Link Shorteners can impact email deliverability.

When creating campaigns, link shorteners should not be used.

A URL shortener is a tool that condenses a long web address into a shorter, more manageable format. This makes the URL easier to remember and track. There are numerous URL shorteners available today, such as Bit.ly and Tinyurl.com.

URL shorteners provide useful click data, limit the character count a link takes up, and “beautify” what may otherwise be a long URL. While these link shorteners are great when character count is important, they don’t have a place in email.

Spammers abuse link shorteners because they mask the true URL that they redirect to. The frequent association of link shorteners with spam has led to even reputable ones being deny listed. When links in marketing or transactional emails are flagged as denied, ISPs are likely to block the emails, resulting in lower-than-expected delivery rates for the hotel.

The Risk

If a campaign is deployed using URL shorteners, the hotel will see an elevated number of soft bounces, and there can be some IP/Domain blocks until the ISPs (internet service providers) see a change in sender behavior. 

Cendyn does not recommend the use of URL shorteners.