Summary
The preference for shorter email subdomains arises from a combination of branding, user experience, technical, and historical considerations. While modern email clients often display the friendly name, shorter subdomains enhance brand visibility, improve user trust by being easier to remember and type, and help maintain a cleaner sender reputation. They also contribute to better visual presentation on mobile devices and circumvent limitations in some sending verification systems. Historically, shorter domains optimized bandwidth in older systems. However, it's also noted that recipients primarily focus on the top-level domain for verification, and excessively long subdomains can introduce unnecessary clutter.
Key findings
- Branding & UX: Shorter subdomains enhance brand visibility, are easier to remember/type, boosting user trust.
- Sender Reputation: Simplified monitoring and management contributes to a cleaner sender reputation.
- Mobile Optimization: Improved visual presentation and reduced address truncation on mobile devices.
- Technical Factors: Avoidance of length limitations in older parsing systems & some sending verification systems; increased message efficiency.
- Historical Factors: Historically optimized bandwidth usage in older email systems.
Key considerations
- MUA Display: Modern clients often display the friendly name, reducing the visibility of subdomains.
- Recipient Focus: Recipients focus on top-level domain for sender verification; subdomain is secondary.
- Visual Clutter: Overly long subdomains introduce visual clutter and detract from primary brand elements.
- Relevance of Historical Factors: Bandwidth/processing speeds are less critical with modern systems.
What email marketers say
10 marketer opinions
The preference for shorter email subdomains stems from a mix of technical, branding, and user experience considerations. While domain length might be technically irrelevant due to how MUAs display sender information, shorter subdomains can enhance brand visibility, improve user trust by being easier to remember, and help maintain a cleaner sender reputation. They also aid in better visual presentation on mobile devices and avoid limitations with some sending verification systems and older email parsing systems.
Key opinions
- Branding: Shorter subdomains emphasize the main domain, improving brand recognition.
- User Experience: Easier to remember and type, reducing errors and improving trust.
- Sender Reputation: Simpler to monitor and manage, aiding in maintaining a clean reputation.
- Mobile Viewing: More visually appealing on smaller mobile screens.
- Technical Limitations: Avoids length limitations in some sending verification systems and simplifies parsing.
Key considerations
- MUA Display: Many email clients prioritize the 'friendly from' name over the full email address, potentially diminishing the relevance of subdomain length.
- User Verification: Recipients primarily focus on the top-level domain for sender verification, making the subdomain less critical for trust.
- Noise and Clutter: Longer subdomains can introduce unnecessary visual clutter, detracting from the primary domain.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Neil Patel's Blog explains that shorter subdomains can improve branding by making the primary domain more prominent in the email address.
7 Aug 2024 - Neil Patel's Blog
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that recipients care about verifying the sender, which relates more to the top level domain than the subdomain and that a long subdomain is just noise / clutter / friction in that process and for that UX reason, and not for any technical reasons, he prefers short subdomains.
10 Apr 2025 - Email Geeks
What the experts say
4 expert opinions
Experts suggest historical technical reasons, sender reputation management, and recipient perception play a role in the preference for shorter email subdomains. Shorter subdomains were historically used to optimize bandwidth and improve processing speeds in older email systems. Shorter subdomains also may simplify monitoring and management of sender reputation. Furthermore, avoiding redundant or contradictory terms in subdomains can improve recipient comfort and recognition.
Key opinions
- Historical Bandwidth: Shorter domains were used in the past to optimize bandwidth and processing speeds.
- Sender Reputation: Shorter subdomains may help simplify sender reputation monitoring.
- Recipient Perception: Avoiding confusing subdomain terms improves recipient trust and recognition.
Key considerations
- Relevance of Historical Factors: Bandwidth and processing speed are less critical considerations with modern systems.
- Subjectivity: Terms that are redundant or contradictory may be seen differently by different recipients.
Expert view
Expert from Spam Resource explains that shorter subdomains can lead to slightly improved deliverability due to easier processing by older email systems, though this is less critical now than in the past.
23 May 2022 - Spam Resource
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says that looking at the particular example, the terms 'info' and 'notifications' are either redundant or contradictory, and he doesn’t see it helping with recipient comfort.
24 Mar 2023 - Email Geeks
What the documentation says
4 technical articles
Technical documentation suggests that shorter email subdomains contribute to message size efficiency, reduce truncation likelihood in email clients (especially on mobile), simplify DNS management, and allow more space for the local-part of the email address due to overall length limits.
Key findings
- Message Size: Shorter domains improve message size efficiency.
- Reduced Truncation: Decreases the likelihood of address truncation in email clients.
- DNS Simplification: Eases DNS management and reduces configuration errors.
- Local-Part Space: Maximizes space for the username portion of the email address.
Key considerations
- Hard Limits: While shorter is preferable, there isn't a strict limit on subdomain length.
- Modern Systems: The significance of message size and parsing speed is reduced with modern systems.
Technical article
Documentation from Microsoft shares that while DNS allows long domain names, shorter names can simplify DNS management and reduce the risk of errors during configuration.
7 Apr 2023 - Microsoft
Technical article
Documentation from RFC Editor specifies that while there isn't a hard limit on subdomain length, shorter domain names contribute to overall message size efficiency and parsing speed for mail servers.
2 Oct 2024 - RFC Editor
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