Short links for email marketing
How to use short links in campaigns without hurting deliverability, how they interact with UTM tracking, and why a branded domain matters more in email than anywhere else.
Email is the channel where the choice of shortener domain matters most, because filters judge links by reputation and a shared domain's reputation is not yours.
The deliverability problem
Spam filters assess the domains a message links to. On a shared shortener domain, your links inherit the behaviour of everyone else using it — including whoever ran a phishing campaign through it last week.
You cannot control that, and you cannot see it coming.
A branded domain you control has exactly one reputation: yours. It is built by your own sending behaviour, and it is the main reason to set one up before a campaign rather than after.
See Use your own domain for short links.
Tag first, shorten second
Add UTM parameters to the destination URL, then shorten that. The short link carries them through, your analytics see the campaign, and the reader sees something tidy.
https://example.com/spring?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=spring-saleShortening first and then trying to add parameters does not work — you would be tagging the shortener, not the destination. Details in UTM parameters.
What to shorten and what to leave
Shorten links you want to measure separately, links carrying long tracking parameters, and links in plain-text or SMS versions where length is real estate.
Leave alone short readable links to your own site. example.com/pricing is already clear, and replacing it with an opaque short link makes the email look less trustworthy, not more.
Different links for different positions
If the same destination appears in the header, the body and the footer, use a different short link for each. Then you learn where in the email people actually click, which tells you how far down they read.
utm_content=header / body / footer does the same job inside your site analytics.
Reconciling the numbers
Your email platform, your shortener and your site analytics will not agree, and that is normal:
- The email platform counts clicks it saw, including some bot and security-scanner activity.
- The shortener counts redirects served.
- Site analytics count sessions that rendered.
Expect the numbers to descend in roughly that order. Pick one as your reporting source and stay with it rather than reconciling three every month.
Corporate security scanners are worth knowing about: some open every link in a message before delivery, which inflates click counts on the first hours of a send.
Before you send
- Send yourself a test and click every link.
- Check the links work in the plain-text version too.
- Confirm the branded domain resolves — a DNS change made for something else can quietly break it.
Frequently asked questions
Do short links hurt email deliverability?
Shared shortener domains can, because spam filters judge a domain by everyone using it. A branded domain you control avoids that entirely.
Should I shorten every link in a newsletter?
No. Shorten the ones you want to measure or that are unwieldy. Plain readable links are fine as they are.
Do short links break UTM tracking?
No, as long as you add the parameters to the destination before shortening it.
Last updated 2026-08-24