Does linking directly to PDFs from emails negatively affect deliverability?

Email marketer from Mailjet Blog explains that linking directly to PDFs doesn't directly harm deliverability if the PDF is legitimate and hosted on a reputable server. However, they caution that if the PDF is flagged as spam or contains malicious content, it can negatively impact your sender reputation.

Email marketer from HubSpot shares tips on email deliverability and how to ensure your emails are not flagged as spam. They do not mention PDFs but say to ensure your links lead to trusted sites.

Email marketer from Litmus explains how important it is to maintain a strong sender reputation, as this may be impacted by linking to potentially malicious websites. While it does not specifically mention PDFs, it is important to link to trusted and secure sites.

Email marketer from EmailOctopus Blog explains that links can impact deliverability. They advise using a link checker, shortening links, and being wary of linking to sites with poor reputations. They don't specifically mention PDFs, but the advice applies to any links.

Email marketer from Gmass explains the importance of maintaining a good sender reputation and the impact it has on deliverability. They state that the best thing to do is to ensure you link to a reputable website.

Email marketer from Reddit states that linking to PDFs shouldn't directly hurt deliverability but advises caution. They suggest ensuring the PDF source is trustworthy to avoid being flagged as spam, while some other users of the same website state the best approach is to create a landing page instead.

Email marketer from Sender Blog shares the advice to not add links to PDFs directly. Instead create a landing page and add it there, with a link to the PDF - also adding value.

Email marketer from ActiveCampaign doesn't directly address PDF links but states links in emails can be a red flag for spam filters if they lead to suspicious or low-reputation websites. They recommend regularly checking links and maintaining a clean and reputable domain.

Email marketer from StackExchange suggests that while linking to PDFs is generally okay, it's better to link to a webpage containing the PDF for tracking and branding purposes. They also caution about PDF size, as larger files can increase load times and potentially affect user experience, which can indirectly impact deliverability.

Expert from Email Geeks explains links to PDFs should be tracked by ESPs, but there is less visibility on the website performance of the link. Ideally, the PDF should be on a page for branding/upselling opportunities. It could be harder for the recipient to resolve any issues if the PDF link breaks directly from an email, compared to a website.

Expert from Email Geeks doubts linking directly to PDFs will cause issues and says it's better than attaching PDFs to emails, although PDFs can contain malware and enterprise mail filters might check the links.

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that the reputation of the URLs in your emails is a critical factor in deliverability. While they don't directly address PDFs, the concept applies; linking to a PDF hosted on a domain with a poor reputation will negatively affect deliverability.

Expert from Email Geeks shares an experience where a direct .pdf download was suspected as a potential cause of delivery problems. Recommends testing the direct PDF link and changing it to a 'download your .pdf' link if problems arise and that Google may penalize emails based on the landing page content.

Documentation from RFC says that mail clients are able to block file types that are deemed unsafe. PDFs are a commonly targetted file type.

Documentation from Google Sender Guidelines highlights the importance of aligning your sending domain with your DKIM and SPF records. Although it does not directly mention PDFs, using a custom domain helps build trust, which can positively impact deliverability when linking to PDFs or other external content.

Documentation from Microsoft details how to follow email sending best practices. Although it does not directly mention PDFs, it mentions ensuring your emails are correctly formatted and free of malicious content, as this may impact deliverability.