The product name is probably the most important single element of a website product. Unlike in a physical store, where a customer sees both the product’s name and the boxed product at the same time, in most online situations, the product name is the primary element that leads a user to the product.
Global search engines (google, etc) and local search engines (searching within a site) rely heavily on the words within a product’s name (aka title) in order to match a customer’s search with the product they are looking for. Your product will have a much better chance of being seen by the customer if you use precise, specific long-tail keywords when naming your product.
For example, this toddler’s push toy from Hape can do fine on the store shelf when named simply, “Rainbow”, because the package illustration immediately tells the rest of the story to the shopper. But online, if the product’s name is only “Rainbow”, it is much less likely to be found by customers using search tools.
Something like “Toddler’s Natural Wooden Push Toy in Rainbow Colors” is a much more precise, keyword rich title. The product title now contains most of the common keywords that customers would be using when looking for such an item.
Other notes:
- The first 65 characters of the title are the most important & should be able to stand alone. Characters beyond that will likely get truncated by Google and cart display pages. Here’s a simple tool to test title length.
- Do not simply flood a title with all the relevant keywords you can think of for your product. The name also needs to read correctly as a product.
- Depending on the strength of your brand, you may also want to include the brand name in the product name. eg: “Hape Natural Wooden Toddler Push Toy in Rainbow Colors”
- Avoid special characters such as ®, ™ or ½ unless absolutely needed. Special characters tend to present problems when translated between systems, and may end up simply making your title look odd.