How to Check Affiliate Links Are Disclosed

An affiliate page has two separate obligations, and people usually satisfy one of them.

The technical one is marking the links so search engines know they are paid. The regulatory one is telling readers, clearly, before they click. Neither substitutes for the other and only the second carries real penalties.

The rel attribute

Search engines expect monetised links to be marked so they do not pass ranking signals the way an editorial link does.

rel="sponsored" is the specific value for paid and affiliate links. rel="nofollow" is still accepted and predates the more specific values. Either is fine; nothing at all is the problem.

Unmarked affiliate links on a page full of them look, to a search engine, like editorial endorsement that happens to be commercial. That is the pattern link schemes are built on, and sites have received manual actions over it.

The check is mechanical: every link to an affiliate destination carries the attribute. Redirects through your own domain still need it on the outbound link from your page.

Disclosure is the one with regulators attached

Advertising regulators in most jurisdictions require material connections to be disclosed clearly, and they have been increasingly active about it.

The requirements are consistent in spirit across regimes:

Clear. Plain language. “This post contains affiliate links” works; “some links may be monetised in partnership arrangements” does not.

Prominent. Visible without scrolling past the first affiliate link, and without expanding anything.

Before the click. A disclosure in the footer, after the reader has already clicked, has not disclosed anything.

Not buried. Not in small grey text, not inside a collapsed section, not only in a linked policy page.

Cloaking is fine, hiding is not

Redirecting affiliate links through your own domain — /go/product rather than a long tracking URL — is standard practice. It keeps URLs tidy, lets you change networks without editing every post, and makes clicks measurable.

That is not what regulators mean by a problem. The problem is when the redirection is used to obscure the commercial relationship rather than to tidy a URL.

The distinguishing question is simple: does the reader know, before clicking, that this is a paid link? If the disclosure is there and clear, the redirect is a technical convenience. If it is not, the redirect is part of the concealment.

Disclose on every page, not once

A disclosure on the about page does not cover a review published two years later.

Readers arrive on individual pages from search and social, and most never see any other page on the site. A site-wide policy they did not read has not disclosed anything to them.

The requirement in most guidance is that the disclosure appears where the affiliate links are, on each page carrying them. A template that inserts it automatically above the first affiliate link solves this permanently and removes the risk of forgetting on an individual post.

The same applies to video and audio: a written disclosure in a description does not cover a spoken recommendation, which needs disclosing in the content itself.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Marking links with rel and providing no disclosure, or the reverse.
• Placing the disclosure in the footer.
• Using vague wording that avoids the words “affiliate” or “paid”.
• Disclosing on some pages and not others, which is worse than a consistent policy.
• Forgetting that images, buttons and banner links are links too.

How to do it with Affiliate Link Cloaking Checker

The Affiliate Link Cloaking Checker audits both obligations.

1. Paste the page HTML or a list of affiliate URLs.
2. Add rel="sponsored" to every link that lacks it, including image and button links.
3. Move the disclosure above the first affiliate link if it is anywhere else.
4. Check the wording is plain enough that a reader cannot miss what it means.

Your national advertising regulator publishes guidance on disclosure — worth reading once. Other SEO tools are in the tools directory.

Frequently asked questions

What rel value should affiliate links use?

rel="sponsored" is the specific attribute for paid and affiliate links; rel="nofollow" is still accepted. What matters is that monetised links are marked rather than passing signals like editorial ones.

Where does the disclosure go?

Before the first affiliate link, visible without scrolling or expanding anything. A footer disclosure comes after the reader has already clicked and does not meet the requirement.

Is link cloaking a problem?

Redirecting through your own domain for tidiness and tracking is standard. It becomes a problem when it obscures the commercial relationship, which is a disclosure question rather than a technical one.

Final thought

Put the disclosure above the first link, in plain words. The rel attribute is for search engines; the disclosure is for the regulator and the reader, and only one of those issues fines.

Try the free Affiliate Link Cloaking Checker