Online mall operators looking to increase sales typically turn first to advertising. Ads can bring an immediate influx of customers, but traffic can stop when budgets run out.

That is when search engine optimisation, or SEO, is worth checking. Once a site is optimised, it can keep drawing customers without ad spending. The industry has an assessment that it is "better than most keyword ads".

The problem is that technical tasks such as submitting a sitemap, setting meta tags and adding schema markup are a high barrier for first-time founders.

Search traffic is 65%... overwhelming social media and ads

According to a consumer research report released in 2025 by product management solution firm Salsify, 65% of consumers said they get shopping information through "search engines". That figure far exceeds traffic from social media and paid advertising.

An online mall with solid SEO can secure visitors steadily without being swayed by volatility in ad spending. But most early-stage founders hesitate to apply SEO even though they know its importance. That is because they lack expertise, dedicated staff and spare budget.

Auto-generating schema when products are listed

Recently, online mall solutions have been addressing those technical barriers through their systems. A representative example is automatic creation of "product schema".

Product schema is structured data that helps search engines recognise product information accurately. People can intuitively distinguish a product name and price by looking at a web page, but search engines treat it as plain text without this code.

Cafe24's recently released "Pro" solution also automatically creates this schema when products are listed. As a result, products appear in Google search results not as simple links but as "rich snippets" that include price, stock and ratings. The structure inevitably raises click-through rates.

Meta tags are also automatically optimised. When users enter a product name and description, AI generates the title and description tags that will appear in search results. Page structure is also automatically organised into main headings (H1) and subheadings (H2), prompting search engines to recognise it as a "logically well-structured document".

There is also a review feature. It analyses reviews accumulated over a certain period and automatically adds summary content at the bottom of the product detail page. At the same time, "review schema" markup is generated so star ratings appear in search results. The FAQ function works the same way. Because it is written in an "FAQ schema" structure, Q&A content appears directly in portal search results.

Duplicate address issues are handled through a "canonical URL" feature. If multiple URLs are created for a single product due to colour options or event pages, search engines judge them as "duplicate documents" and cut scores. Canonical tags clearly identify the primary address to search engines and prevent such disadvantages.

Cafe24's analysis of about 600 online malls showed average impressions in September, before applying product schema, were 8,704. Over 46 days after application, the average rose 111.6% to 18,420. Average impressions from Nov. 1 to 15 climbed more steeply to 25,433.

In the era of AI search, preparing for GEO as well

As more consumers get information through generative AI such as ChatGPT and Perplexity, generative engine optimisation, or GEO, has emerged as a new task beyond traditional SEO.

According to global data firm Datos, 58.5% of Google searches in the United States in 2024 ended within the results page without a website click. That means the "zero-click" phenomenon, in which people obtain information solely from AI answers, is intensifying.

GEO is the work of optimising data so AI can accurately learn an online mall's information and recommend it to users. The key is the "llms.txt" file. It is a file that helps AI search engines easily understand an online mall's structure and product information.

Cafe24 Pro automatically generates this file. About 1 week after sign-up, the system analyses the mall's structure, product catalogue, policy information and brand story to create a customised llms.txt. Brand information is also automatically translated into English to respond to global AI models as well.

Cafe24 randomly selected 100 online malls and measured them using the global evaluation tool Semrush. The results showed GEO scores rose by at least 10 points and by as much as 15 points.

An industry official said, "SEO continues to be effective once it is built, so it is a basic skill that early-stage founders in particular must have." The official added, "As technical entry barriers have fallen, small businesses have been able to create the same search environment as large online malls."