How to make your product catalogue
readable by AI agents

What an agent needs from your catalogue

An AI agent is software that does a task for someone, such as "find suppliers of M8 stainless bolts who can deliver this month". To do that, it reads websites and picks out facts: what you sell, the sizes and grades, the price or how to get one, and how long delivery takes. It reads the page's text and code, not its design. How AI agents read your website explains more.

Nobody outside the AI companies knows exactly how each tool chooses its sources, and it changes. The steps below do not guarantee you will be found or chosen. They remove common reasons a tool might miss or misread your products.

1. Put product facts in the page text

Many catalogues live in a PDF, or as images of printed pages. A PDF is a separate file that a tool has to find, download and open. Text in an image has to be recognised before it can be read, and small print in a table is easy to misread. Text on the page needs neither step.

• Write specifications as text. Sizes, grades, materials, finishes and standards.
• Use real tables. A table built in HTML, not a picture of one.
• Keep the PDF if customers like it, but repeat the key facts on the page.
• Check the page source. Right-click, View page source, and search for a product code. Some AI tools do not run JavaScript, so facts that only appear after scripts run may be missed.

2. Give each product or range its own page

One long page listing everything is hard to link to. A page for each product, or for each range where items differ only by size, gives each one its own address, title and heading.

• Name the product in the page title and in one main heading.
• List the variants in a table, with your product code for each.
• Link every product page from a category page, and list it in your sitemap.

3. Add structured data

Structured data states facts in a standard vocabulary called schema.org, in a block of code people do not see. For products, the two main types are Product, which says what the item is, and Offer, which says the price and terms it is sold on. Structured data for small businesses explains where the code goes.

A short example for one product. The details are made up, so replace them with your own.

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Product",
  "name": "Hex bolt, M8 x 40 mm, A2 stainless steel, pack of 100",
  "sku": "EX-1001",
  "description": "Hex head bolt, M8 x 40 mm, A2 stainless steel. Sold in packs of 100.",
  "material": "A2 stainless steel",
  "offers": {
    "@type": "Offer",
    "price": "10.00",
    "priceCurrency": "GBP",
    "priceValidUntil": "2026-12-31",
    "availability": "https://schema.org/InStock",
    "deliveryLeadTime": {
      "@type": "QuantitativeValue",
      "minValue": 2,
      "maxValue": 5,
      "unitCode": "DAY"
    },
    "url": "https://yourbusiness.com/products/ex-1001/"
  }
}
</script>

• Keep it the same as the page. If the price on the page changes, change it here too. Out-of-date structured data is worse than none.
• Do not invent a price. If an item is priced on request, describe the product and leave the price out.
• Check your platform first. Many shop platforms and plugins can create Product data for you. Use that if you can, so you do not end up with two copies that disagree.
• Test it. Paste the page address into the Schema.org validator (validator.schema.org) or Google's Rich Results Test.

schema.org can also describe minimum quantities and price breaks. Check what your platform supports before you add them.

4. Show stock and lead times

A buyer, or a tool working for one, often needs to know whether you can deliver in time before asking for a price. Say it on the page.

• Lead time in working days, and when it starts, such as from the order.
• Whether an item is usually in stock or made to order.
• Minimum order quantities and pack sizes, next to the price.

If stock changes too fast to keep the page accurate, give a typical lead time instead of a live count. A wrong stock figure is worse than none.

5. Make the way to ask for a quote clear

If your prices depend on quantity, or are only on request, the next step is a quote. Make it easy to find and easy to use.

• A "Request a quote" link on every product page, written as text, not only an icon.
• A quote form with a visible label on every field: product code, quantity, delivery town or postcode, date needed and email.
• A plain email address for quotes on your contact page. Some tools send requests by email.
• A reply time you can keep, if you state one.

Check nothing is in the way

A clear catalogue cannot be read if your site turns tools away. Check your robots.txt and your host's bot settings. The free AI crawler checker shows, name by name, which AI crawlers your robots.txt lets in.