Amazon images – Beginner’s guide on how to use images from Amazon
I show you step by step how you can use Amazon images in your blog posts and not have your account suspended.
Here is a screenshot of a post from one of my websites. All the images are from Amazon. I have been audited by Amazon and accepted into their affiliates program.
Amazon allows you to use product images from their website on your blog if you use their site stripe. The site stripe is available to Amazon affiliates. From this stripe, Amazon affiliates can get product images and links that have your unique affiliate code embedded, to use on their sites
It is tempting to download other images from Amazon without using the stripe. Don’t do that, the Amazon affiliate rules are clear, downloading images to your computer is against their affiliate program operating agreement and will get you banned.
Let’s get started
- What is the Amazon Site Stripe?
- Using the Site Stripe to get product affiliate links
- Using the Site Stripe to get a product image
- How do I put the Amazon product HTML code into my blog?
- Creating a custom HTML block in WordPress for your code
- How to add ‘Alt text’ to your Amazon product images for SEO
- Using the Site Stripe to get Amazon images video tutorial
- Conclusion
- Frequently asked questions.
What is the Amazon Site Stripe?
The site stripe is a feature accessible to Amazon Affiliates. After you sign up for an Amazon affiliates account you will see the site stripe along the top of your screen every time you visit a page on Amazon.
You can see the site stripe on the top of the page just above the search bar in the image below.
On the left, you can see ‘Amazon Associates SiteStripe’ and on the right, you can see’ Earnings’ and ‘Help’
If you plan to look for products to sell on your blog. You must sign in to your Amazon Affiliates account first then you will see the Site Stripe on every page you visit on Amazon.
How do I use the Site Stripe to get affiliate links?
The Site Stripe gives you three options to get product links. You can have a ‘text’ link, an ‘image’ link and a ‘text+image’ link.
From the image above you can see only the ‘text’ link is available. This is because I have opened a page with multiple products.
If I want to get a ‘text’ link. I just click on the word ‘text’ and a popup box will appear.
You can see the popup box gives me a text link that I can use on my blog to send visitors to my blog on this page.
To use this link you just copy the link given and then paste over words in your content that you want to use to get people to go to Amazon.
For example, in the image above you can see it is a product list of best sellers in the Camera and Photo category.
I could have the following sentence in my blog.
Visit Amazon to find out the latest best sellers in the Cameras and Photos category.
In my example, I pasted the link over words ‘Cameras and Photos category’. Now I have a link to that page on Amazon and my affiliate link is being used in the link.
How do I use the Site Stripe to get a product image?
To get an image from Amazon you need to go to a single product page on Amazon.
I will go into a product on the best sellers page to show you.
I have chosen the Wyse cam as an example.
Now that I have selected a single product you can see all three options to get a link are available to me now.
If I want to get an image link for my blog. Then I click on the word ‘image’. After you click on ‘image’ a popup box will appear.
In this popup box, you will see the product image you are getting. You also get to select the size image.
Amazon’s affiliate image sizes are available in small, medium and large. Medium is the default size.
At the bottom of the popup, you will see the highlighted HTML code. It is this code that you need to put into your blog to display this image.
Before you copy this highlighted code make sure you have selected the size of the image you require.
Changing the image size will result in the code changing.
For this example, I am going to be copying the code for the medium size image.
How do I put the HTML code into my blog?
Once you have your HTML code from the product in Amazon then you need to go to your blog post that you want to add the image to.
I have opened a new post to show you how I embed the code into my blogs.
As you can see I use the new version of WordPress.
If you still use the old version, drop me a comment and I will add some screenshots using the old version for you.
In my post, I have written the sentence ‘This is my new product image.’ I will show you how I put an image into this blog. I will put the image under this sentence.
To add the image code I need to click on the plus symbol in a circle on the top left of the edit screen.
Once I click on this symbol a popup will appear.
Custom HTML block
The ‘block’ that you need is called ‘Custom HTML’. If you do not see this in the popup, then type ‘HTML’ in the ‘search for a block’ box
Like this.
Once you see HTML in the box then click on that. After you click on HTML you get this.
The popup shows you exactly where you need to put the code you got from Amazon.
You just need to paste your code in the box labeled ‘Write HTML..’
I have just copied the HTML code from Amazon and then pasted the code into the box.
At the top of the area I pasted the HTML code there is an option to preview the image.
If you click on that option you will see the image.
As you can see the image that we saw on the Amazon sales page is now on the blog.
I will now click on the preview post option in the top right of the screen next to publish to see how the image looks in this post.
