Amazon Cleans up Confusing Title Policies: Changes Underway

If you’ve known me for long, you understand there are a couple of things pertaining to my views about Amazon. One big irritation is their ultra-confusing (and often contradictory) policies on title (product name) character counts. I’m now absolutely elated to announce that changes are under way to help clarify this part of the Amazon product detail page.

Working Personally With Amazon to Help the Cause

For about one year, I’ve been campaigning to have Amazon clean up their actual title policy and how they explain the policy across different platforms within Seller Central. (Apparently, I’m not the only one who has had issues with this.) Thanks to seller feedback, Amazon is now in the process of changing:

• Style guides
• Web pages in Seller Central
• Add A Product area of Seller Central
• Flat files used for uploads

In fact, just yesterday I received an update from Seller Central Rep Peter (last name withheld), stating:

“The word I have received from our Seller help page editorial team has been encouraging and they have acknowledged that they are aware of the issue and are making the changes to the help pages, style guides and the feed templates as soon as possible. Many have been corrected and the rest are in the process of being modified as well.

“I am happy to inform you that the help pages you forwarded have been updated with the correct title specifications.”

<“Hallelujah Chorus” plays loudly in the background!>

I am so excited, I can’t stand it!

But, before I get too carried away, let me step back and explain what the issues were and why they needed to be fixed.

Conflicting Information Throughout Amazon’s Documentation

Let me give you one example of where the confusion lies. In the Amazon Style Guide for the Home / Garden category (which includes pets, kitchen, etc.), you would see a title limit of 100 characters. However, many sellers (depending on the age and other factors of their accounts) would log into Add A Product and see this notice below the product name field, stating 250 characters:
This past July, Amazon sent out an email stating that their maximum character count would be 200 for every category and that violators would have their listings suppressed. They reinforced that by creating a Quick Start Guide that also echoed the 200-character title max. Still different information is found in the inventory flat file templates, which state that the maximum is 500 characters.

It’s the same with other categories. Consumer Electronics, for instance, shows a character count of 150 characters in the Style Guide, but 200 characters on the Seller Central site .

Why “Maximum” Doesn’t Mean “Allowed”

The confusion for most sellers comes when they assume “maximum” equals “this is how many characters you can use legally in your title.” It doesn’t.

Amazon’s prior definition of the word “maximum” (when it comes to character counts for titles) is a logistical number: the number of characters the field will physically hold. The number was not meant to give you permission to use that many characters in your titles. Why they set it up this way to begin with is beyond me, but they did. If you don’t want someone to use more than 50 characters for a title in the Beauty category, why allow space to hold 500 characters? (A question for which we may never find the answer — a mystery for the ages.)

Where Do We Stand & What Should You Do?

Amazon does constant research based on listings that shoppers click on and actually buy from. They strongly recommend shorter titles (under 80 characters), but this is indeed a recommendation and not — in most cases — a hard-and-fast requirement, according to my contact at Seller Central. One exception to this is Apparel, where they are extremely strict about the 80-character maximum.

The powers that be are in the process of changing wording in style guides and on web pages within Seller Central to state what Amazon recommends and also what you can legally use if you choose to stretch beyond Amazon’s suggestion. More and more, you’ll begin to see information such as this from the general FBA listing requirements page:

And here are the Don’ts from that same page:

Has everything been correct? No, not by a long shot. Amazon still has a long way to go, but you will start seeing changes immediately.

Amazon will hold you accountable to the Style Guide as the final authority when it comes to title character counts. Eventually, the style guides will be changed to reflect Amazon’s preference and the 200-character maximum, but until then, you still stand the risk of having your title rejected by Amazon if you go longer. (Yes, I know … they say one thing and … They are working to fix it.)

How You Can Help Clear Up the Mess

If you see pages in Seller Central that show a title character count of less than 200 and do not offer any other information, leave the URL in the comments / reply section below and I’ll pass it on to Amazon.

In the meantime, test your titles. Try shorter ones and longer ones (not to exceed 200 characters) and see which one improves your conversions the most. Because Amazon is watching, you’ll be indirectly helping to guide their investigation and show them firsthand which title lengths sell better.

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