Fix guide · Shopify

Shopify product titles that work in Google Shopping

Your Shopify product title is usually the title your feed sends to Google, so it does two jobs: it has to read well on your store and follow Merchant Center's title rules. Those rules are short: at most 150 characters, no promotional text such as prices, sales or shipping, and no capital letters for emphasis.

What it means

Most title problems come from writing titles for the storefront: a banner word to catch the eye, every available size listed for convenience, a collection name instead of a product type. Each of those reads differently once Google shows the title alone, without your page around it.

Test it free: Paste a title to test it against Merchant Center's title rules, and optionally get a rewrite that passes the same checks.

Open the title checker →

Example diagnosis

One title before and after, run through the title checker

Before  SALE!! FREE SHIPPING Organic Cotton Tee S M L XL – BEST SELLER
        ✗ Promotional text   "SALE", "FREE SHIPPING", "BEST SELLER", "!!"
        ✗ Capitals           words in capitals for emphasis
        ✗ Size list          S M L XL: four items in one title
        ✗ Brand              "Harbor & Pine" isn't in the title

After   Harbor & Pine Organic Cotton Crew T-Shirt – Men's, Black, Medium
        ✓ 64 characters, brand first, product type and variant details

Everything Google's rules exclude is gone: the sale goes in your sale price and Merchant Center promotions, and free shipping in your shipping settings.

The size list is replaced by the one size this feed item is. Google asks for each variant's distinguishing details in its title, and for the same details in the matching attributes such as color and size.

The useful words come first. Google notes shoppers usually notice only the first 70 or fewer characters, so brand, product type and the key attributes sit inside that.

Symptoms

  • Merchant Center warns that titles were truncated, or reports an issue with promotional text or capitalisation in titles.
  • Titles in your product export contain words like sale, free shipping, % off or best seller, or several words in capitals.
  • Titles list every size or color the product comes in.
  • Short titles that name a collection or a nickname ("The Weekender") with no product type, so the title alone doesn't say what the item is.

How to fix it in Shopify

  1. Find the problem titles. Check single titles in the free title checker. For a whole catalog, export products and scan the Title column for the patterns above, or run the full audit.
  2. Remove promotional text and emphasis. Take out prices, discounts, shipping offers and capitals used for emphasis. A brand that is genuinely written in capitals can stay.
  3. Order the words. Brand, then product type, then the attributes shoppers search for: gender or age group where it matters, color, size, material, model or pack size.
  4. Stop listing variants. Name the product once in Shopify and keep sizes and colors in variant options, which feed apps send as separate items with their own size and color.
  5. Edit in bulk where you can. Use the bulk editor from the product list, or edit the Title column of the product CSV and import it with the overwrite option.
  6. Or change the feed instead of the store. If you want a short storefront title and a longer feed title, set the title through your feed app or Merchant Center rules rather than rewriting the product.

Caveats and when it applies

  • The 70-character figure is Google's "usually", not a rule; it depends on screen and placement. Fit the essentials in it and use the rest of the 150 for detail.
  • The search engine listing title in Shopify changes the page's HTML title for search results. It isn't the product title most feed apps send, so editing it alone won't change your Shopping titles.
  • Changing an existing product's title doesn't change its URL handle, so links keep working. It does change what shoppers see on your storefront, so check collection pages afterwards.
  • Don't repeat keywords or add terms that don't describe the product. Google's editorial requirements cover that, and a stuffed title is harder for shoppers to read.

Official documentation

The audit checks behind this guide

Test it free: Paste a title to test it against Merchant Center's title rules, and optionally get a rewrite that passes the same checks.

Open the title checker →

Updated 2026-10-26. catalogaudit isn't affiliated with Google or Shopify; the linked documentation is the authority.

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