Amazon FBA Seller News – June 21st, 2019

Titles using variation relationships

In Variation relationships, only the title of the parent ASIN is shown on the detail page. The title for the selected child ASIN will appear once the ASIN is added to the customer’s cart, so it is important to include the variation attributes (such as size and color) in the title for the child ASIN.

• Example parent: Crocs Beach Clog
• Example child: Crocs Beach Clog, Lime, Medium (Women’s 8-9 M US/Men’s 6-7 M US)

¹See the Variation relationships Help page for more information about parent-child products.

What does it all mean?

There is a lot going on here, so let’s take a look at what this means.

First,instead of titles over-stuffed with keywords, Amazon wants its products to have clearer, more concise titles. Now, most titles must be 200 characters, instead of 250.

And there are many categories whose character limits are much lower than 200, so like Amazon mentions in their guidelines, make sure you’re following the rules specific to your product’s category.

However, for many sellers, this decrease in the title’s character count may not be an issue. For example, here is what Jungle Stix’s current title looks like on Amazon:

At first glance, it seems like a long title, but we’re within the character limit. Using a character counter, I discovered that our title has 190 characters, meaning we won’t have to make any changes in that respect.

Second, with respect to the other guidelines, we’re already adhering to most of those.

We use numerals and have spelled out inch. The only thing we still need to edit is ‘mm’. It’s probably best to spell out millimeter, since it is a measurement. Plus, even with those extra eight letters, our title is still under the 200 character max.

What is the community saying about this?

Naturally, with big changes come big conversations. This past week, Facebook was abuzz with this major change. Interestingly, the majority of sellers were positive about the coming change.

“I think it’s a great idea. Some listings are so long they are unreadable, with irrelevant keyword stuffing.” – Sam B.

“Still not clear if it applies to ALL categories. relevant pages, style guides, etc. have not been updated.” – Barry D.

“As a buyer, I am happy with shortening titles. As a seller I want my buyer to be happy so I will shorten the title.” – Geoff W.

“Good. Clean up the site.” – Cory S.

“I personally think this is a good thing. Some of those titles are obnoxious.” – Bryan C.

“Amazon’s URLs have never conformed to Google’s standards. I have a feeling that Amazon product listings will rank higher with shorter titles.” – Alco B.

Should you be concerned?

Remember, big or small, every seller is affected by this change. So, slimming down the character count of your titles to 200 will not affect your ability to compete in the marketplace, since everyone else has to do it too.

If anything, it will make finding your product in Amazon’s search engine a lot easier.

All in all, this is a big win for Amazon and its sellers.

How to change your product’s titles on Amazon.

To ensure you’re in compliance by July 22nd, log into Amazon Seller Central now and change your titles. The process is simple:

1. Log in to Amazon Seller Central
2. Click Inventory > Manage Inventory
3. Find your product(s)
4. Click Edit
5. Click the Vital Information tab
6. Change your product’s title to 200 characters or less
7. Click Save and Finish
8. Replace any important words stripped from your title into the product listing’s bullet points or description

And that’s it!