Do free email services click links in emails to check for spam?
Matthew Whittaker
Co-founder & CTO, Suped
Published 17 Jul 2025
Updated 18 Aug 2025
5 min read
Many senders wonder if free email services, such as Gmail, Yahoo, or Outlook, engage in link clicking as part of their spam detection routines. This is a crucial question for anyone monitoring their email campaigns, as automated clicks can significantly skew engagement metrics.
Understanding this behavior is key to accurately interpreting your email analytics and ensuring your messages reach their intended recipients, not just automated scanners. It affects how you measure campaign success and maintain a healthy sender reputation.
The role of security scanning
Email providers, both free and enterprise, employ sophisticated security measures to protect users from malicious content. One such measure involves scanning links within emails for phishing, malware, and other threats.
While consumer email services historically might have been less aggressive with proactive link clicking compared to their enterprise counterparts, such as Microsoft 365, this landscape is evolving. Many providers now use various techniques, including automated link verification, to ensure safety before an email lands in the inbox. This proactive scanning is a critical defense against emerging cyber threats.
These security systems may preemptively click links to verify their safety, protecting recipients. It’s a common practice across the industry, albeit with varying degrees of intensity. You can read more about how some email servers follow links in emails as part of a security scan and for further insights into how email servers validate links, you can explore resources that explain automatic link clicking by email servers.
Impact on click tracking
The automated clicking of links by spam filters can indeed skew your email marketing analytics. What appears as a click in your reports might not be a genuine human interaction but rather a bot performing a security check. This makes it challenging to gauge true user engagement.
This phenomenon is often referred to as "bot clicks" or "server clicks." These automated clicks occur within seconds of delivery, often before a human recipient even has a chance to open the email. Recognizing these artificial clicks is essential for accurate performance measurement.
It's important to remember that not every click in your reports signifies a human interaction. Some aggressive spam filters click links in emails to check for malicious activity before delivering them to the inbox. This behavior is common with various email security systems. If you see high click rates without corresponding opens, or clicks occurring instantly after sending, it could be a sign of bot activity. You can learn more about how to identify artificial email opens and clicks generated by spam filters on our site.
Signs of bot clicks
High click rate, low open rate: Disproportionately high clicks compared to opens suggests automated activity.
Instant clicks: Clicks occurring immediately after delivery, often within seconds.
Geographic anomalies: Clicks from unexpected or unusual locations, indicating server farms.
Multiple clicks from one IP: A single IP address registering numerous clicks on various links.
Distinguishing bot clicks from real engagement
While automated clicks complicate matters, there are ways to differentiate them from genuine user engagement. Focusing on engagement patterns, time of clicks, and the overall context of your campaign can provide clearer insights.
For consumer providers, you might not always see the actual provider following links, but rather other services or security layers within their infrastructure. These providers might also decide to filter or reject emails without needing to follow every link, relying on other signals and data sources like sender reputation or content analysis.
Sender reputation plays a significant role. If your domain or IP is on a blacklist (or blocklist), or has a poor reputation, email providers may be more aggressive in their scanning. This increased scrutiny can lead to more automated link clicks as they scrutinize suspicious mail. Conversely, a strong reputation can reduce such intensive scanning.
Characteristics
Varied timing: Clicks occur over a period, reflecting user behavior.
Logical sequence: Users typically click one or a few relevant links.
Associated with opens: Clicks follow an actual email open by a user.
Engagement metrics: Leads to website visits, conversions, or other meaningful actions.
Characteristics
Immediate timing: Clicks happen within seconds of email delivery.
All links clicked: Bots often click every link in an email simultaneously.
No user engagement: Clicks don't result in further interaction, e.g. website activity.
Discrepancies: High click-through rates but low conversion rates.
Best practices for email senders
To minimize the impact of bot clicks and improve overall email deliverability, focus on fundamental email best practices. This includes maintaining a clean mailing list, authenticating your emails, and sending relevant content.
Implement robust email authentication protocols such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. These measures help email providers verify your sender identity and reduce the likelihood of your emails being flagged as suspicious. A strong authentication setup builds trust with ISPs.
Continuously monitor your sender reputation. Keep an eye on any blocklist (or blacklist) listings and address them promptly. Tools for blocklist monitoring can help you stay informed and proactive. We also offer a blocklist checker to see if your IP or domain is listed. You can learn more about how email blacklists actually work on our site.
Boost deliverability and mitigate bot click impact
Segment your audience: Send targeted content to engaged users.
Monitor engagement: Pay attention to opens, replies, and conversions, not just raw clicks.
Clean your list: Regularly remove inactive or unengaged subscribers.
Warm up new IPs: Gradually increase sending volume from new sending IPs.
Use secure links: Ensure all links use HTTPS to avoid being flagged as suspicious by filters. You can check a related article on our site about whether HTTP links are penalized.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Implement DMARC with a p=quarantine or p=reject policy to actively enforce sender authentication.
Regularly analyze Google Postmaster Tools for insights into your sending reputation and spam rates.
Keep your email lists clean by regularly removing unengaged subscribers.
Common pitfalls
Assuming all reported clicks are from human recipients can lead to inaccurate campaign performance assessments.
Ignoring fluctuations in bot clicks can mask underlying deliverability issues with certain providers.
Failing to secure links with HTTPS can raise red flags with spam filters.
Expert tips
Focus on engagement metrics beyond raw clicks, such as reply rates and conversion actions, to assess true campaign success.
Understand that ISP scanning behaviors can vary greatly and change over time, requiring continuous monitoring.
Differentiate bot clicks from human clicks by analyzing click timing and IP addresses in your logs.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says that consumer domains (like Gmail and Yahoo) click links significantly less often, if at all, compared to business domains.
Aug 21, 2024 - Email Geeks
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks says that for consumer providers, the actual provider might not be following links, but other services could be.
Aug 21, 2024 - Email Geeks
Navigating automated link scanning
Free email services, along with their enterprise counterparts, do indeed click links in emails as part of their robust spam and security checking processes. This practice, while essential for user protection, significantly impacts click tracking data.
While it may be frustrating to see inflated click rates, it's a necessary part of the modern email ecosystem. The key is to understand why these clicks occur, how to identify them, and how to adapt your deliverability strategies accordingly.
By focusing on strong sender reputation, proper authentication, and advanced analytics, you can navigate the complexities of automated link scanning. This ensures your valuable messages reach real inboxes and generate meaningful engagement.
Microsoft 365, this landscape is evolving. Many providers now use various techniques, including automated link verification, to ensure safety before an email lands in the inbox. This proactive scanning is a critical defense against emerging cyber threats.
