SiteStripe image links stopped showing. Here's why, and what to do about it.
Your old SiteStripe image links are broken because Amazon withdrew them. Amazon removed the Image and Text+Image options from SiteStripe on December 1, 2023, and embeds made with those options stopped rendering at the end of that month. Nothing is wrong with your account or your site. SiteStripe text links were not part of the change and carried on working. The fix is to replace each dead embed with a text link, your own image linked to Amazon, or product data from Amazon's API.
Amazon announced this by email to Associates, and we haven't found a public copy of the notice. The dates above are as reported consistently by affiliate publications and plugin vendors at the time.
Does this affect links in YouTube descriptions?
Not directly. A YouTube description is plain text, so it could never hold an image embed. The Amazon links in your descriptions are text links or short links, and neither was withdrawn.
Where YouTube creators do run into this is everywhere else they sent viewers:
- A companion blog or website with a post per video.
- A "gear I use" or "kit" page linked from every description.
- Email newsletter archives and resource pages.
If your descriptions point to a gear page that was built with SiteStripe image embeds in 2021, viewers who click through today see a page of gaps. The link in the description still works, so nothing looks wrong from YouTube's side.
If a link in a description has stopped working, the cause is something else: a removed product, a missing tag, or a short link that now lands on Amazon's homepage. See why Amazon affiliate links stop earning.
What a broken SiteStripe embed looks like
- Image links: a broken-image icon, an empty box, or nothing at all where the product photo used to be. If the image was the only clickable thing, the affiliate link has effectively gone with it.
- Text+Image links: these were small embedded frames showing a photo, title and price. They now show as blank space.
Because the page still loads and the surrounding text is intact, it is easy to miss unless you look at your own old pages.
How to find the dead embeds on your site
Search your site's content for the code SiteStripe produced. The embeds were
<iframe> and <img> tags that loaded from Amazon's ad
servers, typically an address on amazon-adsystem.com. Searching your posts for
that domain usually finds most of them. On WordPress, a database search plugin or the
post-list search will do it. On a site builder, you may have to open older pages one at a
time, starting with the pages your video descriptions link to.
Prioritise by traffic. The gear page linked from every description matters more than a blog post from 2019 that nobody visits.
What to replace SiteStripe image links with
Option 1: a plain text link
The quickest fix. Generate a text link for the product in Associates Central or SiteStripe and put it where the embed was, with the product name as the link text. It is less eye-catching than a photo, and it works.
Option 2: your own image, linked to Amazon
You are a video creator, so you probably have footage of the product. A still from your own video or a photo you took, wrapped in your affiliate link, replaces the old embed and looks better than a catalogue shot. Use images you made. Amazon's policies restrict how its own product images may be used, and saving them from a product page to host yourself is not a route we'd suggest.
Option 3: product data from Amazon's API
Amazon's sanctioned way to show its product images, titles and prices on your site is its API. Amazon has deprecated the Product Advertising API and replaced it with the Creators API, so any plugin you choose needs to support the newer one. API access has eligibility conditions: Amazon's documentation cites a minimum number of recent qualifying sales. If you qualify, an affiliate plugin that uses your own API credentials can rebuild product boxes with live images. More on the API change in what changed for Associates in 2026.
What not to do
Don't leave the dead code in place and hope it returns; as of our last check Amazon has not brought these link types back. And don't use tools that copy images or prices off Amazon's pages without the API. That puts your Associates account at risk for the sake of a thumbnail.
While you're replacing them, check the links too
An embed from 2021 points at a product from 2021. Before you rebuild the link, open the product:
- Is it still available, or has a newer model replaced it?
- Does the new link carry your current tag? If you have changed Associates accounts or use several tracking IDs, make sure it is the one you intend.
- Does a short link still land on the product and not on the homepage?
The free Amazon link checker follows one link to its destination and reports whether it is live, where it lands and whether a tag is present.
Common questions
Why did my Amazon affiliate images disappear?
If they were made with SiteStripe's Image or Text+Image options, Amazon turned those off at the end of 2023. Images supplied through the API or hosted by you were not affected by that change.
Do SiteStripe text links still work?
Text links were not part of the withdrawal. An individual text link can still fail for other reasons, such as the product being removed.
Did amzn.to short links break as well?
No, short links were not part of this change. They do stop being useful when the product behind them goes away. See do Amazon affiliate links expire?
Did I lose commission because of this?
If the image was the link, visitors to that page have had nothing to click since the embed stopped rendering. How much that cost depends on the page's traffic, and there is no report that will tell you. Fix the busiest pages first.
Can Channel Workbench find broken SiteStripe embeds?
No. Channel Workbench scans the links in your YouTube video descriptions, not the HTML of your website. It will flag possible issues with the Amazon links in those descriptions, and it will check that a link to your own gear page still loads, but it does not look inside that page.
Check your whole channel in one scan
Channel Workbench connects to YouTube with read-only access — we can't edit, upload, or post anything — scans every description in your back catalog, and hands you a prioritized fix queue with an estimate of the revenue at risk. The Starter plan is free forever: one scan a month, top findings included, no credit card.
Related: Why Amazon affiliate links stop earning · Do Amazon affiliate links expire? · How to find broken affiliate links on your channel · What changed in 2026 · Channel Workbench vs AMZ Watcher