Google Merchant Center has added support to Google shopping feeds for a short title attribute. You can use the short title [short_title] attribute to briefly and clearly identify the product you're selling, Google said.
Google explained that this is in contrast to the title [title] attribute, "the value you submit for the short title [short_title] attribute should be concise and will only be used in browsy contexts, such as Discovery campaigns or Shopping ads on Gmail."
Google has a new help document on short titles that goes over the requirements and best practices:
Requirements:
- Use a relevant short title that clearly describes your product.
- Be concise. While the title [title] attribute is used to match a consumer's search to your products, the short title [short_title] is intended to show your product more concisely in browsy experiences.
- Describe the product shown on your landing page. Make sure the short title [short_title] describes the product you’re linking to. While the short titles you provide for products in your product data don’t always need to be identical to the content on your landing pages, they should refer to the same product.
- Use professional and grammatically correct language. Correct grammar is easy to understand and gives a professional appearance, which can lead to more clicks. Also avoid gimmicky ways of drawing attention such as including all caps, symbols, HTML tags, and promotional text. Learn more about the editorial and professional requirements
- Don’t use words from foreign languages unless they’re well understood, such as a product with a foreign name.
- Don’t use capital letters for emphasis. Capitalized text is common in spam and untrustworthy ads. You should still use capitalization when it’s appropriate, including for abbreviations, phone numbers, countries, and currency. For example, "ADHD", "UNICEF", "1-555-CALL-NOW", "UK", and "USD".
- Don’t include promotional text. Don’t add information such as price, sale price, sale dates, shipping, delivery date, other time-related information, or your company’s name. Include this information with the other attributes such as sale price [sale_price] or shipping [shipping].
- Don’t use extra white spaces. Instead, use those characters in a more effective way to describe your product.
Best Practices:
- Limit your short titles to 65 or fewer characters. Users usually only see the first 65 characters of a short title, depending on their screen size.
- Put the most important details first. Users don’t always read the entire title, especially in browsy experiences, where they are scrolling quickly. Be concise.
- Add the brand name if it’s a differentiating factor. If you sell products from many different brands and the product's brand is a differentiating characteristic of the product, add the brand name to the product title so that users can understand who makes the product you are selling.
I spotted this via Kirk Williams on Twitter, who spotted it via Emmanuel Flossie.
🚨Google Shopping now has a “short title” feed attribute for placements with limited title space. A welcomed addition! https://t.co/xLDNRooTgo #ppcchat (HT: Emmanuel Flossie on LinkedIn) pic.twitter.com/Gx69gPTXeu
— Kirk Williams 🚴 (@PPCKirk) February 17, 2022
Forum discussion at Twitter.
