Amazon Listing Titles
If there was ever a time to get creative with your Amazon Listing Titles, it’s now! Amazon announced that ASINs would be suppressed from Amazon Search Algorithm whose titles do not comply with Amazon’s product title requirements. This is to take effect next month on July 22. However, they are urging sellers to do any revamping before July 15, to verify current titles meet their guidelines. So, in case you missed the latest news:
Starting July 22, 2019, Amazon will suppress ASINs from Amazon Search whose titles do not comply with Amazon’s product title requirements. This is because our research shows that the ASIN titles that violate our policies result in poor customer experience. Please review Amazon’s FBA Product Title Requirements prior to July 15, 2019 to verify that your current titles meet our guidelines.
Makes me wonder… is this a coincidence they want updates made by the same-day Amazon Prime Day begins?
What This Means for Sellers
The announcement has Brands and Private Label sellers in a flurry. However, this comes as no surprise considering how heavily keywords are weighted when located in product titles to achieve organic rank. Amazon restricting Title Listing limits from 200 to 50 characters doesn’t give sellers much to work with. Let me put this “general rule” into context for you….
———–> This is 50 characters How Why What Who Can do this <————
Amazon also states that the product title for an ASIN must be in a consistent format and contain the correct information. For Example:
[Brand] + [Feature] + [Product Type] + [Model Number] + [Size] + [package count] + [Color] + [Scent] + [Flavor]
What this Means for Brands
For some sellers, it may be tricky restricting titles to only 50 characters. This is especially true if they require the brand name in the title. An example here for the statistic lovers. If an average brand name is comprised of 17 characters, it takes up approximately 30% of the Listing Title. As if this wasn’t bad enough, Amazon’s guidelines want you to include the size of your products while discouraging the use of abbreviations, like ‘g’ for gram or oz. for ounce.
If you think you can get around this by using symbols in your title, think again. Symbols are also a ‘no go’ in Listing Titles.
Congratulations! You curated the perfect 50 character Listing Title. Now what? Are your product labels an exact match to your product title? If not, your inventory may be refused at Amazon fulfillment centers or received as Unfulfillable. For many sellers, they will not be able to “Pass Go” and collect $200.
What We Know So Far
In true Amazon fashion, they haven’t given us much to go on. For now, all we know is what’s been stated in the initial announcement, and the announcement on the Product Title Requirement
Page. With the new Amazon Suppressed Search ASINs, it’s unclear at this stage how or even if sellers will be notified of any listing violations.
It is safe to say Amazon is cracking the whip big time on titles and sellers have no option but to abide and get creative. But with creativity, what happens to those pesky third party-sellers? Will more and more third-party sellers pop up with faux three-letter “brand names” and steal your precious buy-box? This is a huge deal if sellers aren’t paying attention, and it all kicks in right after Prime week when (if you have a strong Prime Day strategy) you’re supposed to gain sales velocity!
Quick Tips on Amazon Listing Titles’ Guidelines
If you’re an Envision Horizons client, you can rest assured your Account Managers are on it! If you’re not yet a client and are amongst the thousands of other sellers scrambling with the new rules, here are some quick tips:
- Make sure your bullet points & descriptions are keyword optimized for optimal searching
- Choose a keyword/search term that best describes your product and ranks well for your title. You may only have room for one so choose well.
- Ensure your title does not exceed 50 characters and follows Guidelines for your particular category and is in the correct format
- Ensure that your product labels are the same as your title
With these sudden and scary implementations, we have to look at the big picture. Amazon is taking steps to filter the good listings from the bad listings in an attempt to improve the customer experience.
