Affiliate marketing powers steady revenue for countless blogs, and the Amazon Associates program stands out as one of the largest and most trusted. With millions of products, there's always a perfect recommendation to earn commissions. Amazon even provides a built-in short URL service for affiliates. In this guide, we'll walk you through creating these short links seamlessly in WordPress.
Standard Amazon affiliate links are lengthy and cluttered with parameters, like this example:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470560541/ref=as_li_ss_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=0470560541&linkCode=as2&tag=wpb09-20
These long URLs are hard to read and prone to typing errors that break them.
One common fix is cloaking links with plugins like ThirstyAffiliates, enabling custom shorts like:
https://www.wpbeginner.com/refer/prowp
However, cloaking hides the destination, which can erode trust. Revealing an Amazon redirect leverages the brand's credibility, potentially boosting clicks and conversions for your recommendations.
Amazon's native shortener uses the amzn.com domain to convert any affiliate link into a concise version.
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There are two straightforward formats for Amazon affiliate short links. The first uses amazon.com:
Add /dp/yourproduct/?tag=youraffiliatetag.
Example:
https://amazon.com/dp/0470560541/?tag=wpb09-20
For an even shorter version, use amzn.com: Drop the /dp/ prefix and append your product ID and tag.
https://amzn.com/0470560541/?tag=wpb09-20
That's all it takes. This method has helped our team at WPBeginner streamline affiliate links for better user experience and performance. Check out our roundup of the 10 best WordPress affiliate marketing tools and plugins next.
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