Do Links in Cold Emails Hurt Deliverability? (Yes, and Here's What to Do)

Short answer: yes, links in cold emails can hurt deliverability, and it’s worst in the very first email. The good news is the fix also improves your reply rates.

Why links hurt

Spam filters are wary of links for a few reasons, and cold first-touch email is the riskiest place to use them:

• New or unknown domains. A link to a fresh domain (your demo site, a new landing page) has no reputation, so filters treat it with suspicion.
• Loom, shorteners, and tracking links. Video links, shortened URLs, and click-tracking redirects get flagged harder than a plain link to an established domain.
• Multiple links stacked. Two or three links in one cold email compounds the risk.
• No engagement history. On the first email there’s zero relationship, so anything that looks promotional weighs more heavily.

The fix: tease, don’t paste

The method most experienced senders use is simple: no link in the first email. Tease it instead, and send the link once they reply.

For example, instead of pasting a Loom and a demo link into email one, write something like: “I recorded a quick 2-minute walkthrough of a few things I’d change on your site, want me to send it over?” When they say yes, drop the Loom and demo link in your reply.

This does two things. It protects deliverability on the riskiest send, and it lifts reply rates, because now the prospect is expecting the link and has opted in to receive it.

Turn off open and click tracking

Open tracking adds a pixel, and click tracking rewrites your links through a tracking domain. Both add signals that quietly hurt deliverability on cold sends. Turn them off for cold outreach and track replies instead, which is the metric that actually matters.

When you do send a link

Once you’re past the first email and they’re engaged:

• Use one clean link, not three.
• Point it at a reputable domain, not a shortener.
• If it’s a personalized asset like a Loom, that’s fine now that they asked for it.

The takeaway

Earn the reply with plain text first, send the demo second. It’s better for deliverability and better for conversions, which is a rare combination in cold email.

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Deliverability starts before the first send. Get the foundation right: how to warm your inboxes, where to buy inboxes built for cold, and the full provider comparison to pick infrastructure that lands.