Good emailers, like us, aren't the only people out there who like to add links to our email content. Evil spammers use them to trap the unwary. And tools like, URL shortening services which makes a long, unwieldy url into a short url, are also being used by evil spammers to trick people. Because of spammer abuse, spam filters are more wary when facing shortened URL links in emails. They're watching out for shortened links that directing people to a blocked site. Good for inboxes all over the world, but a little rough for us good emailers.
So how does this affect you?
If you're seeing a higher number of emails getting sent to spam folders or being blocked altogether, spam filters might be throwing up flags because of redirected or shortened links. Here's what you need to know:
- It's always best to use the full link when you can. No URL shortening service is perfect, they're all susceptible to security issues. So, the golden rule is: Don't Shorten If You Don't Need To.
- Same goes for redirection services. They might shorten your URL and add a layer of tracking, but they also attempt to hide or change the final destinations (handy for spammers too). Spam Filters will follow these links to their destination and send up a red flag if there are too many hops or if they go through a known bad service. Rule of thumb: It's extremely important to Limit Your Redirects.
- Use trusted social sharing applications. Many of these services use shorteners and redirect services to help track usage.
It's best to not use any shorteners or redirection services, if at all possible. Shorteners and redirectors are abused by spammers and it immediately puts the emphasis on your content. A direct link and, at minimum - one or two hops, is safe. In many cases, spam filters and ISPs are starting to block these services because of the harm they can bring to end users. That's why it's important that your content does little, to no, redirection and it's best if you can avoid using shortening services. Mailchimp tracking does provide a layer of redirection, but we work very hard to keep these domains whitelisted, secure and clean. You are not promised that with other services, and you aren’t sure who and how those services are being used.
Want to learn more? The Security Skeptic has a great article on shortening services, which you can read it here. And SURBL has some great information on redirection sites.
Desperately need to shorten an URL? We don't recommend any URL shortening services. Again, they all are susceptible to security flaws and issues. However, this is our short list of the safer URL shortening services.