OTTO SEO: How do I optimize listings for OTTO search?

How OTTO builds your item's title

OTTO has no field for the title. It assembles the title automatically from your product data, by default from brand, product category, model name and „besondere Merkmale“. Depending on the category, further title-relevant features are added, for a TV for example screen size, resolution and internet capability. The title runs over three lines. The first holds the brand, the second product category and model name, the third the special features and the remaining title-relevant features.

OTTO recommends at most 77 characters for the whole title. According to OTTO, Google shows at most 55 characters, and on mobile a multi-line title pushes other content down, which according to OTTO demonstrably leads to fewer purchases. The special features are a free text field for what makes your product special. OTTO's example is „mit edler Spitze“ (with fine lace). OTTO recommends at most five words there and no brand and no category, because both would otherwise appear twice in the title.

So you control the title through the model name, the special features and the features your category pulls into the title. On otto.de it appears in the product page address, in search results, on the product page, in the order and on the wish list, and also in the results of external search engines.

Which fields OTTO's search reads

According to OTTO's Helpdesk, OTTO finds your items through title, category, brand, target group, filter values and selling points. In the partner portal, selling points are called „Bullet-Points“. OTTO adds synonyms and typos itself, singular and plural don't matter, and search skips filler words.

OTTO has no field for background search terms. OTTO says there's no need for backend keywords or hidden tags, and that keyword spamming, stringing the same words together over and over, achieves nothing. In the Helpdesk article on the search term analysis, OTTO asks you to work the words into your texts naturally. OTTO doesn't publish how heavily it weights each field. How does OTTO's search algorithm work? explains how OTTO then sorts the results.

On OTTO, features bring filters, not rank

Features are the fixed details of your product, such as color, material or dimensions. The more of them you fill in, the more often your item appears on otto.de's category and filter pages, and the more often a customer filtering by those values finds it. According to OTTO, though, additional features have “no direct effect” on the position in the results list. The exception is a search in which a customer types the feature itself, such as the color. According to OTTO, you should mainly fill in the features OTTO uses for search, navigation and filters.

Description, bullet points and images on OTTO

The product description may contain simple HTML, meaning headings, paragraphs, lists, bold and italics. OTTO's documentation gives no maximum length for the description and no maximum number of bullet points. For OTTO to release a product for Google, the title-relevant features and bullet points need details of their own that apply to exactly this product. From April 2027, titles and descriptions on otto.de may no longer contain blanket environmental claims like „nachhaltig“ (sustainable) or „klimaneutral“ (climate-neutral), or the product can no longer be sold.

OTTO doesn't name images as a factor for the position in search. An image error does count as a product data error, though, and search doesn't find a product with a product data error at all. According to OTTO's Helpdesk, OTTO allows one main image and at most 19 detail images, each with at least 500 px on the short side and 1,000 px on the long side. In the main image, the product stands cut out on pure white, without settings, logos or text.

Where OTTO shows you the quality of your offer

In the partner portal, the „Produktdatenanalyse“ under „Produkte“ (Products) shows which products have errors and which features are missing. If you're coming from Amazon, you know this as the Listing Quality Dashboard and suppressed listings. There's no grade or score for the quality of your data there. The errors are sorted into categories, such as image errors, brand errors, base price errors, material errors or data inconsistency.

Rich Content on OTTO

Rich Content means additional images and text about the product and brand on the product page, below the item description. If you're coming from Amazon, you know this as A+ Content. According to OTTO the service is free, but only someone who holds the rights to the brand can book it. OTTO reports positive effects in tests on cart and wish list for certain assortments and more visibility in search engines like Google. OTTO doesn't say that Rich Content feeds into search on otto.de, and according to OTTO it has no effect on the BuyBox.

How to find data errors in OTTO's product data analysis

Everything below is in OTTO Partner Connect, the partner portal for sellers. On Amazon it's called Seller Central.

1. In the left sidebar, open „Produkte“ → „Produktdatenanalyse“.
2. Choose the „Produktdatenfehler“ (product data errors) tab. At the top are three numbers, the products with errors, the SKUs with errors and the error messages. A SKU is your own number for an item.
3. Read the table below, sorted by SKU or by error message. It has the columns „Produkttitel“, „Produktreferenz“, „SKU“, „EAN“, „Fehlerkategorie“, „Grund“ and „Empfehlung“ (product title, product reference, SKU, EAN, error category, reason, recommendation). „Empfehlung“ tells you what to change. Use „Download“ to download the table.
4. Choose the „Auffindbarkeit“ (findability) tab. OTTO's Helpdesk describes what it shows as follows. It lists the features your products are missing that would bring them into more categories and filters, plus notes on why Google isn't picking up a product.
5. Open „Produkte“ and download the file with the status of your items via „Marktplatzstatus“ (marketplace status) at the top right. From November 2026, the „Statusinformationen“ (status information) column shows under „Informationen“ (information) the products that have had no order for 365 purchasable days. OTTO automatically deactivates such products from early 2027. Check their images, features and description, which OTTO names as the remedy.

