See your store through an AI bot's eyes
At a glance
- What you get
- Know whether ChatGPT, Claude and Perplexity can really read your product pages, and what to fix if they can't.
- Time
- 5 minutes
- Plan
- All plans (different monthly limits)
Before you start
- The product you simulate must be published on the Online Store channel: an unpublished product can’t be reached by any bot.
- Monthly limits depend on your plan: simulations 20 on Free, 300 on Grow, 1,000 on Unlimited; competitor comparisons 10, 50 and 150. Counters restart on the first day of the month.
Simulate an AI bot’s visit
The simulator loads the product page the way GPTBot (ChatGPT), ClaudeBot and PerplexityBot do: without running JavaScript. Whatever only appears after the page has loaded, for example reviews or tabs loaded later, a bot often doesn’t see.
- Go to Shopify Admin › Apps › IFG GEO Optimizer › AI crawler.
- In the Product field, type part of the product name and pick it from the list.
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Press Simulate.
What you’ll see: a “Verdict for GPTBot” card with an overall rating, for example “Needs work (62/100)”, and a sentence summing up the situation. The three bots are checked together with one click.
- Read “What to fix, most important first”: each problem says what’s wrong and what to do. Where needed you find the Fix it in the Catalog Audit or Open theme editor button.
- Further down, check the details: robots.txt access (for each bot Allowed or Blocked), Canonical URL, Structured data seen by the bot and the preview of the code the bot received.
Note: robots.txt and the canonical URL are managed by your theme, not by the app. If a bot is Blocked or the canonical URL points elsewhere, the change has to be made in your theme or in the service protecting your store: if you don’t know how, ask whoever looks after your theme.
If only one bot fails to load the page while the others succeed, a warning appears at the top with the bot’s name and the code it received. It usually means your store blocks that particular bot.
Check readiness for shopping assistants
The second section tells you whether AI shopping assistants (for example ChatGPT or the Shop app) can already talk directly to your store to browse products. Shopify switches this on, store by store.
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In the Agentic commerce (MCP) readiness section, press Check MCP endpoints.
What you’ll see: at the top “Ready for AI shopping agents” or “Pending — no action needed from you”. Below, for Storefront MCP and UCP Catalog, the address with the Copy URL button and the status Present or Missing.
Note: “Missing” isn’t your mistake: Shopify hasn’t switched the feature on for your store yet and there’s nothing to set up. Try again later. Each check counts as one of the month’s simulations.
Compare a product with a competitor
- In the GEO competitive comparison section, choose your product in the Product field.
- In Competitor product URL, paste the full address of the competitor’s product page, for example
https://competitor-store.com/products/example. -
Press Compare.
What you’ll see: the “Comparison for product name” card with two columns, Your product and Competitor’s product: how much structured data a bot sees, what’s missing, the extractability score and the canonical URL.
Warning: each comparison counts towards the month’s limit even when the competitor’s page can’t be read (wrong address, slow site, anti-bot protection). Check the address carefully before pressing Compare.
Your product doesn’t have to be published on the Online Store channel for the comparison.
If something goes wrong
I see “This product isn’t published to the Online Store channel: no bot can reach it.” Publish the product on the Online Store channel in Shopify and try again.
The bot was “redirected elsewhere”. This often happens on a password-protected store or one that isn’t open yet: the bot lands on the password page. Remove the store password or try on an open store.
I see “You’ve reached this month’s simulation cap. Try again next month or upgrade your plan.” You’ve used the month’s simulations. Wait for next month or upgrade from Plans.
The comparison says the site “seems to block automated access”. The competitor’s site has bot protection and can’t be analysed. Try another competitor.