Hillary M.
Web Author/Social Media Magistrate for Georgia Gwinnett College; Owner of Dog
Is there a rule on content links within enewsletters?
I create enewsletters for publications. Most of the content within the newsletter links back to the stories being teased. Besides these content links there are the usual - forward to a friend, opt out, footer links, etc. But what if - within the editorial content - they want several links back to stories above and beyond the main link they provide for the headline? Are there best practices in handling links within an enewsletter format? I'm worried that too many links might set off spam alerts - but is that true? For example, in one paragraph of 98 words there are 8 links. Thanks, in advance, for your responses.
Answers (8)
If your links are the words or phrases within the sentence then having several in one paragraph should not be a problem. You will not trigger a spam alert. If you use the words “click here for more information about” repeatedly you will confuse and annoy your reader.
Consider how you format your links if you think the underlined text stands out too much. You can set up your cascading style sheet (CSS) file to format links to look just like the text, or to be boldface instead of underlined. Be subtle so your web page doesn't look pockmarked with links.
By the way, make sure the links open in a new/blank page so your newsletter isn't overwritten (the reader might not come back!).
Good luck!
Einat A.
Partner at Marketing First
Best Answers in: Business Development (3), Advertising (1), Internet Marketing (1), Web Development (1)
Hello Hillary,
I don't know if the links will make your newsletter seem like spam to spam filters, but your question hints that it may look like spam to human beings.
Too many links will make the newsletter be categorized as promotion rather than information. I think 8 links in 100 word text is a lot. That's something like a link in every sentence. It's hard to believe that this is really necessary.
Why don't you move the links to the stories that are being promoted?
This way they will count for SEO, hopefully be more spaced out on the page, and have a chance of providing value to those people interested enough to read the story.
Good luck!
Honestly I would be concerned about how your readers respond. I would be more concerned that your readers would opt out of the list before the spam alert ever kicks. I do PR for a large number of companies and my rule of thumb is 1 link per hundred words for a online press release.
Links:
I agree that the number of links, if the links are the words on the paragraph, will not be a problem. The biggest concern is what the subscribers perceive the content to look like. How big is your list? If you have a good size list, you might consider testing two different versions of the newsletter. Do one with the additional links and send it to half the list. Then create the same newsletter but remove the extra links and send it to the remaining subscribers.
Testing different versions with your subscriber base is going to give you the best answers to your questions. Every group is different and testing is the only true way to understand what works best.
Good luck.
Hillary, I haven't heard that this would set off spam alerts. What can get caught in spam is if you have eNewsletters that are mainly based on graphic images. Be sure your newsletter is linked to your website. Some people will prefer to view your newsletter in a browser rather than a preview pane
Greg J.
Vice President - Smartforce Development at AMT - The Association For Manufacturing
I agree with Einat Adar's answer and further, by moving the links to the stories on your web site, you are surely more likely to create a better ROI for any ad sponsors you have on those pages by creating more traffic there.
Your e-Newsletter surely has a pretty fixed audience of recipients and pass-alongs, but if you're doing it right, your web site has a larger audience. It's all about lead gen for the advertising sponsors and you win by improving their click-thru rate on your site.
The only comment I have to add to the previous responses is this is...you do need to keep in mind the number of links if you are sending out significant amounts of either mobile or text emails. In both cases, you want to make a very conscious effort to keep the number of links down to a minimum. Particularly important if you have a tech savvy target audience or one that has a lot of road warriors/frequent travelers that mostly reviews their email via cell, Blackberry, iPhone, etc.
I've worn these shoes. I would work with your editorial team to explain why this is a poor way to construct a newsletter - mainly that it distracts from the content you are trying to drive readers to as well as making it more difficult to measure response to determine what content users are most interested in reading about.
Much better to add these links to the main article or redesign your newsletter to hold more content if need be. You could also add a "related articles" section beneath your main teaser, but I would keep the number of links to 3 and list only the article titles.
As far as best practices, for each article I would link the main headline, a CTA at the end of the teaser and an image if there is one.
