The owner of an online shop spends hours on photos and prices, then pastes the product line exactly as the supplier sent it: “Model TG-3, item 4471”. To a person, that line says nothing. Google does not always know who to show it to either. Merchant Center help (the account where a shop gives Google the data about its products) calls the title one of the most visible parts of an ad or free listing.
Below are five rules from Google’s help on the product title. We opened and read those help pages on 10 November 2026. Where we speak from our own practice rather than a Google requirement, we say so.
1. Put the main thing first
Google accepts a title of 1 to 150 characters; a longer one is shortened and you get a warning. But length does not mean the buyer will read it all. According to the help, users often see only the first 70 or so characters, so the advice is to put the most important details first.
What counts as important depends on the product. For a phone it is the model, storage, colour and condition; for a dress, the type, cut, size and colour. Keep the same order across the whole catalogue.
Take a watch as an illustration. A good title: “Garmin Instinct 3 tactical watch 45 mm, black”. You see at once what it is, whose brand and which model. A bad one: “New! Super watch for men”. The first words went to something that tells products apart not at all. This is only an example, not a result from a real shop.
A brand is not always needed. The help advises adding it when it sets the product apart. In our view, for electronics or cosmetics that is almost always the case, while for unbranded goods you can do without.
Variants separately. If the same dress comes in three colours and five sizes, each combination is a separate item. The differences go both in the title and in the matching attributes (colour, size). Where no suitable attribute exists, like the flavour of chocolate, the difference is written straight into the title.
2. The buyer’s words, not yours
Nobody types a supplier’s item number into search. People type “tactical watch”, “women’s running shoes”, “iPhone case”. A title built from internal codes matches the query only by accident.
How do you find out what people type? Google Ads help describes a report that shows which actual searches triggered your ads and how they performed. The path in your account: “Campaigns” → “Insights and reports” → “Search terms”. The help adds that the report helps you discover new ideas for creative and landing page content.
An important caveat. The help says the report covers ads shown on the Search Network and does not mention shopping campaigns separately. If the report has few queries or you do not run product ads yet, try something simpler: type the product name into ordinary Google search and look at the suggestions under the box. That is our own trick, not a recommendation from the help.
Our advice, not a Google requirement: rewrite the titles of your five best sellers so they contain the word buyers really type, not a word from the supplier’s price list. It is an evening’s work.
3. The title must match the page
The help requires the title to describe the product you send shoppers to, though it need not repeat the page wording exactly. A person clicks an ad for a black 45 mm watch and lands on a page headed “Garmin watch” with three colours to choose from. They cannot tell whether it is the same product. For other mismatches between feed and shop, such as price and language, see our article “How to Avoid a Merchant Center Ban: 9 Checks”.
The check is simple: open the product page next to its line in the feed (the file Merchant Center takes its data from). Do they describe the same thing? If the feed says “black, 45 mm” and the link opens another colour, fix the feed or the link.
4. No advertising, no capital letters
This rule is broken most often, because it looks harmless. Per the help, a title should carry no promotional text: prices, discounts, sale dates, shipping details. That data goes in separate attributes. The help also lists the company name among things to leave out. So “Winter jacket -30%, delivery tomorrow, MegaShop” should shrink to “Men’s winter jacket, size L, black”.
Capital letters for emphasis are not welcome either; the exceptions are acronyms, country names and currency codes. So “USB” or “LED” is fine, while “NEW” and “BESTSELLER” is not. From the same page: no extra spaces, HTML tags or decorative symbols, and use correct, professional language. It sounds trivial, but in a catalogue of several hundred items filled in by different people, such slips are common.
5. A barcode in the feed
A GTIN is a Global Trade Item Number, the digits under a barcode. The help defines it as “a unique and internationally recognized identifier for a product” and says to submit it “to help us classify and display your products”.
Now, honestly, about the limits. The help does not promise that a barcode lifts sales, and neither do we. It only explains why Google wants the number. You will find it by the barcode on the product, its packaging or a book cover; if you cannot, ask the manufacturer. For Europe the typical format is 13 digits: “EAN (in Europe / GTIN-13): 13-digit number”. The help reminds you: “Keep in mind that not all products have a GTIN”, so goods you make yourself may have none. If a third party finds GTINs for you, the help says to verify its legitimacy. Do not invent digits yourself.
What to do in one evening
- Open your product file and pick the ten best-selling items.
- Read only the first 70 characters of each title. Is it clear what the item is, its brand and model?
- Remove “sale”, “discount”, “free”, the shop name and words in capitals.
- Compare each title with the heading of the product page.
- Add barcodes where they are on the box.
Change a title where it is really weak. Anyone who rewrites everything at once without checking risks losing familiar positions. So start with ten products, see what happened to their impressions over a few weeks, and only then fix the rest. That is our practice, not a Google rule.
Summary
A title is not decoration; it is what Google uses to decide who sees the product. The rules are simple: the point in the first 70 characters, the buyer’s words, a match with the page, no advertising or capitals, a barcode if there is one. Why else a product may not show, we covered in “Google Will Stop Showing Products With Small Photos From Jan 31”. How we run product campaigns is on the pages about Google Shopping and Merchant Center.
Not sure shoppers will find your product? Want a free audit of your Google Ads account? Send us a request — we will look at your account and tell you what is going on with the titles.