Where to put the Amazon Disclosure - an Official Answer from Amazon
Hello everybody,
These days I was reading a lot about the AMAZON discosure statement and where it should be placed on a website that has affiliate links.
I have even asked a question here at WA and there were various opinions and best practices.
Based on my research, I understood that it is not recommended to put it in the Footer area and that is why I explicitly contacted Amazon support with this inquiry.
The following is a part of their reply in a raw format:
"To answer your question, displaying your disclosure statement at the foot of your website would be perfectly acceptable..
This statement should be placed on a main page that includes links that refer your visitors to Amazon.com. You only need to post this information once within the same website."
I hope that clarifies some things for anyone who has been wondering about the subject.
Have a lovely day/evening!
Greetings,
Asen
Recent Comments
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This is good to know Asen and coupled with Dave's message below has encouraged me to modify my affiliate disclaimer to include "Amazon". Better to be safe than sorry.
Thanks for sharing.
Hey Craig,
Thanks for asking.
I'm afraid not. I contacted the WP review support team and they answered that it is entirely up to Google to decide to show the stars and I should work on my SEO..
I am keeping the plugin for now as it adds an "extra-mile"appearance on my reviews.
Strange answer from the support team. I find that really odd. All of my posts have stars displayed
that's strange indeed. I continue to dig deeper into this with the support so if hope for a positive outcome :)
FYI, something more to add on this matter
WP Review plugin adds the necessary markup for rich snippets. It may take some time before they show up in the search results, please allow a few days for Google to pick up the information.
Google will not necessarily show the rating stars, though, they check a few things first and may choose not to show, for instance, they check the overall quality of the site, and if the review content is representative of the main content of the page or not.
Here is a quote from one of the Google's help article:
Quote
We perform algorithmic and manual quality checks to ensure that structured data meets relevancy standards. In cases where we see structured data that does not comply with these standards, we reserve the right to disable rich snippets for a site in order to maintain a high-quality search experience for our users. Read our webmaster guidelines for more details.
Maybe once they start showing for one of your posts the others may follow suit. Good info, cheers.
A definitive answer for those using AZON...The same could be said for all affiliate links - a general statement that is readily visible for visitors will suffice...
Germany has special rules where you must go even further...If you are using tracking tools such as Google Analytics, Facebook pixels, or on page tracking, you must have a page explaining that you are...
For YouTube videos that we embed on our product pages, we use the available code that does NOT use tracking that can be then used to send targeted ads to the viewer (I did not even know about this until we started looking at all the German internet security requirements)...
We have even gone to the trouble to get legal protection and a service that maintains all the changes that happen oh so often...Our legal pages are updated when anything changes...
Unfortunately, there are lawyers whose only job is to find noncompliant websites and send out invoices demanding payment for such violations....
This may sound like pie in the sky stuff but I assure you it is real...
Amazon too looks very carefully at your website and I have read stories here and elsewhere where people have lost their affiliate accounts...
Better safe than sorry, you did the right thing, and went one step further, passed it on to the rest of us (I do not use Amazon as an affiliate BTW)...
Cheers!
Dave : )
Hey Dave,
I am glad that I could help on this.
A lot of people are using plugins only for the same of the Amazon Disclosure but I wanted to avoid the excessive use of plugins as much as possible and that is why I decided to contact their support center.
It's interesting what you mention about the Germany internet security regulations. It's pretty strict but it's not a big surprise when it comes to Germany.
Awesome. Thanks for sharing!
We've always heard different opinions from different people. But I guess the response from Amazon would be the most reliable one.
Hey Jerry,
Yeah it's true. That was bugging me a lot and that is why I decided to directly receive an answer from the source.
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Thanks for the post Asen. I do not currently use Amazon, but I do plan on it soon. This information is good to know. I have copied it and filed it in my training folder.