The 150 Characters that Help Buyers Find Your Products
When a buyer searches a distributor’s website for a screwdriver, the product title is usually the first thing the customer reads. If it says “SCRDRV INS PH2 6,” they buyer has to guess. If it says “ABC Company Insulated Screwdriver, #2 Phillips Tip, 6 in. Round Shank,” it’s clear what the product is and how it differs from the one listed next to it.
A clear product title helps the right product show up in search, stand apart from the rest of its product family, and earn the click. IDEA Connector has a dedicated field for it: the e-commerce product title.
Here’s how to make the most of this field.
Start with a simple structure
A good e-commerce title lists the most important attributes first, so a buyer can tell one product from similar ones at a glance.
Most product titles work well with this order:
Brand or Sub-brand + Product Type + Key Differentiating Attributes
Example using the screwdriver from earlier: ABC Company Insulated Screwdriver, #2 Phillips Tip, 6 in. Round Shank.
The brand and product type tell the customer what they’re looking at. The attributes tell them which one.
Five habits that make titles work
Use the words your customers use
Spell out the product type. Acronyms, internal shorthand and product codes make sense to your own team, but customers don’t search that way. If a product code is the only description in the title, the title isn’t doing its job. You can also add other languages as Connector supports multiple languages for this field.
Put the important parts first
The brand, product type, and the attributes that matter most belong at the front. Long titles often get cut off in search results and on phone screens, so keep that in mind.
Be specific
Include the attributes that help customers tell similar products apart, such as material, size, rating, configuration or application, where they’re relevant. When two products have near-identical titles, the customer has to open both pages to work out the difference.
Stay consistent
Use the same title structure for every product in a category. Distributors use manufacturers’ content on their own sites, and consistent titles are easier for them to use and maintain.
Keep it clean
Use title case and accurate terminology, and keep the punctuation readable. Leave out promotional claims and don’t repeat keywords. For readability and search performance, aim for 80 to 150 characters.
Loading titles to IDEA Connector
IDEA Connector accepts product titles of up to 200 characters. The extra room above the 150-character guideline is there for multilingual content and translations. Title case is recommended.
Where the title goes depends on how you send your data:
| Format | Field |
|---|---|
| B3 flat file | Text type code NETXEPT |
| XML | <productTitle> tag |
| EDI 832 | PID04 / ID 751 |
Try it on one category first
Pick one product category and write a sample set of titles using the structure above. Read them side by side and check that each one is clear and follows the same pattern. Then load the finished titles to IDEA Connector.
If your team needs help creating, normalizing or loading titles, IDEA Pro Data Services can take it on.
For more information, contact the Pro Data Services team.