Summary
The use of link shorteners in email marketing is a nuanced but generally discouraged practice. While they offer benefits like concise URLs and click tracking, their impact on email deliverability can be significant and negative. Shared link shortening services (like Bitly or TinyURL) often harbor a mixed reputation due to their use by spammers, which can lead to legitimate emails being flagged by spam filters or even placed on blocklists. The consensus among deliverability professionals is to avoid generic shorteners in favor of branded domains or dedicated tracking links from your email service provider (ESP) that maintain domain alignment. This helps build and protect your sender reputation.
Key findings
- Deliverability risk: Generic link shorteners like Bitly and TinyURL are widely known to negatively affect email deliverability.
- Spam filter red flags: These shorteners can raise red flags for spam filters, leading to emails being sent to spam folders or rejected entirely.
- Reputation dependence: The reputation of a link shortener's domain is shared among all users. If spammers abuse it, legitimate senders using the same shortener suffer.
- Domain alignment: Maintaining domain alignment (where the link domain matches your sending domain) is crucial for trust and deliverability.
- Branded shorteners: Using custom, branded link shorteners that leverage your own domain can mitigate some risks, as you control their reputation.
Key considerations
- Avoid generic shorteners: It is generally advisable to avoid using free, generic link shorteners in email marketing campaigns due to their inherent risks to deliverability.
- Prioritize branding: If shortening links is necessary, invest in a branded link shortener or utilize your ESP's custom tracking domain feature to maintain control over your link's reputation and visibility.
- Sender reputation: Your sender reputation is paramount. Anything that introduces uncertainty or shared risk, such as generic shorteners, should be approached with extreme caution, as highlighted by EasySendy.
- Transparency: Recipients and spam filters prefer to see clear, recognizable links. Shortened links, especially generic ones, can obscure the true destination, leading to distrust.
What email marketers say
Email marketers often debate the practical necessity versus the deliverability risks of using link shorteners. While some acknowledge the appeal for aesthetics or analytics, many have learned through experience that generic shorteners can seriously jeopardize their email campaigns by triggering spam filters and damaging their sender reputation. The prevailing sentiment leans towards avoiding them entirely or, at minimum, using branded solutions.
Key opinions
- Shared domain risk: Marketers frequently express concern that shared link shortening domains are prone to abuse, leading to a diminished reputation that affects all users, good or bad.
- General avoidance: Many marketers simply conclude that, for email, all link shorteners are bad for deliverability.
- Branding preference: If shortening is a must, marketers prefer options that allow for branding or white-labeling with their own domain, providing more control over their links' perceived trustworthiness.
- Trust issues: Shortened links are often associated with phishing and spam, which erodes recipient trust, regardless of the actual destination.
Key considerations
- Email vs. social media: Marketers recognize that what works for social media (where character limits and aesthetics favor short links) does not necessarily apply to email, where deliverability and trust are paramount.
- ESP tracking: Many ESPs offer their own click tracking mechanisms that use subdomains aligned with the sender's domain, which is generally a safer alternative to third-party shorteners. This aligns with advice on ESP click tracking.
- User experience: Beyond deliverability, shortened links can confuse recipients who can't see the destination URL, potentially reducing click-through rates due to a lack of transparency.
- Alternative methods: Marketers are encouraged to explore other methods for clean link presentation, such as clear anchor text or branded vanity URLs, rather than relying on generic shorteners. Consider the pros and cons of vanity URLs.
Marketer view
Email marketer from Email Geeks suggests that marketers should generally use branded or white-labeled link shorteners with their own sending domain. This approach is preferred over using shared, generic domains in the URL because spam filters largely rely on reputation. Using your own domains in your URLs allows you to control their reputation, which is crucial for deliverability.
Marketer view
Marketer from AWeber warns against the use of link shorteners like Bitly or TinyURL in email marketing campaigns. They emphasize that if you are currently using these or other potentially abused shorteners, it is advisable to stop immediately to protect your email deliverability. This practice is seen as detrimental to maintaining a good sender reputation.
