Google Shopping product titles: a pattern, examples and tidy names in PrestaShop
Google Shopping product titles usually come straight from your PrestaShop product names, because the feed module copies them to Merchant Center. A good name follows a fixed pattern: brand, product type, model and main feature, sometimes size or colour. No capitals, supplier codes or promotional additions. Standardising names in the store also improves the store search.
Author: The TellMyShop team. A guide for PrestaShop store owners: the cause, the manual fix and the same work in a chat conversation.
Last updated: · 5 min read
Where does Google Shopping get product names from?
From the feed, the file listing your products that a module in your store generates. The module takes the name from the PrestaShop product page, sometimes adding the brand or combination attributes. Merchant Center shows this name as the title in ads and free product listings. Google describes the requirements in its help on the title attribute.
The same name ends up in three more places. It's the heading of the product page. It becomes the page title in Google if the product has no separate meta title. And it carries the most weight in the store search next to the product reference, which we cover in the post PrestaShop search not working. So one fix to names works in many places at once.
Which product naming pattern suits your sector?
One that answers the customer's question in the first few words. Google gives example patterns for several product groups. From these you can build a simple pattern for each store category.
| Sector | Name pattern | Before | After |
|---|---|---|---|
| Workwear | brand + type + material + feature | GLOVES RG-100 LEATHER HIT | Kret RG-100 leather work gloves, reinforced palm |
| Lighting | type + model + power source + size | Kula 20 LS-220 | Kula solar lamp 20 cm, LED, IP44 |
| Furniture | type + model + material + size | Lund grey velvet 3s | Lund 3-seater sofa, velvet, grey, 210 cm |
| Decorations | type + model + colour + size | NORA black SALE | Nora metal lantern, black, 30 cm |
You set the pattern once for a category and apply it to all its products. The key words go first, because results often show only the first few. Add size and colour when the item is a separate product rather than a combination. Many feed modules name combinations themselves by adding the attribute values.
Which naming mistakes to avoid
The ones Google lists as reasons for weaker display or rejection.
- Capitals for emphasis. “WORK GLOVES” looks like shouting and is sometimes rejected.
- Promotional additions. “SALE”, “free delivery”, “hit” belong in other fields, not the name.
- Supplier codes instead of the product type. “LS-220-B” tells the customer nothing. Keep the code in the reference field.
- No product type. “Nora 30 cm” without the word “lantern” doesn't answer the customer's search.
- The same name for several products. Duplicate names make it harder for Google to tell pages apart.
- Keyword stuffing. Five synonyms in one name read badly and look like spam.
The full list of feed fields and their rules is in the product data specification. Delante describes how incorrect titles lead to rejections in Merchant Center (in Polish). The general rules for titles in Google Search are in the guide to title links.
How to build a naming pattern for your category
Take the five best-selling products in the category and write their names one under another. You'll see which information repeats in each and what's missing. That's the skeleton of the pattern. Then answer three questions:
- What word does the customer use to search for this product in Google? That word must be in the name.
- Does the customer know the brand and search by it? If so, the brand goes first.
- Which feature most often decides the purchase? Material, power, size or capacity.
Write the pattern in one sentence, for example “product type, brand, model, material, size”. The same note helps when adding new products, including by someone who doesn't know the store's history. Without a pattern, names drift apart after every import.
How to standardise names across a whole category
First a review, then the pattern, and finally the change in batches. Changing names in the admin means opening product after product. Importing a CSV file is faster, but you have to prepare the names in a spreadsheet and keep an eye on the IDs.
In a conversation with your chat (Claude or ChatGPT) and the TellMyShop module, you give the pattern, and the chat reads the products in the category, their features and descriptions. It suggests new names and shows them next to the old ones. One batch covers up to 50 products in one language.
You: Standardise the names in Work gloves: brand + model + material + main feature. No capitals and no supplier codes.
Your chat: The category has 46 products, and 31 don't match the pattern. Preview of the first two:
Product URLs won't change. 3 products have no brand in their data; I'm leaving them for you to decide.
You: Save the 28, show me those three separately.
Your chat: Saved. You can undo the batch from the change history. Your feed module will pick up the new names at its next update.
Card status: waiting for your “yes”old version: GLOVES RG-100 LEATHER HIT
new version: Kret RG-100 leather work gloves, reinforced palm
old version: gloves nitrile 4410 pk.12
new version: Kret 4410 nitrile work gloves, pack of 12 pairs
Checking for duplicate and empty names works in TellMyShop Free, without saving. TellMyShop Pro saves the new names, each batch after a preview. The request is ready in the use case standardising product names for Google Shopping. If you want to improve descriptions along with the names, read the post on bulk editing descriptions. Prices are on the pricing page.
What the chat won't do for Google Shopping
It won't build or send the feed. TellMyShop doesn't connect to Merchant Center and doesn't change the feed module's settings. Nor will it fix rejections due to price, availability or GTIN when the problem lies in the feed module. It changes names, descriptions and features in PrestaShop, and your feed module does the rest at its next update.
Questions and answers
How many characters can a Google Shopping product title have?
Google Merchant Center accepts titles up to 150 characters. In ads and free listings, though, often only the start is visible, depending on placement and device. So put the key words, the brand, product type and main feature, at the start of the name. Add the rest after, or move it to the description.
Can I have one name in the store and another in Google Shopping?
Yes, if your feed module allows it. Some modules have a separate feed title field or rules that add the brand and features. It's simpler, though, to have one good name in the store, because the same name also goes to the store search, the page title and price comparison sites.
Are names in capital letters a problem?
Yes. Google's rules for product titles advise against capitals for emphasis and promotional additions such as “SALE” or “free delivery”. Such a title may be rejected or shown less well. In the store, capitals also make the product list harder to read and look like shouting.
Will TellMyShop send the names to Merchant Center?
No. TellMyShop doesn't create feeds and doesn't connect to Merchant Center. It changes product names in PrestaShop, and your feed module picks them up at its next update. Check in the module how often it refreshes the feed, and after changing names look in Merchant Center to see whether the products passed review.
Will changing the name change the product URL?
Not when you change the name through the chat. Saving the name doesn't touch the friendly URL, so the product page keeps its positions in Google. In the admin it depends on settings: for new products PrestaShop builds the URL from the name, and for existing ones it usually keeps the old one. Check a few URLs after the change.
PrestaShop is a registered trademark of PrestaShop SA. Claude is a trademark of Anthropic PBC. ChatGPT and OpenAI are trademarks of OpenAI. TellMyShop is not affiliated with these companies.