Is cloaking my Amazon affiliate links necessary?

directaxcess · Aug 31, 2012

I know people recommend cloaking Amazon affiliate links, but is it really necessary if your website has unique content? I'm building a review website with 100% unique content with only ONE Amazon product per page (using WordPress Amazon Associate plugin to embed the affiliate offers). Do I really need to use a cloaking plugin to automatically cloak those links or can I just leave the links as is -- since I am not just TEXT LINKING to the product, I'm showing the full product as per the Amazon affiliate design.

Any and all input is appreciated.

dredew · Aug 31, 2012

TOS of Amazon.com affiliate program states that you are not allowed to cloak links. So i suggest you just use naked links to amazon (with nofollow) to prevent the ban hammer...

phpfail · Aug 31, 2012

^ agreed, just use naked nofollow links for a review site, especially with unique content

seoguy81 · Aug 31, 2012

I've been using amazon links for a while now and didn't find any issues (although I can relate to your concern, because that was the same question I had before starting off).As a general rule, I use one link which links directly to amazon and another link using goo.gl shortener. So far nothing has been banned, neither did I see any drop in rankings.

SEOnetic · Aug 31, 2012

Try not to Cloak link. Although I didn't try it with pretty links. But I think its better if you don't change it and use naked URLs.

Madruga · Aug 31, 2012

dredew said:
TOS of Amazon.com affiliate program states that you are not allowed to cloak links. So i suggest you just use naked links to amazon (with nofollow) to prevent the ban hammer...

Ohhh boy, here we go again...

"The Associates Program Operating Agreement doesn't prohibit the use of link cloaking or shortening services provided that the service doesn't use methods which violate the Associates Program Operating Agreement, such as framing the Amazon site or automatically tagging sessions with your Associates ID.

You must clearly state that the link in question will take the user to the Amazon site when clicked and ensure that the site on which you are posting the links includes the required statement to identify yourself as an Associate. You must also be able to provide detailed information about the site(s) on which your links have been posted if we request it."

directaxcess · Aug 31, 2012

Madruga said:
Ohhh boy, here we go again...

"The Associates Program Operating Agreement doesn't prohibit the use of link cloaking or shortening services provided that the service doesn't use methods which violate the Associates Program Operating Agreement, such as framing the Amazon site or automatically tagging sessions with your Associates ID.

You must clearly state that the link in question will take the user to the Amazon site when clicked and ensure that the site on which you are posting the links includes the required statement to identify yourself as an Associate. You must also be able to provide detailed information about the site(s) on which your links have been posted if we request it."

Yea I know link cloaking is allowed, but iFraming is NOT ... as long as the visitor sees Amazon's URL in their address bar, its allowed. Thanks guys, I'll stick with the naked URL's though with nofollow.

moonlighsunligh · Aug 31, 2012

dredew said:
TOS of Amazon.com affiliate program states that you are not allowed to cloak links. So i suggest you just use naked links to amazon (with nofollow) to prevent the ban hammer...

Where does it says in the Amazon TOS?

As far as i know, the Amazon has to be able to say, where an Amazon visitor comes from. So if you clock your links Amazon can see from what domain are visitors coming from. Also 301/302 redirects pass referral.

Initial Effort · Aug 31, 2012

Maybe do a meta refresh or javascript link if you don't want to cloak/mask the URL.

anssoft · Aug 31, 2012

For the latest amazon TOS you aren't allowed to cloak or using any redirect code. period.
don't waste your effort
just use the amazon affiliate link and make it nofollow
and you are done

stbhat · Sep 1, 2012

[h=3]you may not get Advertising Fees .[/h]

Is cloaking my Amazon affiliate links necessary?

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