Linking to external sites in industry news roundups has a multi-faceted impact on email deliverability. While linking to reputable sites can signal value and even improve sender reputation, poor link choices can severely damage it. A primary concern is the reputation of the linked domains, as linking to spammy, blacklisted, or compromised sites can trigger spam filters. It's also important to maintain a balanced ratio of text to links, as a disproportionate number of links can make an email appear spammy. Wrapping links in a click-through domain provides some protection, while avoiding URL shorteners is generally recommended. Finally, including original content and context around the links can improve engagement and prevent your newsletter from being viewed as low-value.
10 marketer opinions
Linking to external sites in industry news roundups impacts email deliverability in nuanced ways. It's not inherently detrimental, and reputable links can even improve sender reputation by signaling valuable resources. However, the quality, relevance, and quantity of those links are critical. Poor link reputation (linking to spammy or compromised sites), a high ratio of links to text, and the use of URL shorteners can all negatively affect deliverability. Ensuring links are trustworthy, relevant, and have descriptive anchor text, while also carefully using link tracking and original content, are all crucial.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Sendinblue Blog answers that linking to external resources isn't inherently bad for deliverability, but the quality and relevance of those links matter. Ensure the linked content is trustworthy and aligns with your audience's interests.
25 Nov 2024 - Sendinblue Blog
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email on Acid shares the importance of using link tracking carefully. Make sure your link tracking domain has a good reputation, as this is what ISPs will see when evaluating your email's links.
22 Nov 2024 - Email on Acid
8 expert opinions
Linking to external sites in industry news roundups has a complex impact on email deliverability. Experts agree that the reputation of the linked domains is crucial; linking to sites with poor reputations or those blacklisted for spam can harm your sender reputation. Wrapping links in your click-through domain helps mitigate risk, but bare links are more vulnerable. Maintain a good ratio of content to links to avoid being perceived as spammy, and add original content to provide context. Also, use the article title rather than the raw domain in the visible link text. While linking to external sites is generally acceptable, constantly monitor the reputation of the sites you link to.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks explains that if the links are wrapped in your click-through domains, it's mostly OK. If they're bare links, there's a risk that a bad reputation of those domains may hurt delivery.
5 Apr 2023 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says that sending to 'not our sites' should not be a problem, particularly if you're wrapping them in your domain.
4 Jun 2024 - Email Geeks
5 technical articles
Documentation consistently emphasizes that linking to external sites impacts email deliverability primarily through domain reputation. Linking to sites known for spam, phishing, or listed on blocklists (like Spamhaus) can significantly harm your sender reputation and lead to emails being flagged as spam. It's crucial to ensure linked domains are trustworthy and safe to avoid deliverability issues. Balancing the number of links with the overall message content is also important.
Technical article
Documentation from RFC explains that the message format allows for inclusion of multiple links and content, but it is important to balance the number of URLs to avoid issues with spam filters.
5 May 2025 - RFC 5322
Technical article
Documentation from Google explains that a sender's domain reputation is influenced by the domains they link to in their messages. Linking to domains with poor reputations can negatively impact the sender's deliverability.
29 Nov 2024 - Google Postmaster Tools
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