Is there a character limit for product names?

[drewsteele]

and if so any way to change this? I have some product names that need to be very descriptive. Currently they are getting cut off and sounding like gibberish...

thx for any help

andy

[CybrHost]

Re: Is there a character limit for product names?

Yes there is. I think its 70 or 80 characters but I can't rememeber it off the top of my head.

You can try increasing the Character limit in the MySQL table if you have phpMyAdmin available.

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Thank you,
Gary Hodder
Support
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CybrHost Corp. - http://www.cybrhost.com/ - [email protected]
+1-866-300-MIVA - Professional Miva & E-Commerce web hosting services.

[wcw]

Re: Is there a character limit for product names?

100 characters. You could use the custom product field in lieu of the name. That field is 254 long.

[Red Flare]

Re: Is there a character limit for product names?

Google base now informs me that they like character length of 70.

[CybrHost]

Re: Is there a character limit for product names?

Google will display up to 66 characters of a title tag, cropping to complete words. For example, the following title is exactly 68 characters, so Google leaves off the last word in the title when displaying the website in its search results:

68-Character Title Tag: Creating Title Tags for Search Engine Optimization and Web Usability
Google Display: Creating Title Tags for Search Engine Optimization and Web ...

Yahoo! has an absolute cutoff in presenting titles of exactly 120 characters, which is substantially longer and gives the webmaster much more room to present longer titles. If your title exceeds 120 characters, the title will simply be cropped, whether the display title ends in a complete word or not. That is quite different from Google, which ends the display title with the last complete word which ended before the 66 character limit was reached.

The W3C - The TITLE element in HTML, states: "The title should ideally be less than 64 characters in length. That is, many applications will display document titles in window titles, menus, etc where there is only limited room." A 64 character limit is a good starting place, but oversimplifies things a bit.

--
Thank you,
Gary Hodder
Support
--
CybrHost Corp. - http://www.cybrhost.com/ - [email protected]
+1-866-300-MIVA - Professional Miva & E-Commerce web hosting services.

[Red Flare]

Re: Is there a character limit for product names?

Thanks Gary,

Do you know if those titles with longer characters tend NOT to be displayed at all? I mean, does google remove them from searches?

tx

[CybrHost]

Re: Is there a character limit for product names?

Anything is possible but I have never heard of a page not being indexed because a page title is too long but I'm also not sure of I would go against googles recommendations for page title lenght either. If your not in google your not on the internet.. lol just kidding, sorta.

--
Thank you,
Gary Hodder
Support
--
CybrHost Corp. - http://www.cybrhost.com/ - [email protected]
+1-866-300-MIVA - Professional Miva & E-Commerce web hosting services.

[Biffy]

Re: Is there a character limit for product names?

Long product names can dilute your SERP score. A 1 word hit on a 1 word URL scores very high while the same hit in an 8 word URL will score far less.

I'll suggest short product names with SEO in mind.

Your question was about product names, not title tags, right? Yes, you use myPHPadmin to change the data container to something larger.

[lesliekirk]

Re: Is there a character limit for product names?

100 characters. You could use the custom product field in lieu of the name. That field is 254 long.

If the Custom Product Field is used - how may places would have to be edited to include it?

Will increasing the field in the MySQL file cause any "issues"?

Leslie

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: Is there a character limit for product names?

If the Custom Product Field is used - how may places would have to be edited to include it?

Will increasing the field in the MySQL file cause any "issues"?

Leslie

if it was used exclusively, then lots:
category list
search list
basket (x 4) *
order fulfillment *
invoice *

and * means you can not do it natively.

IMO, if you need more than 100 characters, you (or your client) is doing something wrong <g> (see other posts in this thread).

[lesliekirk]

Re: Is there a character limit for product names?

Yes, I suspect they are aware of all of the above, but they are trying to make it easier on their customers to identify the correct products. I will forward the info, but I still need to know if there would be any "issues" increasing the product name field within the MySQL file.

Thanks!
Leslie

[Bruce - PhosphorMedia]

Re: Is there a character limit for product names?

Here's why *I* wouldn't increase the database field: "I don't know the answer to that question."

One should only break from standard application protocols when one knows all the places where it will break, or believe me, the application will find it at the most inconvenient time.