The Official Amazon Associates Blog: Associate Tip: Refine Search Results Links

Have you ever wanted to send your visitors to a specific page of search results on Amazon?

Not just running shoes, but Adidas® or New Balance® women's running shoes
Not just blenders but discounted 5-speed blenders
Not just children's books but children's books about pirates by John Matthews

You can use the method below to construct a link to a page of search results that has the refinements you want.

Step 1: Look up the "node" of the category in which you want to perform your search by going to Amazon.com, browsing to your desired category, and looking for "node=" in the URL. For example, the node for Women's Shoes is 1044764, the node for Kitchen - Small Appliances is 289913, and the node for Children's Books is 4.

Step 2: Construct a basic search results link to that node using the following format:

http://www.amazon.com/s/?node=NODE_HERE&linkCode=qs&tag=
ASSOC-ID-HERE, substituting the node you looked up for NODE_HERE and your Associates ID for ASSOC-ID-HERE

Step 3: Add one or more of the following refinements to make the search results more specific. Each time you add a refinement you should add an ampersand -- & -- followed by the type of the refinement, an equals sign, and the value to which you want to refine the results.

Keywords: Use keywords to narrow the results to items that meet a descriptive quality. If your keyword phrase is more than one word, we recommend using the URL-encoded value of a space -- %20 -- between words.

Format http://www.amazon.com/s/?node=NODE_HERE&linkCode=qs&tag=
ASSOC-ID-HERE&keywords=KEYWORD_PHRASE_HERE

Example: 5 speed blenders within Kitchen - Small Appliances
http://www.amazon.com/s/?node=289913&linkCode=qs&tag=
ASSOC-ID-HERE&keywords=5%20speed%20blender

Brand: Use brand to narrow the results by the maker of the product. If the brand name is more than one word, we recommend using the URL-encoded value of a space -- %20 -- between words. In many categories, you can show results from more than one brand using the pipe character -- | -- between brand names.

Format http://www.amazon.com/s/?node=NODE_HERE&linkCode=qs&tag=
ASSOC-ID-HERE&brand=BRAND_NAME_HERE

Example: Women's shoes by Adidas or New Balance
http://www.amazon.com/s/?node=1044764&linkCode=qs&tag=
ASSOC-ID-HERE&brand=New%20Balance|Adidas

Discount: Specify the percent off to show products that are discounted. You can specify an exact range like 10-20 (between 10% and 20% off) or an open-ended range like 40- (40% off or more).

Format http://www.amazon.com/s/?node=NODE_HERE&linkCode=qs&tag=
ASSOC-ID-HERE&pct-off=X-Y
X is the lower end of the discount range and Y is the upper end. You can leave either one off to specify an open-ended range.

Example 1: Women's Shoes that are 40% off or more
http://www.amazon.com/s/?node=1044764&linkCode=qs&tag=
ASSOC-ID-HERE&pct-off=40-

Example 2: Small Kitchen Appliances between 10% and 20% off
http://www.amazon.com/s/?node=289913&linkCode=qs&tag=
ASSOC-ID-HERE&pct-off=10-20

Book author: Specify the author's name or part of it to refine a list of book search results. Note that you add two items to the link format to do this: the author's name and the type of author search. If you specify the full name of the author, use last name comma first name.

Format http://www.amazon.com/s/?node=NODE_HERE&linkCode=qs&tag=
ASSOC-ID-HERE&author=AUTHOR_NAME_HERE&select-author=
field-author-like

Example: Children's books by authors with the name Matthews
http://www.amazon.com/s/?node=4&linkCode=qs&tag=
ASSOC-ID-HERE&author=Matthews&select-author=field-author-like

Book publisher: Specify the publisher's name to show only books issued by that company.

Format
http://www.amazon.com/s/?node=NODE_HERE&linkCode=qs&tag=
ASSOC-ID-HERE&field-publisher=PUBLISHER_NAME_HERE

Example: Children's books published by Atheneum
http://www.amazon.com/s/?node=4&linkCode=qs&tag=
ASSOC-ID-HERE&field-publisher=Atheneum

Here are examples of combining these refinements:

Adidas or New Balance women's running shoes: http://www.amazon.com/s/?node=1044764&linkCode=qs&tag=
ASSOC-ID-HERE&keywords=running&brand=New%20Balance|Adidas

5 speed blenders that are at least 25% off: http://www.amazon.com/s/?node=289913&linkCode=qs&tag=
ASSOC-ID-HERE&keywords=5%20speed%20blender&pct-off=25-

Children's books about pirates by John Matthews: http://www.amazon.com/s/?node=4&linkCode=qs&tag=
ASSOC-ID-HERE&keywords=pirate&author=Matthews,John&select-author=field-author-like

Note: Since Amazon product categories may treat search differently, we recommend testing your link to make sure it shows the products you want.

Happy refining!

-Karen, Associates Senior Product Manager

-Sean, Associates Product Marketing Manager