Shoppers don't only search Google anymore. They ask AI assistants like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and others which products are worth buying, and those assistants build their answers from what they can read on your store's pages. Loox renders your product reviews directly in your pages' HTML, so AI assistants and search crawlers can read the reviews your customers wrote and factor them into their answers. Preparing your store's content for these assistants is known as generative engine optimization (GEO) or answer engine optimization (AEO). This article covers how it works, which reviews are included, and what it means for your store.
Why make your reviews readable to AI assistants?
AI assistants and search crawlers read a page's raw HTML. Loox places the reviews from your Reviews Widget in the page's HTML, where assistants and crawlers can read them. This way:
- A shopper asking an AI assistant about your product can get an answer informed by your customers' real reviews
- The reviews, ratings, and photos you worked to collect earn visibility beyond your store's pages
- Your customers see no visible difference on your store - your pages display the same Loox Reviews Widget you've always used, and loading times are not affected
How it works
Loox stores an up-to-date sample of each product's reviews on your Shopify metafields. When a customer, an AI assistant, or a crawler loads one of your pages, your theme displays those reviews as part of the page's HTML while the page and the Loox Reviews Widget load. This is called server-side rendering: your reviews arrive with the page itself rather than being added afterwards by code running in the browser. This is what makes them readable by AI. As soon as the Reviews Widget is ready to appear, it takes over, and your page displays the same widget it always has.
Everything happens automatically:
- There is nothing to set up and nothing to install
- Your reviews stay up to date - whenever reviews are published, unpublished, edited, imported, or moved between products, the copy on your store updates automatically
Which reviews and what review data can the AI assistant see?
Individual products, grouped products, product bundles, and widgets that display reviews from all of your products are all visible to AI assistants. Each review carries what an AI assistant needs to understand it:
- The reviewer's name
- The star rating
- The full review text - reviews are never shortened
- Your reply to the review (if you added one)
- The review's photo URL (if the review has a photo) and its alt text
- The widget's average rating
Good to know
- AI assistants take time to catch up. Assistants and crawlers revisit and re-index pages on their own schedules, so it can take time before your reviews start informing their answers
- Stores with very long reviews may include fewer reviews per product. Review text is never shortened
- No effect on your store's speed. The reviews are part of the page your store already serves, and the widget loads exactly as it does today
FAQs
Q: Do I need to set anything up?
A: No. This works automatically for stores on Online Store 2.0 themes, with no changes to your theme or your Loox setup.
Q: Will my customers see anything different on my store?
A: No. Your pages display the same Loox widgets they do today. The readable reviews are replaced by the widget as the page loads.
Q: Will this slow down my pages?
A: No. The reviews are delivered as part of the page itself, and the Loox widget loads the same way it always has.
Q: Does this share any information that wasn't already public?
A: No. It includes only what your Reviews Widget already displays on your store: the reviewer's name, rating, review text, and photo.
Q: Will all of my product reviews be readable?
A: The first 40 reviews for each product (in the same order your Reviews Widget displays them) will be readable to AI assistants. If your reviews are very long, fewer than 40 reviews may be readable, as we don't shorten any reviews and there is limited space to store this data on Shopify metafields.
Q: Is this the same as SEO?
A: They work side by side. SEO helps your pages rank in search results, while GEO and AEO help AI assistants find and use your content when they answer a shopper's question. Loox supports both: your ratings appear in Google search results through rich snippets, and your review content is readable for AI assistants.
Q: How do I know it's working?
A: You can test this out on your store by asking your LLM of choice to retrieve reviews from one of your product pages where a Reviews Widget is displayed.
If you have more questions, contact our Support team at [email protected]. We're available 24/7 and happy to help!