One of my pet projects has been to collect some info on the best way to format links in e-mails so that they are clickable in the widest number of e-mail clients. One of the missing pieces has been AOL's mail client, since I don't have a way to test it. So I was glad to stumble across this article. It goes into detail about how they see most of the AOL mail clients handle the situation. It would be nice if they ahd a chart showing supported methods in each version, but I'll have to wait for that, or figure out some way of doing it for myself...

Promotion Tip:
Creating AOL-Friendly Email Links

by Larisa Thomason,
Senior Web Analyst,
NetMechanic, Inc.

December 2001
(Part 2)
Vol. 4, No. 24
• Promotion Tip
• Beginner Tip
• Accessibility Tip



The 31 million AOL subscriber households are a huge force on the Internet and represent a lot of potential traffic to your site. Their 62 million users average 48 minutes online per member, per day and send/receive over 200 million emails every day. Fortunately, it takes just a little extra effort to make your email links accessible to this large audience.

Generate Traffic With Opt-in Emails

Once you've managed to attract visitors to your site, you want to keep them coming back. An online newsletter or other opt-in marketing mailings (not spam!) that includes clickable links to your site is one of the best ways to do that. "Clickable" means that the recipient can click on the link to automatically open a browser and view the page. With most email programs, all you have to do is include the relevant URL address.

But AOL's proprietary email system doesn't work that way: your http or mailto addresses won't be clickable for AOL members unless they're enclosed in an anchor tag and formatted properly in HTML.

Programmers at AOL created an email system that looks for HTML tags in email messages and formats those tags like they would display in a browser. While the mail reader isn't pure HTML, it does require HTML tags around email and URL addresses.

If they aren't, AOL members have to cut and paste the address into their browser window or mail system. This can cause problems for some users. New users may not understand how to cut and paste or they may assume that the link just doesn't work. The mail system may display a long URL on two lines and inadvertently break the link.

Accessible AOL Links

Avoid confusion or broken links by using HTML tags so that AOL members can click directly on the links in your message.

Format your AOL-clickable URL's like this:

Visit the
NetMechanic
site for details!

Format your AOL-clickable email addresses the same way:

Email the
Editor
with comments or suggestions.

Then your AOL visitor can send you an email just by clicking on the "Editor" link.

Other Options

That won't solve all your problems because AOL members who check their emails remotely through the AOL.com Web site won't see the links in a clickable format. They will still have to cut and paste the addresses into their browser or email program.

You also have to decide where and how to include the AOL-friendly links. How you do it really depends on your audience and time constraints:

Make all your links AOL-friendly. Although non-AOL recipients will see ugly code dropped into the text of your email messages, the links will be clickable for everyone (except those using the AOL.com site).

One variation that some webmasters use is to include a plain link, then place an AOL-friendly link directly below it. This is the technique we've begun to use for our Webmaster Tips newsletter email. Since the newsletter links aren't placed within a block of text, the extra link doesn't break up the text paragraph.

Here's a sample image to show how it looks in a screen shot from the AOL system. The first URL is not in HTML format, but the one below it is:

Include a special AOL Links section: Many webmasters create a basic email message and then add "AOL-Friendly" links at the bottom of the message. You risk losing some traffic from AOL members if they don't bother to scroll down to find the friendly links. Also, some mailing list managers report that these links confuse non-AOL recipients.

This is a good option if your email list includes relatively few AOL members. You can still give them clickable links without disturbing the text flow in the main message.

Send Multiple Email Messages: If you're comfortable using HTML and have the ability to manipulate your mailing list, then split up your mailing list into AOL and non-AOL subscribers. All AOL members who access the mail system from home can read and click on the links in HTML messages. Everyone else on your list receives at standard text message. This option can be time-consuming, but it does help you appeal to the largest possible audience.

Problems With HTML Messages

But wait! If AOL's mail client needs HTML code for links, why not just format the entire message in HTML so everybody could read it? That's a good idea, but it's not a reliable option:

Inconsistent AOL support: AOL's email system doesn't always display HTML emails like you expect: they're often so garbled as to be unreadable.

Other email clients may not support HTML email. In an effort to make your emails more accessible to AOL members, you could shut out others on your mailing list. Your own email program is critical to this option: it must allow you to send the messages in HTML format. Merely creating a text message and including HTML tags won't work.

Mail forwarding problems: some mail clients (especially free Web-based services) have trouble forwarding HTML messages. You want people to be impressed enough with your newsletter or service to forward your message to their friends. But you don't want to send the message in a format that doesn't forward properly!

Ross : Link : Discussion Board