Product title formulas by category

A title formula is a bet on the words a buyer types. Categories are searched in different shapes: a brake pad is searched by vehicle, a supplement by ingredient and dose, a sofa by seat count and material, a drill by voltage and whether the battery is included. A formula that works for one of these produces a muddle for the others. Below are the formulas we use across the categories we work in most, with the reasoning, so you can adapt them rather than copy them.

The constraints every formula lives inside

Whatever the category, four things hold:

• The words that appear in queries go first. Placements truncate, and the front of the title carries the matching weight.
• The limit is 150 characters, and a title that needs all of them is usually carrying words that do no work.
• The title describes the product on the landing page. Attributes the page shows are fair game; promotional words, claims and your store name are not.
• Variants of one product differ only by their variant attributes and share an item group ID, so Google shows the matching one rather than five near-duplicates.

With those fixed, the only decision per category is which attributes matter and in what order.

The formulas

Category	Formula	The query it mirrors
Auto parts	Brand + part type + year range + make + model + position + part number	“front brake pads 2018 civic”
Supplements	Brand + ingredient or product + strength + form + count + flavour	“magnesium glycinate 400mg capsules 120”
Furniture	Brand + product type + material + seat count or width + colour	“3 seater linen sofa grey”
Jewellery	Metal + stone and carat + product type + style + size	“14k gold 1ct lab diamond solitaire ring”
Pet food	Brand + recipe + life stage + breed size + wet or dry + weight	“grain free salmon adult small breed dry dog food 5kg”
Tools and hardware	Brand + tool type + voltage or power + model number + kit contents	“18v brushless drill driver bare tool”
Cosmetics	Brand + line + product type + shade + finish + size	“matte liquid lipstick nude 4ml”
Cookware	Brand + product type + material + size or capacity + set count	“stainless steel frying pan 28cm”
Cycling parts	Brand + component + standard or compatibility + size + speed count	“12 speed cassette 10-51t”
Toys	Brand + set name + theme + piece count + age range	“building set castle 800 pieces ages 8+”

Each formula is a starting point. The right test is to read your own search terms report and confirm that the first three attributes are the ones buyers actually use.

Auto parts: fitment is the query

Nobody searches for a part without a vehicle attached. Year, make and model belong in the title, in that order, because that is the order they are typed. Position matters for anything sold per axle or per side. Part numbers earn their place at the end: buyers who already know the OEM number search by it, and it costs nothing to include. Universal parts should say so, or they will match fitment queries they cannot satisfy and collect clicks that bounce.

The catch is that one part fits many vehicles, and one title cannot hold them all. Pick the highest-volume fitment for the title, keep the full fitment list on the page, and consider separate fitment pages on the site so organic search covers the rest. The automotive hub goes into how the feed and the site divide that work.

Supplements: strength and count decide the click

The buyer has usually decided on the ingredient before searching, so the ingredient leads unless the brand is what they are looking for. Strength and form come next, because “500mg tablets” and “250mg gummies” are different purchases at different prices. Count goes after, and it is what makes two listings comparable in the results.

Titles in this category also carry policy risk. Health claims, disease references and words that imply an outcome have no place in the title, and the healthcare rules for Shopping apply to the title as much as the page. The health and wellness hub covers what those rules mean for the catalog as a whole.

Furniture: measurements replace adjectives

A sofa buyer filters by how many people it seats and whether it fits the wall. Words like “modern” and “cosy” appear on the page, and they do not appear in queries. Material, seat count or width, and colour give a title that matches the way the category is searched and the way it is filtered. Where a product is sold by dimension, put the dimension in the unit the market uses, and give every size variant its own title so the size query lands on the size that exists. The home and furniture hub has more on dimension attributes across the feed.

Jewellery: the material is the product

For fine jewellery the metal and the stone are the purchase; the type of piece comes after. Carat, cut and certification words belong in the title where the page shows them. For fashion jewellery the order flips, because the buyer is searching for a style at a price rather than a specification. Size matters for rings and chains and should be a variant, not a list inside one title.

Pet food: life stage and format are non-negotiable

The buyer’s dog is an adult, a puppy or a senior, and the product is wet or dry. Miss either and the title will match queries it does not satisfy. Weight is the comparable unit and should come last. Recipe or protein sits early because “salmon” and “chicken” are separate searches with separate intent.

Variants: one title each, joined by the group

A product in four colours and six sizes is twenty-four items in the feed, each with a title that names its own colour and size. Putting “available in 4 colours” in a single title is the failure we see most often, because Google cannot match a specific colour query to it. Each variant title differs only in the variant attributes; the group ID ties them together; the color and size attributes carry the same values as the title. How Shopping handles variants covers the display side.

What to keep out

• Promotional words such as sale, free shipping, best or cheap.
• Capital letters for emphasis and symbols for decoration.
• Your store name, unless it is also the brand on the product.
• Words not on the landing page, however well they might match.
• The same word twice, which happens when brand and product name both contain it.
• Long lists of compatible models; use a fitment attribute or the page for those.

A field-by-field source map

Each part of a formula has to come from somewhere, and it is worth writing the source down before building rules:

Title part	Where it lives on most stores
Brand	Vendor field or brand attribute
Product type	Your own taxonomy, submitted as product_type
Colour, size, material	Variant options or metafields
Strength, voltage, capacity	Specification fields, often only in the description
Model or part number	MPN or SKU field
Count, weight, pack size	Variant option or a unit pricing attribute

Where a value is only in the description, it needs extracting into an attribute first. The feed title optimization work is mostly this extraction, followed by rules that assemble the title in the chosen order. The product feed title builder will draft the pattern for your category from the fields you already have.

Testing a formula on twenty products

Choose twenty products in one category with steady impressions. Note the queries they currently match from the search terms report. Rewrite the titles to the formula, wait three weeks, and read the same report. A formula that works shows new query matches on the attributes you moved forward, and clicks per impression holding or improving. If the matches broaden but clicks fall, the title is promising something the results page does not confirm, usually price or a missing attribute image. Adjust and run the next twenty. The general principles of what makes a good title apply to every category; the formulas above are how those principles land in each one.

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Sources

• Google Merchant Center Help: Title [title]
• Google Merchant Center Help: Item group ID [item_group_id]
• Google Merchant Center Help: Product data specification