Temu listing optimisation: the title and images that earn the click

Why the first 80 characters decide the click

A Temu title can run to 500 characters. A buyer scrolling the results sees about 80 of them next to a small square image, in a grid of near-identical products, and decides whether to tap in under a second.

So the first 80 characters have one job. A stranger reading them, cut off mid-word, should be able to say what the product is and what makes it the right one. If the visible part is a brand they have never heard of followed by "Premium Quality", the tap goes to the listing next door.

An Amazon title that opens with the brand and three adjectives often reaches character 80 before it names the product. An eBay title in capitals with the same term three ways uses the space to repeat itself. Both habits made sense where they came from. On Temu they hide the product.

How to order a Temu title

This is the order we use. It comes from the two facts above and plain listing sense, and it puts the words a buyer needs inside the part they can see.

1. Product type first. The plain noun a buyer would type. "Garden hose", "kids' raincoat", "LED strip lights". Spelt out, no abbreviations.
2. Then the key specifics. The two or three facts a buyer compares on. For a phone case, the phone model. For a hose, the length. For a raincoat, the age. Size, quantity, colour and material come before any adjective.
3. Then the use. What it is for, if the product type does not already say. "For bedroom and TV backlight". One short phrase, and only if it adds a word a buyer might search.
4. Then the brand. If buyers already search your brand by name, move it forward. If they do not, it goes last.

Specifics before adjectives, at every step. "30 m" beats "extra long". "Age 5 to 6" beats "for children". A buyer can compare a number. They cannot compare "premium". And say each thing once. "Hose hosepipe garden hose pipe" is three characters of information and twenty of noise.

What to do with the rest of the 500

After the visible 80 you have around 420 characters that search reads and buyers mostly do not. That is the place for secondary detail, not a second copy of the opening.

Put there the other compatible models or sizes, the material, secondary features, and the alternative names people use for the product ("hosepipe" after "garden hose", "rain jacket" after "raincoat"). Write it as readable phrases separated by commas, so a buyer who opens the listing does not meet a wall of keywords.

Care instructions, what is in the box and guarantees go in the description. Claims you cannot evidence go nowhere. And do not pad to 500. A 200-character title that says everything true about the product beats a 500-character one that says it twice.

For more on the title alone, see Temu product titles: what the first 80 characters need to say.

The image side

Temu search reads the images as well as the title, and the main image sits next to your 80 characters on the results page at a size where fine print and badges vanish. It does the work the title cannot. For a buyer who never reads the words, it is the whole listing.

The main image has one job. Show what the buyer gets, clearly. The product fills the frame on a plain background, lit so the colour is true. If it comes as a pack of two, show two. If it comes with a spray gun, the spray gun is in the shot. If the raincoat is yellow, it is the same yellow as the one in the box.

The title and the main image must agree. "Grey" over a photo of a brown product works against itself in search and in the buyer's head. Match colour, quantity and variant exactly.

Use the other slots for what the results page cannot show. One image with the key dimensions drawn on. One of the product in use, at real scale. One close-up of the detail that sells it, the card slot, the brass fitting, the reflective strip. Keep any text on images large. Anything you would need to zoom to read is wasted at thumbnail size.

Four before and after rewrites

In the phone case "before", the visible 80 characters end inside "Slim Fit". The card holder, the one feature that separates this case from a hundred others, is out of sight. The "after" puts the product type, the model and the card holder inside the first 60.

The hose "before" says hose three ways in capitals and never mentions the spray gun settings or the fittings. The raincoat "before" opens with the brand and leaves the age past the cut, where a parent cannot see it. The LED strip "before" has the order about right but misses the power source and the adhesive, two of the first things a buyer asks.

The 10-point checklist

1. The product type is inside the first 80 characters, spelt out in full.
2. The key specific (model, size, length, age or quantity) is inside the first 80 too.
3. Every number is a number. "30 m", "age 5 to 6", not "long" or "for kids".
4. No word appears twice unless the second use is a different product term.
5. No adjective a buyer cannot check from a results page. Drop "premium", "best", "luxury".
6. The brand is last unless buyers already search for it by name.
7. The part after character 80 reads as phrases, carries alternative names and secondary features, and does not repeat the start.
8. The main image shows the product, the exact colour and the full quantity, on a plain background, filling the frame.
9. The title and the main image agree on colour, quantity and variant.
10. The other images show size, use and the one detail that sells it, with any text readable at thumbnail size.

Check a title free

Rewriting four titles by hand takes ten minutes. A catalogue is where the time goes, so find out which titles need work before you start.

Titled scores a Temu title out of 100 as you type, shows the search preview a buyer sees, and suggests what to fix. The scorer is free and needs no account, so run your best sellers through it before you upload. If you have a whole catalogue, the full analysis scores every title in the store and writes replacements for the ones holding you back. Seller Spring is independent and is not part of Temu.