The image is now on my blog. The image is a link to Amazon too. My affiliate link is integrated
How to add ‘Alt text’ to your Amazon images for SEO
To ensure all your images are SEO friendly it is important to give all your images ‘Alt text’. This ‘Alt text’ helps Google understand what your image is about. It is a label or title for your image.
Once you have pasted the HTML code into the block. You need to click on the three dots that appear on the bar above the HTML block.
These are the three dots.
After you click on the dots you will get this mini-menu popup.
From this mini-menu, select ‘Convert to Blocks’.
Once your block is converted, you will see a box for entering your ‘Alt text’ on the right of your screen.
Like this.
Using the Site Stripe to get Amazon images video tutorial
Conclusion
Can you use Amazon images on your website? Yes, you can if you use the site stripe to get your images like I have shown you in this post. Getting your images this way means you won’t be violating the Amazon affiliate operating agreement.
Downloading images from Amazon to your computer to use on your blog will result in an Amazon ban.
If you have spent a lot of time building your blog or website then it doesn’t make any sense to risk all that.
There many websites out there that offer free images. If you use those then you need to be sure the image is of what you are promoting. You would not want to mislead your visitors.
My advice would be to use the site stripe. The image is from the product you are promoting plus the image already has your unique affiliate link in it.
Don’t forget to add ‘Alt text’ to all your images. This helps with your SEO. When Google comes to look at your site, it will see you use images. The ‘alt text’ will help Google understand your site better.
If you are interested in joining the Amazon affiliate program. Read my post on‘ How to join Amazon Affiliates’. I walk you through the whole process.
Frequently asked questions
After you have signed up for any affiliate program they will give you access to links that you can copy and paste into your blog post. In my post, I use the Site Stripe from the Amazon affiliate program. Amazon makes it very easy to get affiliate links that you can then use in your posts. You can use the same technique I have shown above for all affiliate programs. Copy and paste the link over text in your post.
The link has a limit of 24 hours. This means that if a visitor goes to Amazon from a link on your site you will get a commission on qualifying items placed into the shopper basket within 24 hours. This 24-hour window closes when the customer submits his order or reenters Amazon through another Amazon Affiliates link. Once the customer closes the Amazon window the link will also expire. If the customer adds something to his shopping basket but does not submit an order then your link will remain active until the shopping cart expires which is usually after 90 days.
The first thing you need to do is sign up for the Amazon Affiliate program. This program is free to join. Once you have an account then you can start adding affiliate links to the content on your website. If visitors to your website click on a link to go to Amazon and submits an order within 24 hours you will receive a commission. If you are not sure how to add links to your website then read my post here.
Once you have signed up to the Amazon Affiliate program you will see a ‘Site Stripe’ along the top of your screen every time you go to view products on Amazon. It is in the Site Stripe that you will find the Amazon Affiliate links.
To become an Amazon Affiliate you need to sign up for their program. The signup page is at the Amazon Affiliate program. The program is free to join. There are Amazon affiliate programs in 13 countries. You can sign up for as many as you need to.
On the top right-hand side of the screen is a drop-down menu of all the different countries that you can sign up to. Just click on the country you wish to join and then click on the ‘join now for free’ link.
If a visitor to your website clicks on one of your affiliate links and then purchases on Amazon. Amazon will then pay you a percentage of payment Amazon received. How much you will receive depends on the product purchased. Amazon has different rates for different product categories. Here is the latest list of commission rates. This list is not up to date. To get the latest rates you need to go to Amazon’s fee rate page.
Comments
What affiliate programs are you using now?
What programs are you having the best conversions from?
I look forward to reading your comments
23 Comments
Davis Perez
I have done that, however when I check on SEO products, (such as SEOQuake) it appears that I don’t have the “alt text”. So how do you solve it?
newblogr
Excellent point. I totally missed adding ‘alt text’. I will update my post today to include how to add this text. In case you can’t wait, here is how you do this. After you have pasted your HTML code into the box you need to click on the three dots on the bar above your code. The menu that appears will have a ‘convert to blocks’ option. You click on that and a ‘Alt Text (Alternative Text)’ box will appear on the right. Add your text in there. I will add screenshots to my post later to make it clearer. Thanks for letting me know.
Davis Perez
Hi John, thank you very much for your previous response was really helpful. However there is one last detail, in the case of images within tables (I am using the TablePress plugin) how do you do? I tried to add the Alt-text manually but it failed, I analyze it with various tools and it continues to indicate that AltText is missing
newblogr
Hello again, I have just had a look at this plugin, and you can add the alt text to the image before you place it in the table. When you are editing your table and you select ‘add image’, your media library will open. When you click on the image you want to use, on the right-hand side are the options for that image. One of the options is ‘Alt text’. Fill this in before you insert your image into the table. Give this a try and let me know how you get on.
