Google Shopping
Google Shopping SEO: the title, the description and the highlights in your Merchant Center feed
Google Shopping SEO comes down to the product data you send to Google Merchant Center: the title, the description and the product highlights. Google's Merchant Center Help caps the title at 150 characters and the description at 5,000, both plain text. It uses the title to match a product to a search, and it asks for the most important details first, because shoppers usually notice only the first 70 or fewer characters of a title. We read every Google rule on this page on Google's own help pages on 24 October 2026.
Free title preview and SEO score, no card
Google Shopping listing limits at a glance
Title
up to 150 characters
Google Shopping's rule
Search keywords
up to 8, each ≤ 40 characters
Ours: no such field
Product highlights
up to 6, each ≤ 150 characters
Google Shopping's length, our count
Description
up to 5,000 characters; the most important details in the first 160
Google Shopping's rule
Google Shopping's numbers checked against its own pages on 2026-10-24. The ones marked ours are Sellura's budgets, not Google Shopping rules. Sellura generates within all of them automatically.
One rule is new to most sellers. Google asks for titles and descriptions created with generative AI to be sent in separate attributes, structured_title and structured_description, marked as AI-generated. Sellura writes with AI, so that rule covers its text too. Below: how Google matches a product to a search, what each field takes, the AI rule in practice, how Google charges, and what Sellura writes. Sellura is an independent tool and is not affiliated with Google.
How Google matches a product to a search
Google Shopping is not a marketplace with its own shops. It is a feed: you send Google the products from your own store, and Google can show them as free listings on Search, Images, Lens, YouTube, Gemini and the Shopping tab, and in Shopping ads if you pay for them. A shopper who clicks goes to your site to buy. Google's help on free listings says it relies on the data you provide to match your products with what shoppers search for, and that being eligible doesn't guarantee a product is shown.
Google doesn't publish how much each field weighs. Its help does say where the words go: the title is used to match the product to a search, and the product name, the brand and specific details belong in it. "Merino Wool Crew Neck Sweater for Men, Navy, Size M, Machine Washable" is 69 characters and puts the product, the material, who it is for, the colour and the size in the part a shopper notices. There is no keyword field, and Google's highlights page says not to list keywords or search terms.
- Title: 1 to 150 characters, plain text. Google's advice is to use all 150, most important details first. Over 150, Google truncates the title and warns you.
- Description: 1 to 5,000 characters, plain text. The most important details go in the first 160 to 500 characters, since shoppers have to click to read the rest.
- Product highlights: short points of up to 150 characters each, about the product's main features. Google asks for at least 2 and recommends 4 to 6.
- Variants: put what tells them apart, such as the colour or the size, in each variant's title, and send it in its own attribute as well.
- Language: most of your product data has to be in the language of the data source, so write the feed in the language you sell in.
Check a title against Google's 150 characters → · Listing limits for every marketplace, side by side →
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Google's rule for AI-written text, and what it keeps out of a feed
Google's Merchant Center Help says titles created using generative AI go in the structured_title attribute, and descriptions in structured_description, each with digital_source_type set to trained_algorithmic_media and the text in content. In a text feed that reads trained_algorithmic_media:"your title". Google adds one catch: when a product has both title and structured_title, it uses only title. An older text left in title would be the one shoppers see.
We haven't checked how store apps and feed tools send these attributes, so look for structured_title in yours before you paste AI-written text in. Google also says it may rework a title in an ad, moving key attributes forward with content from your landing page. The rules below apply to the title, the description and the highlights alike, and Google's title help says breaking them gets a product disapproved.
- No promotional text: no price, sale, sale dates, shipping, delivery dates or your company's name. Those go in their own attributes.
- No capital letters for emphasis. Abbreviations and brands written in capitals are fine.
- No symbols, HTML tags, foreign characters or extra spaces used to draw the eye.
- In the description: only this product. No comparisons with other products, no links to your store or other sites, no category paths, and nothing about your business or its policies.
- Ours, not Google's: 8 search phrases of up to 40 characters, to work into the title and description. Google has no keyword field, so they never go into the feed as a list.
Shopify product SEO: the page Google ranks in web search → · Cross-listing SEO: one product, a listing per marketplace →
How Google charges for Shopping
Free listings cost nothing. Google's help on free listings says your products can appear at no cost on Google, a new Merchant Center account is opted in to free listings by default, and shoppers are sent to your own site to complete the purchase. Google's help describes no fee on the sale, so there is no fee calculator for Google Shopping here: what an order costs you is set by your store platform and your payment provider.
Shopping ads are the paid part. Google Ads says you're charged only when someone clicks an ad that leads to your site, and it publishes no price per click, since that depends on your campaign and your bids. We read both pages on 24 October 2026.
- Free listings: no cost, on by default for a new Merchant Center account, and not guaranteed to show.
- Shopping ads: paid per click, through a Google Ads campaign that uses your Merchant Center feed.
- The same title and description feed both, so the work on the text counts twice.
- Shipping: Google requires shipping settings or shipping costs in the feed in a list of countries that includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and much of Europe.
WooCommerce SEO: a store platform with no fee on the sale → · Wix product SEO: a store that connects to Merchant Center, and what it pays per order →
What Sellura does
How Sellura writes for Google Merchant Center
- Describe the product once, in a few words or with a photo, and Sellura returns a Google Shopping title inside the 150 characters: the product type, and the brand if you give one, first, then the details a shopper searches and compares, each once, with the most important inside the first 70. No price, sale words, capitals for emphasis or symbols. The title preview and a 0–100 score are free on every generation, no card. The score is deterministic: the same listing always gets the same number, and each weak factor comes with one fix written for that listing.
- A plain-text description inside 5,000 characters whose first 160 say what the product is and its key specifications, 6 product highlights of up to 150 characters, and 8 search phrases of up to 40 characters to work into the text. Six is the top of Google's recommended 4 to 6. The 8 phrases are ours, since Google has no keyword field.
- It never invents a specification, a size, a certification or a compatibility you didn't give, and it never writes a price, a promotion or shipping terms, which Google keeps out of the text and into their own attributes.
- Sellura writes with AI. If you paste its title or description into your feed, Google's rule applies: send it in structured_title or structured_description, with digital_source_type set to trained_algorithmic_media.
- The same product written for Shopify, Amazon and the other marketplaces Sellura supports, each to its own rules.
- Sellura doesn't open store links for Google Shopping, since your product pages sit on your own domain. Paste the title and description into the box above or the free Listing checker for a 0–100 score and the fixes worth making first.
- The finished listing costs 1 credit, and the first unlock is free on a new account. Starter is $15 a month for 25 credits or $150 a year, and Pro is $24 a month for 65 credits plus bulk, or $240 a year. Sellura doesn't connect to Merchant Center, submit feeds, run Shopping ads or track where a product shows, and it has no research database or ads analysis.
Generate a Google Shopping-ready listing in about 60 seconds.
Free title preview and 0–100 SEO score on every generation — no card.
The checker doesn't open store links, since each store sits on its own domain. It opens on Google Shopping with fields for the title and description: copy both from your feed or Merchant Center and paste them in.