Limit Shopify Product Title Length for a Cleaner Layout

Are you struggling with product titles that are too long in your Shopify store? Long product names can disrupt the layout of your collection pages, causing misalignment of important elements like the “Add to Cart” button. This issue is particularly common with the Supply theme, but fortunately, there’s a simple solution. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk you through the process of limiting product title length to create a more visually appealing and consistent layout for your online store.

Understanding the Problem

The Impact of Long Product Titles

Long product titles can cause several issues on your Shopify store:

1. Misalignment of buttons and other elements
2. Inconsistent product card heights
3. Cluttered appearance on collection pages

These problems can negatively affect the user experience and potentially impact your conversion rates.

Why the Supply Theme is Affected

The Supply theme, while popular and versatile, doesn’t have a built-in feature to automatically truncate long product titles. This can lead to layout inconsistencies, especially on collection pages where multiple products are displayed side by side.

The Solution: Customizing Your Theme Code

Accessing the Theme Editor

To fix this issue, you’ll need to make a small modification to your theme’s code. Here’s how to get started:

1. Log in to your Shopify admin panel
2. Navigate to “Online Store” > “Themes”
3. Find your current theme and click “Actions” > “Edit code”

Locating the Right File

The file we need to edit is called product-grid-item.liquid. To find it:

1. In the theme editor, look for the “Snippets” folder
2. Scroll through the list or use the search function to locate product-grid-item.liquid
3. Click on the file to open it in the code editor

Implementing the Code Change

Once you’ve opened the product-grid-item.liquid file, follow these steps:

1. Look for the line that contains {{ product.title }}
2. Replace that line with the following code:

{{ product.title | truncate: 30 }}

This code uses Shopify’s Liquid templating language to truncate the product title to 30 characters. You can adjust the number 30 to any value that works best for your store’s layout.

Customizing the Character Limit

The optimal character limit may vary depending on your theme’s design and the typical length of your product titles. Here are some tips for choosing the right limit:

• Start with 30 characters and adjust as needed
• Consider your product naming conventions
• Test different limits to find the best balance between information and aesthetics

Saving and Testing Your Changes

After making the code change:

1. Click “Save” in the theme editor
2. Preview your changes using the theme preview function
3. Check your collection pages to ensure the titles are now truncated and aligned properly

Additional Considerations

Mobile Responsiveness

When limiting product title length, it’s crucial to consider how the changes will appear on mobile devices. You may need to adjust the character limit or implement responsive design techniques to ensure a good user experience across all screen sizes.

SEO Implications

While truncating titles on the frontend can improve your store’s appearance, it’s important to note that this doesn’t affect the actual product titles in your Shopify admin or search engine results. Your full product titles will still be used for SEO purposes.

Alternative Approaches

For those uncomfortable with editing code, there are alternative solutions:

1. Use apps from the Shopify App Store that offer title truncation features
2. Consider switching to a theme with built-in title length management
3. Manually edit your product titles to keep them concise

Troubleshooting Common Issues

Misaligned Elements

If you’re still experiencing alignment issues after truncating titles, you may need to adjust your theme’s CSS. Look for classes related to product cards or grid items and ensure they have consistent heights and widths.

Unexpected Results

If the truncation isn’t working as expected, double-check that you’ve:

1. Saved the changes in the theme editor
2. Cleared your browser cache
3. Tested on multiple devices and browsers

Theme Updates

Be aware that theme updates may overwrite your custom code. Always back up your modifications and be prepared to reapply them after updating your theme.

By following these steps and considerations, you can effectively limit the length of product titles in your Shopify store using the Supply theme. This simple modification can significantly improve the visual consistency and overall user experience of your online store, potentially leading to increased customer engagement and sales.