Merchant Center warns that a title has been truncated when it exceeds 150 characters; Google cuts it to fit rather than disapproving the product. Shorten the title and put the most important details first: product name, brand, then the attribute that distinguishes this variant.
| Shown in Merchant Center as | Title truncated |
|---|---|
| Attribute | title |
| Effect | Warning |
| Where to find it | Products → Needs attention, then filter by this issue |
| Free check | Reported by the free feed check |
What Merchant Center means by “Title truncated”
The title specification allows 1 to 150 characters and says what happens beyond that: “If your title doesn’t fit within the maximum character limit, Google will truncate it to fit. You’ll receive a warning indicating that the title has been truncated.” The product is not disapproved; it runs with the first 150 characters as its title.
The problem is what gets cut. Over-long titles are usually built by concatenation, and the concatenation puts the variant’s colour, size or model at the end, after the category, the material and the marketing phrase. Those are the words a shopper types. Google says users usually notice only the first 70 or fewer characters of a title, depending on screen size.
Why it happens
- Concatenated templates. Product name + every option value + category + brand, assembled by the export.
- Specification sheets as titles: dimensions, materials and compatibility lists in the name.
- Keyword stuffing from a storefront SEO habit.
- Variation titles that append each attribute value to the parent product name.
How to fix it
In Shopify
Shopify titles are usually short; the length comes from feed tools that append option names. Use a template of the form brand · product · distinguishing attribute, put the attribute shoppers search for first (colour and size for apparel, model and capacity for electronics), and drop the category. Keep the title under 150 and the important words in the first 70.
In WooCommerce
Our free connector sends a variation’s title as the product name and its attribute values, such as “Hoodie - Blue, Large”, cut to 150 characters or fewer, so the attributes at the end are the first words lost: shorten the product name and reduce the attributes used for variations to the ones that matter.
In a CSV or XML feed
Cut titles to 150 characters at a word boundary, after reordering so the distinguishing words come first; cutting first and reordering second loses the words you were trying to keep. Do not append an ellipsis, which spends three characters and tells the shopper nothing. Check the Needs attention CSV to see which ids Google truncated and by how much.
How long until Merchant Center clears it
Upload the shortened titles, then check that the warning is no longer listed on the Needs attention page. Google’s help page for “Text too long” says the change may take some time to show there.
What FeedRobin does about it
The free check counts titles over Google’s 150-character limit and shows up to two of them before and after: the title shortened to 150 characters or fewer, as the Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and Custom XML feeds we serve send it. Removing promotional text is a separate suggestion; the feeds keep it unless it falls after the cut. A title template can put brand, product and the key attribute at the start of the title.
Questions merchants ask
How much of the title does a shopper actually see?
Far less than 150 characters. Google says users usually notice only the first 70 or fewer characters of a title, depending on screen size. Anything after that is for matching searches, not for reading. Put the words a shopper searches for in the first 70.
Why are my titles so long in the first place?
An export template that joins the product name, every variant option and the category makes titles longer, and so does a variation title that appends each attribute value to the product name.
Does truncation hurt performance?
Google’s title specification says the title is used to match your product to a customer’s search, and that a title over 150 characters is truncated to fit. Words after the cut are not in the title Google uses, so put the colour, size or model before it.
Sources
- Title [title] and structured title [structured_title] — Google Merchant Center Help
- How to fix: Text too long — Google Merchant Center Help
- Product data specification — Google Merchant Center Help