Summary
Experts, marketers, and documentation all converge on the idea that click tracking is vital for understanding user engagement, but careful filtering of bot traffic is crucial. Blocking legitimate click tracking can negatively impact deliverability. Bot traffic skews analytics, inflates metrics, negatively impacts sender reputation (potentially triggering spam traps), and poses risks to one-click unsubscribe features. Handling the one-click unsubscribe with care is also paramount to avoid accidental unsubscribes. Employing methods like CAPTCHAs, rate limiting, pre-flight link checks, monitoring unsubscribe rates, segmenting engaged audiences, leveraging email validation services, adhering to HTTP standards (POST requests for server-state changes), and implementing the List-Unsubscribe header are important considerations.
Key findings
- Analytics Skewed by Bots: Bot traffic makes it difficult to get accurate insights into user engagement.
- Sender Reputation Risks: Bots can trigger spam traps, causing damage to sender reputation.
- One-Click Unsubscribe Vulnerability: Bots can automatically unsubscribe users through one-click unsubscribe options.
- Blocking Clicks is Harmful: Blocking click tracking altogether can be detrimental to deliverability.
- HTTP methods matter: Using a GET for actions such as unsubscribing is likely to cause problems.
Key considerations
- Implement Bot Detection: Utilize bot filtering tools, advanced analytics, and email validation services.
- Handle Unsubscribes Carefully: Implement rate-limiting, CAPTCHAs, and monitor unsubscribe rates to prevent bot abuse.
- Perform Pre-Flight Checks: Validate links to identify and address bot-triggered issues.
- Segment Audiences: Segment based on engagement to exclude inactive or bot-like users.
- Adhere to HTTP standards: Use POST requests for state-changing actions.
- The term one-click has different meanings: The term 'one-click' does not imply 'no-click'.
What email marketers say
10 marketer opinions
Experts recommend accepting click tracking for genuine user engagement insights, but emphasize the critical need to filter bot traffic to avoid skewed analytics, inflated metrics, and potential damage to sender reputation. Implementing bot detection measures, rate-limiting activity on unsubscribe pages, using CAPTCHAs, performing pre-flight checks for link validation, monitoring unsubscribe rates, segmenting audiences based on engagement, and employing email validation services are all recommended practices. Caution is advised regarding one-click unsubscribe links due to the risk of unintended unsubscriptions by bots.
Key opinions
- Skewed Analytics: Bot traffic can distort analytics, making it difficult to accurately assess user engagement and conversion rates.
- Sender Reputation: Bot activity, such as triggering spam traps or generating false engagement, can negatively impact sender reputation.
- Inflated Metrics: Bot clicks can inflate open rates and other email marketing metrics, leading to inaccurate campaign performance assessments.
- Unsubscribe Risks: One-click unsubscribe links are vulnerable to bot clicks, potentially resulting in unintended unsubscriptions of legitimate users.
Key considerations
- Bot Filtering: Implement bot filtering tools and advanced analytics to identify and exclude bot traffic for more accurate reporting.
- Rate Limiting: Apply rate-limiting to bot activity on unsubscribe pages to mitigate unintended consequences from malicious bots.
- CAPTCHA: Consider using CAPTCHAs on unsubscribe pages to prevent bots from accidentally unsubscribing users, balancing security with user experience.
- Pre-Flight Checks: Perform pre-flight checks, including link validation, to identify and address broken or suspicious links often triggered by bot scans.
- Monitor Unsubscribes: Monitor unsubscribe rates for anomalies, as significant spikes could indicate bot activity requiring further investigation.
- Segmentation: Segment audiences based on engagement and exclude inactive users or those consistently flagged by bot detection systems to maintain a cleaner list.
- Email Validation: Employ email validation services to detect and remove invalid or bot-generated email addresses to prevent sending to spam traps.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Neil Patel explains that bot traffic can skew analytics, making it difficult to accurately assess user engagement and conversion rates. They recommend using bot filtering tools to clean up data and get a clearer picture of campaign performance.