What the experts say
Email deliverability experts consistently advise against using generic link shorteners in email due to the significant risks they pose to sender reputation and inbox placement. Their primary concern revolves around the shared nature of these domains, which can quickly become associated with spam due to misuse by bad actors. Experts emphasize the importance of maintaining direct control over link domains and ensuring alignment with the sender's brand to foster trust with mailbox providers.
Key opinions
- Reputation is key: Experts highlight that spam filters largely rely on reputation. Using generic, shared domains in URLs means you're trusting the reputation management of a third-party shortener, which is often unreliable.
- Strict policies: Some certification programs and email security services strictly prohibit the use of third-party link shorteners due to their inherent risks.
- Domain alignment essential: Consistent domain alignment across all elements of an email, including links, is a fundamental best practice for deliverability.
- Avoidance recommended: The general expert consensus is to avoid all external URL shorteners in email marketing, regardless of whether they are free or paid versions, unless they are white-labeled under your own domain.
Key considerations
- Control over resources: It is critical to avoid any resource (including link shorteners) where entities outside your organization can misuse it. If you own your own shortener platform, it's assumed only you use it, leading to better reputation tracking.
- Click domain nuance: The impact of click domains depends on the specific domain used and its established reputation. Not all click tracking domains are inherently bad; the key lies in their ownership and history. This relates to why some click tracking links get blocked.
- Building trust: To ensure messages are delivered, mailbox providers prefer to see links that are clearly associated with the sender's brand, fostering transparency and trust.
- Long-term impact: Using shared shorteners can lead to long-term blocklisting of the shortener's domain, indirectly affecting your sender reputation.
Expert view
Deliverability expert from Email Geeks confirms that link shorteners are detrimental to deliverability. They also mention that Validity's Certification program prohibits their use, underscoring the severe negative impact these tools can have on email sender reputation and compliance requirements.
Expert view
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that URL shorteners like Bitly, Moby.to, and TinyURL serve three main purposes: making URLs shorter, tracking clicks, and hiding the destination URL. However, this hiding of the destination URL is often the reason for deliverability issues, as it prevents recipients and filters from verifying the link's safety.
What the documentation says
Official email deliverability documentation and industry best practices strongly caution against the use of generic third-party link shorteners in email marketing. The core reasoning lies in the opaque nature of these links and the shared reputation model, which conflicts with the need for transparency and trust in email communication. Documentation often emphasizes domain alignment, sender authenticity, and the importance of predictable link behavior to ensure messages reach their intended recipients.
Key findings
- Shared reputation impact: Documentation frequently points out that the reputation of a shared link shortener domain can be severely compromised by other users, leading to legitimate emails being flagged.
- Obscured destination: The primary function of link shorteners to hide the destination URL is seen as a significant security and trust concern by email filtering systems and ISPs.
- Blacklisting risk: Many email security guidelines warn that domains from popular link shorteners are commonly found on email blocklists due to widespread abuse.
- Domain alignment priority: Technical documentation underscores the importance of consistent domain branding and alignment for all links within an email to reinforce sender legitimacy.
Key considerations
- Adherence to standards: Email senders should always adhere to established email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC, and ensure that all links within the email contribute to the overall authentication success, which generic shorteners can undermine.
- Trust signals: Mailbox providers look for clear trust signals. Links that immediately reveal their destination, ideally under the sender's own domain, contribute positively to these signals. This includes ensuring SSL is important for tracked links.
- Long-term sender health: While shorteners might offer convenience, documentation from sources like SMTP2GO suggests that the deliverability risks far outweigh any perceived benefits, especially for ongoing email marketing efforts.
- Branded alternatives: Most documentation advises that if a shortened link is required, it should be a custom, branded short link that reflects the sender's domain, thereby maintaining trust and reputation control. This aligns with best practices for link cloaking and click tracking.
Technical article
Documentation from EasySendy Pro highlights that while URL shorteners are useful in certain communication channels, they are recognized for negatively impacting email deliverability. This emphasizes a distinction between general web use and email-specific considerations for short links.
Technical article
According to documentation from SMTP2GO, certain URL shorteners act as major red flags for popular email service providers, including Google. Sending emails with seemingly harmless Bitly links to Gmail, for instance, can lead to deliverability issues due to their association with spam.
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