Amazon sellers are facing a significant shift in their listing strategies as the platform implements major updates to its product title policy on January 21, 2025. These changes, designed to enhance the customer shopping experience, will impact virtually every seller and could drastically alter how products are displayed and discovered within the Amazon marketplace.
Key Policy Changes:
- Character Limits: The most impactful change is the 200-character limit for most product titles. This strict cap will force sellers to be incredibly concise, prioritizing the most essential information while minimizing less crucial details.
- Special Character Restrictions: The use of special characters like exclamation points (!), question marks (?), and underscores (_) is now severely limited. While some exceptions exist, sellers must carefully review their titles to ensure compliance.
- Word Repetition: One of the most challenging aspects of the new policy is the restriction on word repetition. Titles cannot contain the same word more than twice, with exceptions for common words like "the," "and," and "of." This presents a significant challenge for sellers who rely on keyword stuffing or have product names that naturally include repeated terms.
The Potential Impact:
These changes have the potential to disrupt the Amazon selling landscape in several ways:
- Reduced Visibility: Non-compliant titles may be suppressed in search results, significantly impacting product visibility and discoverability.
- Increased Competition: As sellers scramble to adjust their titles, competition for limited character space and relevant keywords will intensify.
- Manual Work Burden: Updating thousands of ASINs to comply with the new policy will require significant manual effort for many sellers.
What Sellers Can Do:
Proactive action is crucial to minimize the impact of these changes. Sellers should:
- Conduct a Thorough Listing Audit: Immediately begin reviewing their entire product catalog. Identify any titles that exceed the character limit, contain prohibited special characters, or violate the word repetition rule.
- Prioritize Key Information: Determine the most essential information that must be included in each title, such as brand name, product type, key features, and size/color variations.
- Optimize for Conciseness: Re-write titles to be as concise and impactful as possible while still conveying all necessary information.
- Utilize Amazon's Brand Dashboard: Brand owners should leverage the new brand dashboard to review Amazon's suggested title changes and proactively make necessary adjustments.
eGrowth Partners Can Help!
Navigating these complex policy changes can be overwhelming. eGrowth Partners offers expert guidance and support to help Amazon sellers:
- Conduct in-depth listing audits to identify potential issues.
- Develop compliant and effective product titles that maximize visibility and drive sales.
- Optimize listings for the new policy and minimize the risk of negative impacts.
Get Your Free ASIN Title Assessment Today!
Submit your top 3 ASINs for a free evaluation. Our team will assess your current titles for compliance and provide tailored recommendations for improvement.
By partnering with eGrowth Partners, you can ensure your Amazon business is prepared for these critical policy changes and positioned for continued success in the evolving Amazon marketplace.
Common Frequently Asked Questions:
- What impact will it have if we don't update the title?
- If not updated, Amazon will modify the title to remove duplicates, retaining relevant information. This should not significantly affect search traffic. For example, if a title says "Pan Pans", Amazon will remove the duplicate "Pans" but still retain "Pan".
- Are plural and singular versions of a word considered the same and count towards the maximum?
- Yes, plural and singular versions are considered the same and count as duplicates. For example, "Pan" and "Pans" in a title would be considered redundant.
- Does repeating the same word more than twice in a title violate the policy?
- Yes, repeating the same word more than twice in the same context violates the policy. For example, "Baby Girl Pink Baby Girl Shirt" would violate the policy due to the repetition of "Baby Girl".
- Do brand names count towards word duplication? For example, if "Muffin King" is the brand name, can the title be "Muffin King Beginners Kit Includes Chocolate Chip and Banana Nut Muffin Mixes and a 12 Muffin Pan"?
- No, the brand name doesn't count as a duplicate if it appears in a different context. For example, "Muffin King Beginners Kit," where "Muffin" is part of the brand name and appears twice to describe the product (in "Muffin Mixes" and "Muffin Pan"), is allowed.
- Will listings be suppressed if they do not comply with the title requirements?
- No, listings won’t be suppressed. If not updated within 14 days, Amazon will modify the title to comply. You can review Amazon’s suggested title and make your own compliant updates during this period. Even after 14 days, you can still update the title to ensure compliance.
- How does Amazon handle titles with the same word used for brand and product?
- If the word is used in different contexts (e.g., brand name and product type), it is not considered duplicate (e.g., "The Bean Coffee" and "Whole Coffee Beans").
- What if the word "And" is repeated more than twice?
- Prepositions, articles, and conjunctions like "and" are not counted towards the duplicate word limit and will not be flagged.
- Does this new policy apply to all Amazon markets - including CA, AU, UK and EU?
- Yes, this policy applies to all regions.
- Will "_" be allowed if it part of a SKU?
- Our partner team confirmed that underscores "_" are allowed in the titles. For example: model name/number can have a valid use for underscores.
- Will there be an easy to use tool to find and change titles that are non-compliant? Or do we have to manually go through all of our SKUs and see which ones are and are not
- You will be able to view any policy-violating titles directly in Manage all inventory. Additionally, intellectual property owners will be able to see these titles in Review listing updates.
- Are certain special characters not allowed in titles?
- In addition to !, $, ?, _, {, }, ^, ¬, and ¦, the following characters are also not allowed: ~, <, >, ;.
- Regular brackets are ok, & character is ok, Hyphen (-) is ok
- Are hyphens, colons, and brackets allowed in titles?
- Yes, hyphens, colons, and regular brackets are allowed. For example, "Sportswear - Running Shoes" or "Kitchenware: Cookware Set (5 pcs)" would comply with the policy.
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