Amazon.co.uk 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 cameras but Canon® or Sony® digital cameras, not just blenders but hand blenders that are 400w, not just toasters but discounted toasters, or not just children's books but children's books about pirates by John Matthews? 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.co.uk, browsing to your desired category, and looking for "node=" in the URL. For example, the node for Photography is 560834, the node for Kitchen Appliances - Blenders is 10706571, the node for Kitchen Appliances – Toasters is 11716951, and the node for Children's Books is 69.

Step 2: Construct a basic search results link to that node using the following format: http://www.amazon.co.uk/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.co.uk/s/?node=NODE-HERE&linkCode=qs&tag=ASSOC-ID-HERE&keywords=KEYWORD-PHRASE-HERE
Example: 400w hand blenders within Kitchen Appliances - Blenders: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?node=10706571&linkCode=qs&tag=ASSOC-ID-HERE&keywords=400w%20hand

* 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.co.uk/s/?node=NODE-HERE&linkCode=qs&tag=ASSOC-ID-HERE&brand=BRAND-NAME-HERE
Example: Photography products by Canon or Sony: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?node=560834&linkCode=qs&tag=ASSOC-ID-HERE&brand=Canon|Sony

* 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.co.uk/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: Photography products that are 40% off or more: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?node=560834&linkCode=qs&tag=ASSOC-ID-HERE&pct-off=40-
Example 2: Kitchen Appliances - Toasters between 10% and 20% off: http://www.amazon.co.uk/s/?node=11716951&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.