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On June 17, brands received a note from Amazon about an update to its title guidelines. Any ASINs in violation would be suppressed from search beginning July 22. The new guidelines included a new 50-character title limit. At first, this caused concern and confusion, but Amazon has recently reverted back to its standard character limit for product titles. Continue reading to learn more about Amazon's product title guidelines and why they’re important to follow to avoid listing suppression.

Why Are Amazon's Product Title Guidelines Important?

Amazon implements title guidelines across all listings to provide shoppers with as consistent an experience as possible. Some requirements include capitalizing the first letter of each word in a title and not using all caps. Following these guidelines allow our strategists to create clear, concise, and optimized titles for our clients.

As a result, shoppers are able to more easily understand what the product is, as they scroll through search result pages. Product titles should provide all the information necessary to understand what the product is before the shopper clicks through to learn more.  

These guidelines also matter when it comes to ranking in Amazon’s search results. If a brand doesn’t follow these guidelines, Amazon reserves the right to suppress listings, which prohibits them from being found through product searches.. 

An Update to the Original Title Suppression Warning

Originally, a 50-character limit for product titles was alarming to brands, including our clients. Not only would this decrease the opportunities for optimizing product titles, but it could take a significant amount of time to update existing ASINs to meet this new character limit. In a worst-case scenario, brands could also find themselves in the position of not noticing a suppressed ASIN in enough time to prevent sales velocity from suffering. 

Since the 50-character limit message was sent, Amazon has updated its guidelines to reflect the standard 200-character title limit. This is a relief to brands in all categories since there is no longer a need to quickly adjust their catalogs. 

What Does This Mean? 

There hasn’t been official communication from Amazon about the switch back to the 200-character title limit. However, our strategists and technical analysts at Marketplace Strategy think there’s reason to believe the original reduction in characters was an effort to clean up search results and create a better experience for customers. Reducing the characters allowed in a product title could help to combat sellers that take advantage of keyword stuffing.  

A 50-character title limit also could have led to both unhappy sellers and customers. Wide-spread listing suppressions would not only hurt brands’ sales, but it would decrease the selection of products available to customers. The default back to the 200-character title limit was likely due to Amazon realizing there was a possibility of disappointing customers.  

At this point, there is nothing to worry about when it comes to product title length, as long as listings meet Amazon’s guidelines. We look forward to the changes and updates Amazon makes in the future to improve the customer experience. In the meantime, this change in guidelines shouldn’t be a major concern to brands that sell on the channel. 
If your brand needs support from a strategic partner or has any questions, we’re here to help.