I read an article today that said that tables in posts are a great way to win the snippet on Google search results. So good luck with your new post.
I look forward to hearing from you soon.
newblogr
I just remembered you are using HTML code from Amazon for your images.I will have another look and get back to you soon.
newblogr
Hi there, I don’t know how to add alt text to Amazon images in Tablepress. I suggest you contact the plugin author and ask them how to add the alt text. https://tablepress.org/support/. Sorry, I can’t help you with this problem. Let me know how you get on. Kind regards, John.
Oana
I can’t see the image on my website. All I see is ‘?’ in blue. So, How can I solve this issue as I really need the product images?
newblogr
Can you send me the url of the product you want to use?
Oana
https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07B3ZKDR7?ie=UTF8
newblogr
Hi Oana, I have just tested the image link and the text+image link on a test post. You can see it here (http://example.newblogr.com/2019/05/26/test-page/). They both work fine for me. Are you having issues with any other image affiliate links on your blog?
Oana
Thank you. I have solved the issue by taking photos of the product and used them instead of Amazon.
newblogr
Excellent. I’m really glad you found a solution. Good luck with your website.
Amit Kumar
Can you please help me ? I have few questions. I am new to Amazon affiliate and i desperately want to know answers of these questions.
But before asking my questions, i would like to thank you for creating such a wonderful post. It cleared my lots of doubts.
Question 1. Amazon images contain my affiliate link, so, i want to know, are these links nofollow by default ? Will they get me a penalty from Google ?
Question 2. When i list some amazon products then i post an amazon products image then i write few lines about it and then i add a button image like check price on Amazon. As Amazon images already contain a link and then again i am giving a link through button, will it affect my SEO and get me some penalty ? I just hate Google 😉
Question 3: Can i cloak Amazon Affiliate Links ?
Question 4: Amazon already provides a short link to its products. Should i use short affiliate link or full link as i want to cloak these links ?
Question 5: Is using alt text will not be considered as code change ?
Can you check my website once ? And please tell me is it fine to create such a website ? You can remove this text if you want and link too ! I just need you help
newblogr
Hi, so many questions. You are right to be concerned about having too many affiliate links in your blog posts. Google is looking for quality content to display in its search results. Google will not rank content that has too many links. How many are too many? Only Google knows that.
The best practice is to have a handful of links per post. Have lots of informative, helpful content, with a sprinkling of affiliate links.
Never cloak your Amazon affiliate links, you will get banned if you do. It is in their terms and conditions. Use the links you get from the site stripe and don’t use redirects.
You should have alt-text for your images. It helps Google understand why the image is there. Alt-text is just a description of what the picture is displaying.
If you are new to blogging, I would recommend you concentrate on getting at least 30 to 50 pieces of content published.
Build a website around a subject that you are interested in. If you try to build a site about something you don’t care about much, you will get bored and will stop writing exciting and helpful content.
Good luck with your website.
kishan kakadiya
Hello Sir,
I have created a blog in which I write posts on various different mobiles,
Sir, I have a question that if I use Amazon affiliate image on my blog, will my blog get AdSense approval?
please give me answer
newblogr
Hello, as far as I am aware you can have Amazon affiliate links on your website and still be approved by Google Adsence.
kishan kakadiya
Sir, are you sure? If I use the Amazon affiliate image in my blog, will my blog get AdSense approval?
newblogr
Hello, this is a link to Google Adsence, they allow links. https://support.google.com/adsense/answer/9728?hl=en
newblogr
Here is a blog post answering your answer. https://www.shoutmeloud.com/adsense-and-affiliate-ads-on-same-webpage.html
kishan kakadiya
Thanks
newblogr
You are very welcome.
Prince sisodia
Thanks for sharing these kind of information.. Its very helpful for me.
But i have facing one problem with Affiliate images, when i open images on amazon they are good and clear image and then when i put that image on my site, when i zoom little bit that image the image gone blury . Plz tell me if you have solution of this..
newblogr
Hello, do you mean you are altering the code you get from Amazon to make the images larger? As far as I am aware you can’t alter the images. The only thing you can do is select large before you copy the code. If you have the product, why don’t you take your own pictures?
I sometimes look on YouTube to see if the manufacturer has a YouTube channel, if they do, you can embed their video into your website.