It is annoying to find your email sent, end up inside junk folder especially if you never realise the use of URL shortener!

What is a URL Shortener?

URL shorteners allow you to reduce the length of any long URL. The benefit is of course make your email more legible. Therefore, when someone sends an email with a very long URL, it is natural for him to use a URL shortener instead.

Which are the High Risk URL Shorteners?

Here is a list of the list of Top 10 most abused URL shortener, as of writing. There is a high chance that you are unknowingly using them and your email ends up in junk folder!

1. bit.ly
2. bit.do
3. ow.ly
4. goo.gl
5. x.co
6. rebrand.ly
7. tinyurl.com
8. t.co
9. is.gd
10. ht.ly

Why does this happen?

These URL shortener are free and popular. Anyone can create an account and create his short link for free. Thereafter, it is really difficult to check every single link that has been created. Thus, a lot of times the URL shortener wraps around dangerous links. In an attempt to protect email users from becoming a cyber victim, most email providers flag emails as junk.

In fact, GMail takes it one step higher by blocking the email with the following bounced back message:

smtp;421 4.7.0 [x.xx.xx.xx] Our system has detected that this message is suspicious due to the nature of the content and/or the links within. To best protect our users from spam, the message has been blocked. Please visit https://support.google.com/mail/answer/188131 for more information. – gsmtp

How can I fix this?

The only way to fix this problem is to remove the URL shortener from your email, and put the original albeit lengthy URL inside.

How can I troubleshoot this further?

This is usually the job of your email hosting provider. If you use SecureAX’s Business Email Hosting, we will help you troubleshoot any email problems for free. Contact us today if you need our help!