Doozly
You can have a working Buy on Amazon button on a WordPress page in about two minutes, with no plugin and no code. Below is exactly how — and then the part that every guide to this skips: what Amazon’s own trademark guidelines actually let you put on that button. The usual advice is to paint it Amazon orange. Amazon’s guidelines say something else.
The two-minute version, no plugin
WordPress has had a Button block for years and it is entirely sufficient for a single link:
- Add a Button block where you want it.
- Type the label.
Buy on Amazonis the conventional one;Check the priceandSee it on Amazonare just as good and set expectations better. - Paste your affiliate link into the link field — the tagged one, not the address bar URL. SiteStripe gives you it.
- Open Advanced in the block sidebar and put
sponsored nofollowin the rel field. - Write the disclosure above it, not below.
That is the whole job. If you have one product to link to, nothing on this page needs software, and any article telling you otherwise is selling you something. The interesting questions start after the button exists.
The link is the part that earns
A button is a rectangle. Everything that decides whether it pays sits in the URL behind it.
The tag has to be there. An Amazon link without ?tag=yourname-20 is an ordinary link: the purchase completes, the customer is happy, and you earn nothing. Amazon has no other way to attribute it. This is the single most expensive mistake on the page, and it is invisible — the button looks perfectly normal. Where that tag comes from.
rel="sponsored" is not optional. Google has asked for affiliate links to carry it since 2019, and treats an unmarked paid link as a link scheme. nofollow alongside it does no harm. The Button block puts both in for you once you fill the rel field.
The tag works in one country. A United States tag earns nothing on amazon.de, amazon.co.uk or amazon.ca — those are separate programmes with separate IDs. If your readers are international, one button is one country’s worth of them. Work out what share of yours that is.
What Amazon lets you put on the button
Here is where nearly every tutorial gives advice that Amazon’s own documentation contradicts. The standard recommendation is to style the button in Amazon’s orange, #FF9900, so it looks like the real thing. Read the Associates Trademark Guidelines and the picture changes.
On the marks themselves, Amazon is unambiguous:
You may not alter or modify any Amazon Mark in any manner. You may display an Amazon Mark only in the exact format in which we provide it to you.
And the two marks people most want are the two they cannot have: the Amazon logo and the Amazon Smile design are not available to influencers or publishers. There is no approved “Buy on Amazon” button graphic to download, which is precisely why every plugin and every tutorial reconstructs one from a hex code.
What Amazon does hand out is the Available at Amazon logo, in white or in squid ink, with rules about clear space and minimum size. If you want an official mark on the page, that is the one you are entitled to use, unaltered. Anywhere you display it, Amazon asks for the attribution line:
Amazon and the Amazon logo are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates.
So what is safe? Plain text on a button you styled yourself. Naming the shop you are sending someone to is ordinary referential use and is what every Associate does — the guidelines govern Amazon’s marks, meaning the logos and designs they supply, not the word in a sentence. Reproducing Amazon’s trade dress so that your button passes for Amazon’s own is the part with no permission behind it.
This is a summary of a published policy, checked August 23, 2026, not legal advice, and Amazon revises it. Read the guidelines yourself before you make a decision that matters.
There is a second reason to design your own, and it is the more practical one: a button that mimics Amazon’s tells the reader they are already on Amazon. They are not. A button that clearly belongs to your site, saying where it leads, converts on trust rather than on confusion — and it will still be legal next year.
It has to be obvious that the button goes to Amazon
This clause catches a habit half the affiliate world has, and it names buttons specifically. From the Programme Policies:
You will not use a link shortening service, button, hyperlink or other ad placement in a manner that makes it unclear that you are linking to an Amazon Site.
And separately, on hiding where a link goes:
You will not cloak, hide, spoof, or otherwise obscure the URL of your Site containing Special Links (including by use of Redirecting Links).
Which puts a question mark over the popular arrangement of routing every affiliate link through yoursite.com/go/product-name. Those plugins exist for good reasons — one place to change a link, click counts of your own — and Amazon is not banning redirects outright. What it forbids is the redirect being used to make the destination unclear.
There is a third clause with teeth, and it is the one that costs money rather than the account: a purchase is disqualified if the customer reaches Amazon “via an intermediate site, without requiring the customer to click on a link or take some other affirmative action”. An automatic bounce through a middle page is not a referral in Amazon’s reading of it.
The safe arrangement is unglamorous: a button that says Amazon, pointing at Amazon, with the tag on it. If you want click counts, measure the click on your own page rather than by bouncing the reader through one.
What the label should say, and how many times
Two problems with Buy on Amazon that only show up at scale.
It promises a purchase decision the reader has not made. Check the price on Amazon is more honest, sets the expectation of a price that may have moved since you wrote, and sidesteps the awkwardness of a price you are not allowed to have typed in yourself. It also tends to be clicked by people closer to buying, because it asks less of them.
