How to write SEO titles for products and categories

In most stores, product SEO titles are either empty or a copy of the product name: “GREY DUVET SET TK-2201”, “Product 1453” or the supplier's stock code. Yet when ten stores selling the same product are listed on Google, this title is the first line people read, and the first place they see whether a result is the product they want.

This guide covers the rules for SEO titles, formulas for product and category pages, why Google sometimes rewrites titles and how to do all of this across hundreds of pages. For the two lines under the title, see the meta description guide.

What an SEO title is, and how it differs from the product name

The SEO title is the <title> tag in a page's HTML. Visitors don't see it on the page itself; they see it in the browser tab and as the clickable headline on Google. Google generates that title link completely automatically, and besides the <title> tag it also looks at the page's main heading (H1), other headings, the og:title tag and the text of links pointing to the page (Google: title links). So the SEO title is your most direct signal, but not the only source.

The product name, on the other hand, is the name shown at the top of the page, as the main heading (H1) in most themes, and it's written for customers. In ideasoft, ikas and Shopify the SEO title is a separate field from the product name, so you can keep the name in your store short and simple and write a more descriptive title for search.

How long should an SEO title be?

According to Google, there's no length limit for the <title> element; the title in search results is truncated as needed, typically to fit the device width (Google). The cut depends on the width the text takes up on screen, not on a character count: wide letters such as “W” and “M” and words in all caps take more room. So of two titles with the same number of characters, one can be cut off while the other shows in full.

Roigo's SEO score checks three things in a title: whether there is one, whether it's 30–60 characters long and whether it contains the item's name (its first meaningful word). Roigo AI writes titles of 50–60 characters, so they're likely to show in full without wasting space.

Main keyword first: the order of a title

The main keyword is the phrase a searcher would type, usually the product type itself. Google suggests thinking about the words a user might search for, and points out that different people use different words for the same thing (Google SEO Starter Guide). In e-commerce that's the question of “sneakers” versus “trainers”, or “water bottle” versus “drinks bottle”: the word your customers use goes first. Build the title in this order:

1. Main keyword: the phrase a searcher would type, meaning the product type plus any word that qualifies it: “Bamboo Duvet Cover Set”, “Men's Running Shoes”. Keep the searched phrase together rather than splitting it up.
2. Distinguishing detail: model, size, capacity or use: “Double”, “750 ml”, “Lightweight Sole”.
3. Variant: if a color or size has its own page, put the difference here: “Light Grey”, “Size 9”.
4. Brand or store name: at the very end if there's room, after a separator such as “ | ”.

Google suggests adding your site name at the beginning or end of titles, separated by a delimiter such as a hyphen, colon or pipe (Google). In e-commerce, putting the store name at the end keeps the main keyword first. The product's brand is a different matter: if people search for the product by its brand, the brand can sit right next to the main keyword, near the start. If Google already shows your site name separately in the result, it may drop the store name from the end of the title link; that's not an error.

Title formulas for product and category pages

A formula gets you past the blank page, but if only one word changes from page to page, it turns into the repeated boilerplate Google warns about. Fill in the gaps with each page's real details. The examples come from imaginary stores:

The difference between product and category titles is scope. A product title describes one model; a category title describes the whole range. A word like “styles” or a phrase that sets the scope (“Cotton and Bamboo”) tells the searcher they'll find a selection. Leave product counts and “from” prices out of category titles: both change, and the title goes stale. For a detailed category example, see the ikas category guide.

Common mistakes: weak and strong titles

Google's guide to helpful content says a title should give a descriptive, helpful summary of the content and avoid exaggerating or being shocking (Google: helpful content). Here are the three mistakes stores make most often, and how to fix them:

Why Google rewrites your title

Google generates title links completely automatically and doesn't edit them by hand for individual sites (Google). It does list the common situations in which it doesn't use the <title> element; these are the ones you'll see most in e-commerce:

• Half-empty titles: part of the text is missing, such as a title that's just “| Sample Home”.
• Obsolete titles: last year's campaign or date is still in the title.
• Inaccurate titles: the title describes something other than the product on the page.
• Repeated boilerplate: hundreds of products share the same long pattern, with only one word changing.
• Language mismatch: the page is in one language and the title in another.

Before you publish, check each title against these points:

• The title starts with the phrase a searcher would type.
• It's 50–60 characters, with the most important information first.
• The product or category name appears in it.
• No other page on the site has the same title.
• Nothing that will change, such as a price, discount, stock level or year.
• No all caps, strings of exclamation marks, emoji or quotation marks.
• The store name is at the end and appears only once.

Writing titles for hundreds of pages

Writing titles for twenty products by hand takes an hour; for a thousand, it takes days. There are two options: build formulas per product type and add each page's details by hand, or let AI write the first draft and check it. Titles mass-produced from a formula easily turn into repeated boilerplate, so whichever route you take, every title has to carry that page's own details.

In Roigo, SEO Studio handles it like this:

1. Connect your ideasoft, ikas or Shopify store, or upload your products with Excel on any other platform. Products, categories and (on ideasoft and Shopify) blog posts come in with their current SEO titles.
2. Select items one by one or in bulk and choose Write with Roigo AI. Roigo AI writes 50–60 character titles with the main keyword first and, where it fits, your brand or store name at the end. It doesn't use emoji, all caps, quotation marks or unprovable claims like “the best”, and it never mentions a promotion it wasn't given.
3. Review the drafts on the review screen with a Google preview and the SEO score; compare them with the current titles, edit if needed and approve.
4. What you approve is written to your store: only the SEO fields that changed are sent, and they're read back afterwards to verify them. If you work with Excel, you download the approved content as a file.

The same job also writes the meta description and page copy: one AI credit covers a product's or category's title, meta description and copy together (for the copy, see the product description guide). The Free plan includes a one-time 50, Pro 300 a month and Business 1,500 a month (compare plans). See how it works on the SEO Studio page.