19 Jul 2024 - Neil Patel
Marketer view
Email marketer from Reddit forum r/emailmarketing shares their experience dealing with bot clicks inflating their open rates and suggests implementing a CAPTCHA on unsubscribe pages to prevent bots from accidentally unsubscribing users. They explain it is worth slightly hurting the user experience to ensure they have clean, actionable, user data.
13 May 2024 - Reddit
What the experts say
8 expert opinions
Experts recommend allowing clicks for reporting, differentiating between human and non-human interaction. Blocking all clicks can negatively impact deliverability by resembling malware tactics. One-click unsubscribe options pose a risk of unintended unsubscriptions due to bot activity, requiring careful implementation and adherence to HTTP standards (using POST requests for state-changing actions). Identifying bots is complex, and attempting to serve different content to them is discouraged. Interaction from honeypots counts against your email sending reputation.
Key opinions
- Reporting is key: Clicks should be allowed but handled carefully for reporting purposes, differentiating human from non-human interaction.
- Deliverability risks: Blocking clicks can negatively impact deliverability by being associated with malware tactics.
- Unsubscribe Risks: One-click unsubscribe options can lead to accidental unsubscriptions due to bot activity.
- Bot Identification: Identifying bots can be very complex.
- Honeypots Hurt: Honeypot interactions negatively affect sender reputation.
Key considerations
- Differentiate Clicks: Distinguish between human and bot-generated clicks in reporting.
- HTTP Standards: Adhere to HTTP standards (using POST requests) for actions that change the server state, like unsubscribing users.
- One-Click Implementation: Implement one-click unsubscribe options with caution due to the risk of unintended bot interactions.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says that anything that makes a change on a webpage MUST be triggered by a POST request from user interaction. If you have a GET that changes persistent state your web app is irrecoverably broken.
9 Oct 2024 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks explains that clicks should be allowed, but treated differently in user reporting. Blocking them could make your mail seem high risk, as it mimics malware evasion tactics.
15 Nov 2024 - Email Geeks
What the documentation says
4 technical articles
Technical documentation emphasizes that blocking search engine crawlers negatively impacts SEO and deliverability. Adhering to HTTP standards by using POST requests for actions like unsubscribing prevents unintended bot interactions. Implementing List-Unsubscribe headers with both mailto: and HTTP options, using POST for the latter, mitigates bot-induced unsubscriptions. Avoiding interaction with spam traps, which are designed to catch spammers and bots, is crucial to maintain sender reputation.
Key findings
- SEO Impact: Blocking search engine crawlers negatively impacts SEO by preventing content indexing and potentially affecting deliverability.
- HTTP Standards: Using GET requests for actions that modify server-side state (like unsubscribing) is against HTTP standards and can lead to bot-induced issues.
- Unsubscribe Header: The List-Unsubscribe header offers a standardized method for users to unsubscribe from mailing lists.
- Spam Traps Harmful: Interacting with spam traps damages sender reputation.
Key considerations
- Allow Crawlers: Ensure search engine crawlers can access your site to maintain SEO and verify legitimacy.
- Use POST for State Changes: Use POST requests for actions that modify server-side state, such as unsubscribing users.
- Implement List-Unsubscribe: Implement the List-Unsubscribe header with both mailto: and HTTP options (POST for HTTP) for better unsubscribe management.
- Avoid Spam Traps: Implement strategies to avoid interacting with spam traps to protect sender reputation.
Technical article
Documentation from IETF explains the List-Unsubscribe header, which allows recipients to unsubscribe from mailing lists. Implementing both mailto: and HTTP unsubscribe options, with the latter requiring a POST request, can help mitigate bot-induced unsubscriptions.
23 Apr 2022 - datatracker.ietf.org
Technical article
Documentation from Spamhaus explains how spam traps are designed to catch spammers and bots. Interacting with these traps can severely damage sender reputation, highlighting the need to filter bot traffic.
26 Feb 2023 - Spamhaus
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