And twelve identical buttons on one page are twelve identical links. A screen-reader user can pull up a list of every link on a page; if all of them read “Buy on Amazon”, that list is useless. Naming the product in the accessible label fixes it without changing the visible design:
| Attribute | Why it is there |
|---|---|
rel="sponsored" | Google’s marker for paid and affiliate links, expected since 2019. |
rel="nofollow" | Harmless alongside it. Use both if you are unsure — they are not exclusive. |
aria-label="Check the price of the Anker 737 on Amazon" | What a screen reader announces instead of the visible label. Only needed when the same words repeat. |
| Contrast of at least 4.5:1 | Amazon orange on white is close to the line. Test the pair you actually use rather than assuming. |
The disclosure goes above the button
The United States Federal Trade Commission requires affiliate relationships to be disclosed clearly and conspicuously, and its guidance is specific about placement: a disclosure has to be hard to miss, not buried in a footer or hidden behind a link to another page.
In practice that means one plain line, in the reader’s path, before the first affiliate link on the page rather than after it. Not a legal paragraph. Something like “Links to Amazon on this page are affiliate links — if you buy, we earn a commission at no extra cost to you.” The disclosure on this site is the same idea.
The Associates Operating Agreement asks for essentially the same thing in its own words, so this is not a case of choosing which rule to follow.
When a button stops being enough
Everything above scales badly, and it fails in a predictable order. Worth knowing where the line is before you install anything:
| What you have | What to use |
|---|---|
| One product in one article | The Button block. Genuinely. |
| The same product in twenty articles | Something that stores the link once, so a change is one edit rather than twenty. |
| Prices or ratings shown next to the button | Amazon’s API. Typing prices by hand goes stale, and stale prices break the Operating Agreement. |
| Readers outside your own country | A tag per marketplace and routing, or you earn nothing from them. |
Only the last two really need software. That is what this plugin does: As an Amazon Associate we earn from qualifying purchases. renders the box and the button, carries a separate Associates tag for each of the twenty-two marketplaces, and fills the title, image, price and rating from Amazon when you connect a credential. The documentation has every attribute, and the piece on affiliate stores covers what happens when one button turns into a site full of them.
Common questions
Do I need a plugin to add a Buy on Amazon button?
No. The WordPress Button block does it: add the block, type the label, paste your tagged affiliate link, and set rel to sponsored nofollow under Advanced. A plugin earns its place when you have many links to keep current, want prices from Amazon, or have readers in more than one country.
Can I use the Amazon logo on my button?
No. Amazon’s Associates Trademark Guidelines state that the Amazon logo and the Amazon Smile design are not available to influencers or publishers, and that a mark may be displayed only in the exact format Amazon provides. The one logo Associates may use is Available at Amazon, unaltered, in white or squid ink.
What colour should the button be?
Whatever fits your site. Amazon’s orange is widely recommended and widely copied, but Amazon publishes no button graphic for Associates and forbids altering its marks — so a button built to pass for Amazon’s own is imitating trade dress you were never given. A button that looks like part of your site is safer and reads as more honest.
Do affiliate buttons need rel=”sponsored”?
Yes. Google has asked for it since 2019 and treats unmarked paid links as a link scheme. Use rel="sponsored nofollow"; both together are fine, and the Button block accepts them in its rel field.
Can I route my Amazon links through a redirect on my own domain?
Not in a way that hides where they go. Amazon’s policies forbid cloaking, hiding, spoofing or otherwise obscuring the URL, including by redirecting links, and forbid using a shortener or button in a manner that makes it unclear you are linking to Amazon. A purchase is also disqualified if the reader arrives through an intermediate site without an affirmative click of their own. A redirect that plainly says Amazon is a different thing from one that conceals it.
Should every button say the same thing?
Visually yes, for recognition. But a screen-reader user can list every link on the page, and a list of twelve identical “Buy on Amazon” entries tells them nothing. Give each button an aria-label naming the product; the visible text stays as it is.
Should the button open in a new tab?
It is a preference, not a rule. Opening in the same tab is the more modern default and Amazon does not require either. If you do open a new tab, say so, because an unexpected new window is a small annoyance that costs a little trust.
Will one button work for readers in other countries?
No. Your tag belongs to one national programme, and a reader who buys on another Amazon store earns you nothing — not a smaller commission, nothing. Each country needs its own tracking ID and the link needs to point at the right store.
Where does the affiliate disclosure go?
Above the first affiliate link, in the reader’s path, in plain language. The FTC asks for disclosures to be clear and conspicuous; a line in the footer or a link to a separate page does not meet that.
The summary worth keeping: the button is trivial, the link is not. Get the tag right, mark it as sponsored, disclose it above the fold, and style it as yours rather than as Amazon’s. The only reasons to reach for software are keeping many links current and getting paid for readers who do not shop where you do.
