Overview

Understanding how Amazon's search system works is fundamental to getting your products discovered by customers. Amazon provides a detailed glossary of search-related terms that covers everything from catalog attributes and browse nodes to keyword indexing and search suppression. Mastering these concepts helps sellers optimize their listings, troubleshoot discoverability issues, and ultimately drive more sales.

Key Points / What Sellers Need to Know

• Search indexing takes up to 72 hours — After making changes to new or existing ASINs, it can take up to 72 hours for updates to appear live on Amazon. Timing can vary based on site traffic and technical factors.
• Amazon does not support partial keyword matching — Search queries must match complete words found in your catalog data. A search for "fitbit charge bands" will only return results that contain all three of those words.
• Bullet points may not always be indexed — While bullet points always display on product detail pages, they are not guaranteed to be indexed by Amazon's search engine. Keep them under 1,000 characters total and focus on readability.
• Search suppression can hide your listings — If the "discovery suppressed" attribute is set to true, your ASIN will not appear in customer searches. Sellers should regularly check for suppressed listings and resolve flagged issues promptly.
• Platinum keywords are obsolete — These were once used by platinum sellers for storefront assignments but have been replaced by Amazon Stores. Sellers no longer need to populate this field.

How Amazon Search and Browse Work

Amazon customers find products through two main paths: keyword search and category browsing. The default search bar, known as All Product Search (APS), performs a broad search across the entire Amazon store rather than within a specific category. Browse navigation, on the other hand, allows customers to drill down through categories like Books or Electronics, and further refine results using filters such as color, brand, and price. Amazon's browse structure is organized into browse nodes, each with a unique ID. Every ASIN must be assigned to at least one specific and relevant browse node to be searchable. In the United States, Item Type Keywords (ITK) serve as one mechanism for automatically assigning ASINs to the correct browse nodes — for example, an ASIN with an ITK value of "skin-care-products" gets assigned to the appropriate skincare category.