Most product catalogs are built for two audiences: the human shopper scanning for something they recognize, and the Google crawler indexing keywords. Neither of these audiences is an AI agent evaluating your product to recommend to a buyer.
This article is a diagnostic. Run through each of the five content types below and check them against your own catalog today.
Content type 1: Use-case copy
What it is: Explicit language explaining what problem this product solves, for whom, and in what specific situation.
What most catalogs have instead: Feature lists and generic benefit statements.
Content type 2: Comparison context
What it is: Clear language about how this product differs from alternatives, what it's better at, and what it's not the best choice for.
What most catalogs have instead: Superlatives with no reference point.
Content type 3: Intent signals embedded in copy
What it is: Language that explicitly mirrors the words and phrases buyers use when they describe their problem.
Content type 4: Editorial framing
What it is: Context about the product's category position: what kind of product this is, where it sits on the quality-price spectrum, what it competes with.
Content type 5: Scope limitations
What it is: Explicit statements about what the product is NOT good for, who should not buy it, and where it falls short.
What most catalogs have: Absent entirely, or buried in FAQs.