You fix the errors in your product data, in the partner portal or in the program you use to send your items to OTTO. According to OTTO, it takes up to 24 hours for a new image to appear on otto.de.

How to see your OTTO title before it goes live

You see the title preview when creating a product. OTTO's Helpdesk describes the steps after choosing the category as follows.

1. In the left sidebar, open „Produkte“ and click „Neues Produkt anlegen“ (Create new product).
2. Type a term for the category, choose the category and click „Weiter“ (Next).
3. In the „Basisdaten“ (basic data) step, enter the model name and brand. The „Titelvorschau“ (title preview) shows the title and which features make it up. It deliberately leaves out free text.
4. In the „Produktmerkmale“ (product features) step, enter the product description and bullet points under „Allgemeine Daten“ (general data), and under „Merkmale zur Auffindbarkeit“ (findability features) the features customers filter by.

OTTO's feature list for the category shows which features go into the title in your category. They're marked “TITLE” in the “FeatureRelevance” column.

How to find your customers' search terms on OTTO

The „Suchbegriff Analyse“ shows what customers search for on otto.de. It's under „Analysen“ (Analytics), not under „Produkte“. If you're coming from Amazon, you know this from Brand Analytics.

1. In the left sidebar, open „Analysen“ → „Potenzialanalysen“ (potential analyses) → „Suchbegriff Analyse“.
2. Choose the „Top Suchbegriffe“ (top search terms) tab. It lists the 100,000 most relevant search terms on otto.de, sorted by search volume, with rank, assortment, search volume, trend and the number of products that appear for that search.
3. Choose a period, the last 7, 30, 90, 180 or 365 days. The portal shows search volume as a range, for example 100,000 to 200,000 searches.
4. Filter by your assortment or type a term into the „Eingabe Suchbegriff“ (search term input) field. Use „Download“ to download the table as a CSV file.
5. Choose the „Suchbegriffe nach Produkt“ (search terms by product) tab and enter a product's item number. You'll find it on the product page on otto.de in the item description, and it isn't your SKU. According to OTTO's Helpdesk, you get up to 100 search terms for this product from the last 30 days, with search volume, trend and „∅ Produkt Position“ (average product position), the product's average place in normal search without advertising.

The portal updates the numbers daily, and „Datenstand“ (data as of) at the top right shows the status. For 27 September to 27 October 2026, the assortment „Alle“ (All) was led by „kleiderschrank“, „iphone 18 pro max“ and „waschmaschine“, each with 100,000 to 200,000 searches. „teppich wohnzimmer“ had risen by 39%, and 70,257 products appeared for that search.

In practice, it has proven useful to look up four or five similar products from other sellers on otto.de. Read their item numbers from the item description on their product pages and enter them under „Suchbegriffe nach Produkt“. Then use the matching search terms twice, as keywords for advertising and as words for your product data.

What you have to pull together yourself on OTTO

The search term analysis tells you what people search for. Whether those words already appear in the model name, special features and bullet points of your items is something you check yourself, item by item. You download the list of data errors, the „Marktplatzstatus“ file and the search terms separately and lay them side by side yourself. Which search terms have already brought your items sales through advertising is in the Keyword Report of each individual campaign. How do I analyze search terms in OTTO's Keyword Report? shows how to read it.

How to check the title and bullet point of a garden chair on OTTO

Say you sell the acacia chair on OTTO, and your brand name has 10 characters. In your advertising, customers bought 3 chairs through the search „gartenstuhl klappbar“ and 5 chairs through „gartenstuhl holz“. So „klappbar“ (foldable) and „holz“ (wood) belong in your product data. The entries stay German because OTTO shoppers search in German.

57 of 77 characters are used, and 20 remain for the features your category also pulls into the title. The special features use 4 of 5 words. In a bullet point you write the same words, for example „Aus massivem Akazienholz, klappbar für Balkon und Terrasse“ (made of solid acacia wood, foldable for balcony and terrace).