What are the best practices for using domains and subdomains for email click tracking to avoid spam filters?
Summary
What email marketers say9Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Medium shares that ensure your tracking links point to a legitimate landing page. Avoid using broken links or redirecting to irrelevant content, as this can damage your sender reputation.
Email marketer from EmailGeeks suggests that using consistent domains and subdomains across your email marketing efforts (sender address, tracking links, landing pages) builds trust with mailbox providers and improves deliverability. Inconsistent domains can raise red flags and trigger spam filters.
Email marketer from Quora explains that if you're using a new domain or IP address, gradually increase your sending volume over time to establish a positive sending reputation. Sending too many emails too quickly can trigger spam filters.
Email marketer from EmailOnAcid responds that implementing a branded domain for click tracking helps establish trust with both email clients and subscribers. It makes your links more recognizable and credible, improving engagement and deliverability.
Email marketer from GlockApps Blog responds that regularly monitoring your domain reputation using tools like Google Postmaster Tools and Sender Score helps you identify and address any deliverability issues proactively, such as blacklistings or poor sender scores.
Email marketer from EmailVendorSelection shares that using a subdomain specifically for email (e.g., mail.yourdomain.com) helps isolate your email sending reputation from your main website, so any issues with email deliverability won't directly impact your website's SEO.
Email marketer from Reddit shares that creating a dedicated subdomain for all email-related activities (including click tracking) is crucial. This isolates your primary domain’s reputation from email-specific issues, preventing any negative impact on your main website’s SEO and credibility.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum explains that you should avoid using generic link shorteners like bit.ly, as they're often associated with spam and can negatively impact your deliverability. Use a branded link shortener or a custom tracking domain instead.
Email marketer from Mailjet Blog explains that avoiding excessive link cloaking and redirects can prevent your emails from being flagged as suspicious. Use direct, transparent links whenever possible and ensure your redirects are properly configured.
What the experts say6Expert opinions
Expert from Spam Resource responds that using a link tracking domain that you own and control is essential. This allows you to manage the reputation of that domain and prevent issues that arise when using shared or generic link tracking services.
Expert from Email Geeks explains that using throwaway domains for click tracking is a significant red flag because it mimics the behavior of bad actors who use such domains to avoid associating their bad behavior with their real domain.
Expert from Email Geeks clarifies that "branded" in this context should mean a subdomain of the customer's domain, and not a cousin domain.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that separating your email sending activities onto a subdomain (e.g., mail.example.com) is beneficial because it isolates your email reputation from your main website's reputation. This way, email-related issues are less likely to negatively impact your website's SEO and credibility.
Expert from Email Geeks shares that new domains need to age 3-6 months before use and suggests using a subdomain of the client's email domain for click tracking (e.g., click.client.com).
Expert from Email Geeks explains that while using click tracking domains provided by ESPs shares reputation and lacks control/insight, using a domain you own means your customers activity impacts you directly, while using a hostname owned by your customer means no reputation sharing.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from Google Workspace Admin Help explains that setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records is essential for authenticating your sending domain and preventing email spoofing, which can improve deliverability and avoid spam filters.
Documentation from Microsoft Support shares that maintaining a good domain reputation is key to deliverability. Avoid practices that can harm your reputation, such as sending unsolicited emails, using deceptive subject lines, and not honoring unsubscribe requests.
Documentation from Mailchimp Knowledge Base shares that using a custom tracking domain (a subdomain of your primary domain) for click tracking provides a consistent brand experience and helps build a positive sender reputation, as opposed to using generic short links.
Documentation from SendGrid Documentation responds that using a dedicated IP address allows you to build and maintain your own sender reputation, separate from shared IP pools, giving you more control over deliverability and reducing the risk of being affected by other senders' practices.