Identifying Yourself as an Amazon Associate - Duplicate Content?

by andrej
19 replies
In the Amazon Associates Program Operating Agreement is written the following (in the point 10):

You must, however, clearly state the following on your site: "[Insert your name] is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to [insert the applicable site name (amazon.com, amazonsupply.com, or myhabit.com)].
However, I'm afraid that if I add this on my website, my website will get penalized by Google for duplicate content as there are many websites that have this written on them.

How should I proceed then?
#amazon #associate #content #duplicate #identifying
  • Profile picture of the author john01a
    If it's a requirement of being an Amazon Associate, then you probably should put it on your site.

    Duplicate Content?
    However, I don't think you have to worry about duplicate content here. Duplicate content is an issue when the same content appears multiple times on the same site. It's not an issue when it's across different sites.

    If you're really worried about it, why not turn the text into an image...
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    • Profile picture of the author savidge4
      Originally Posted by john01a View Post

      Duplicate Content?
      However, I don't think you have to worry about duplicate content here. Duplicate content is an issue when the same content appears multiple times on the same site. It's not an issue when it's across different sites.
      I'm sorry I could not let this slip. Duplicate content is bad enough when on your page, but not nearly as bad as when it is content that is on different sites. Bottom line JUST SAY NO TO DUPLICATE.

      PS, I will bet that the "[Insert your name] is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to [insert the applicable site name (amazon.com, amazonsupply.com, or myhabit.com)] line has an exemption in the Google calculations
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      • Profile picture of the author john01a
        Originally Posted by savidge4 View Post

        I'm sorry I could not let this slip. Duplicate content is bad enough when on your page, but not nearly as bad as when it is content that is on different sites. Bottom line JUST SAY NO TO DUPLICATE.
        Syndicated content is content that will appear on multiple sites. Curated content contains extracts of content that appears on other sites. Google understands this. From a search engine's perspective, duplicate content from the same site, is the issue.

        I am not an SEO expert, but from my understanding, there is no penalty for your site, if it contains content that appears on another site (note, I'm saying no penalty... not not talking about SEO benefits... there may be zero SEO benefit to duplicate content across multiple sites, but the issue here is whether there would be a penalty or major disadvantage).

        Google will probably only rank 1 version of the content, and not the other duplicate versions...

        But, it's important to realize where syndicated content and curated content fits in. That content, is there for the reader, not the search engines. If your reader finds value in the syndicated or curated content, then from the reader's perspective, it doesn't really matter that that same content can be found elsewhere on the internet.
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  • Profile picture of the author Raimundas M
    andrej,
    if this snippet of text is only 5% of your total content, then I wouldn't worry about that.

    There are sites that do content curation all the time and they still do very well on Google.

    If you want to comply with the Amazon Associates TOS, one or another way it has to appear on your page.
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    • Profile picture of the author agmccall
      The thousands of other Amazon Associates, myself included, do not seem to have a problem with it.

      al
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      "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas Edison

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  • Profile picture of the author Adie
    It's not considered as duplicate content and Google will have no problem with it.
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    Moderator's Note: You're only allowed to put your own products or sites in your signature.

    Signature edited.
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  • Profile picture of the author alistair
    I have any disclosure info on a seperate disclosure page and set it as noindex so it won't shouldn't get crawled and indexed. Not saying it's foolproof or even necessary, but it's just what I prefer to do.
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  • Profile picture of the author Riggs
    Am I missing something? What's the issue with editing the robots.txt file specifications to prevent Google crawling the area of your site you place the text on?
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  • Profile picture of the author RobinInTexas
    This whole thread is like worrying that the sun is going to burn out tomorrow.

    If including a standard notice would penalize sites nobody could have an adsense site that wasn't penalized for having the notice about "cookies" that Google requires of all publishers.

    Read and understand the "duplicate content" rules, they are pretty straightforward.

    1. Simply republishing content scraped from other sites is bad.
    2. Repeating the same content on numerous pages on your site is bad.

    Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Demystifying the "duplicate content penalty"
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    ...Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just set there.
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    • Profile picture of the author alistair
      Originally Posted by RobinInTexas View Post

      This whole thread is like worrying that the sun is going to burn out tomorrow.

      If including a standard notice would penalize sites nobody could have an adsense site that wasn't penalized for having the notice about "cookies" that Google requires of all publishers.

      Read and understand the "duplicate content" rules, they are pretty straightforward.

      1. Simply republishing content scraped from other sites is bad.
      2. Repeating the same content on numerous pages on your site is bad.

      Official Google Webmaster Central Blog: Demystifying the "duplicate content penalty"
      Yeah that's ok, if you don't mind it as a footprint for scrapers etc to find your site.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      This whole "duplicate content" paranoia is getting out of control. Worrying about a standard notice required by the seller is like worrying about your menu having the words "About" and "Home". Not only do they appear on every page of your own site, they appear on millions of other sites scattered across the web.

      Besides, if this is going to cost you sleep, put the required verbiage in an image, link it to the same text on a single page, and no-follow or no-index the link.

      The suggestion about using the robots.txt is crazy if you think about it. Most Amazon associates are trying desperately to get those pages ranked. Why would they disallow the spiders from crawling them?
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  • Profile picture of the author BlairDesigns
    If it's a requirement it's a requirement. Set the page to no index and you should be just fine. You only need to be concerned if the content was an article that has been exploited all over the blogosphere. Putting a disclosure statement on your site that others have is not something Google will penalize.
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  • Profile picture of the author alistair
    I can only speak for myself but I've never tried getting a disclosure page ranked, quite the opposite.
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    • Profile picture of the author JohnMcCabe
      Originally Posted by alistair View Post

      I can only speak for myself but I've never tried getting a disclosure page ranked, quite the opposite.
      If you're talking to me, I never said anything about trying to rank a disclosure page.

      Most associates, and the OP if I read correctly, are worried about putting the verbiage on product or review pages - pages they are trying desperately to get ranked.

      My advice was to use an image of the verbiage linked to a disclosure page, then block the spiders from following that link. One could also use the robots.txt to block access to the disclosure page, but not if the verbiage is on every page.
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      • Profile picture of the author Lares
        I added it to my Privacy Policy and noindex nofollow it.

        If you want it on every page you could also make it as picture and add it to footer or sidebar so google cant read.
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  • Profile picture of the author Stuart Walker
    You worry too much. Put it on your site as they ask. Google really doesn't care about 2 lines of text.
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  • Profile picture of the author andrej
    Thank you all for your replies and advice.

    I have another question: Can that disclaimer statement be on the About page of my website? They don't say that it has to be on the homepage.
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    • Profile picture of the author savidge4
      I believe it can be anywhere.
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    • Profile picture of the author tekken2
      It just needs to be on the site somewhere.

      I have mine on a privacy policy page.

      If you want to see some other examples of affiliate sites, you can google the disclaimer and see how others show it.

      The policy states "You must, however, clearly state the following on your site" it does not ask for it to be on each page.
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