels, CTAs, and comparison guides. Don't build content just for AIO — make it genuinely useful for the people landing on it.

Being mentioned in a Vogue listicle on "top Australian knitwear brands" isn't just good PR — it's how AI engines discover and recommend you. Build backlinks and placements in topically relevant articles and listicles so that when an LLM goes looking, it finds your brand in credible, third-party sources.

Social media presence matters too. If people are talking about your brand positively on Reddit or Quora, AI engines will surface that. If they're not — or if the reviews are bad — that surfaces too.

AIO needs SEO to work. If you're not ranking on Google, AI engines won't find you either. The fundamentals haven't changed — they're the foundation.

Be specific, not general. "Award-winning" means nothing to an AI. "Winner of the 2024 Good Design Award" does. Pull specifics out of paragraphs and into structured elements.

Your content strategy should sound like your customer. Conversational queries are longer and more specific than ever. Write content that matches how real people talk — not how keyword tools think.

Bad reviews can hurt you in AI, fast. What appears on Trustpilot, Reddit, or Quora is fair game for AI engines. Brand reputation management is now part of AIO.

No single channel fixes everything. The brands with the best AIO results are also running Google Ads, social ads, email, and PR. It all compounds.

ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude, Ahrefs, SEMrush, Google Search Console, Google Analytics, Reddit, Quora, Trustpilot, Shopify, Remarkable Digital

Want a free AIO audit? Ryan and Patrick are currently offering AI visibility audits for Australian eCommerce brands. Hit the link below to start the conversation.

AIO - How to ensure your eCommerce business gets visibility and mentions in AI