Email Links Not Working: Eight Causes and How to Find Yours
What to check when clicks do not register or lead somewhere wrong
Mailvex · 4 September 2026 · 5 min read
A link will not open, lands on someone else page, or the click never appears in your statistics. There are eight causes, and half of them arise not while coding but afterwards, when your sending platform processes the email. Below is how to find yours and what to do with each.
The cost of the mistake is higher than it looks
A broken link in an email costs more than a broken link on a website. On a site the person comes back and tries another route. In an email they tap once, nothing happens, and they close it assuming the whole thing is broken.
Worse, an email cannot be recalled. A mistake in the main link destroys the value of the entire message: the content may be excellent, but the action never happens.
Hence the rule: check links not in the editor but in a test email that reached a real inbox. Between those two states the link goes through processing, and part of the problems appear exactly there.
Eight causes and what to do
Eight causes cover almost every case. Find your symptom in the first column.
| Symptom | Cause | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Link opens the wrong page | the sending platform rewrote the address incorrectly | check the source address in the editor, then the click in a test email |
| Link leads to a blank page | a relative address with no domain | use a full https address with the domain |
| Link is not clickable at all | padding on the cell rather than the link | move padding onto the link and make it block-level |
| Only the button text is clickable | same cause plus no Outlook code | padding on the link, add VML for Outlook |
| Link leads to a 404 | the page was removed or the address changed | check every address before sending |
| Tracking tags are not counted | the platform stripped parameters during rewriting | verify the tags survived the import |
| Link breaks mid-address | the email was clipped and the link fell past the threshold | keep weight under 100KB, put key links higher up |
| Works for you, not for the recipient | the address is reachable only from your network | open in a private window from another device |
Note rows three and four: they look similar but the causes differ. In the first the link is not clickable at all; in the second only the label is, with no margin around it.
Why the links in your email are not yours
Link rewriting deserves its own explanation, because it alarms people on first encounter.
Your sending platform replaces every link with an address of its own. The person lands on a platform page which records the click and instantly forwards them onward. It looks unfamiliar but it is normal — otherwise there would be nothing to count clicks with.
The problem appears when parameters get lost during rewriting. If you had analytics tags in the address, they may not survive, and the visit arrives with no source attached. Check after importing into the platform, not before.
Rewriting can usually be switched off in settings, but then click statistics disappear. Your call: accurate tags or having data at all.
Only the text is clickable
The case where only the button text is clickable occurs more often than all the others combined.
The cause is padding set on the table cell rather than on the link itself. The link occupies only the label area, and the margins around it belong to something else. Someone aims at the button, hits the padding, nothing happens.
It is fixed by moving the padding onto the link and adding separate code for Outlook, which ignores padding on links and needs its own markup.
On a phone this is more noticeable: a thumb is larger than a cursor, and missing the label is easier. Which is why, when testing, you tap the edge of the button rather than the centre.
A check that takes five minutes
The check takes five minutes and removes most problems.
- export the email and import it into your sending platform
- send a test to yourself rather than looking at the preview
- click every link and follow it to the final page
- on buttons, tap the edge rather than the centre
- open the email on a phone and repeat
- confirm the analytics tags survived the rewriting
The third point deserves explanation: what matters is not just clicking but reaching the final page. Link rewriting can land you on a platform page that fails to forward because of an error in the original address.
What to do once the email has gone out
If the email has already gone out it cannot be recalled, but something can still be done.
If the link points at an existing page on your site, set up a redirect from it to the intended address. People who clicked the broken link will arrive where they should, and you will not lose those visits.
If the link leads nowhere, sending a correction is only worth it with a large audience and an important offer. Otherwise a second email irritates more than it helps.
How a builder handles this
Several causes in the table are removed while building. Full addresses instead of relative ones, padding on links, Outlook code, weight control — all of that goes into the email from the start.
In Mailvex a button is a block with correct padding and VML code for Outlook. The validation panel before export finds links with no address and relative paths. A test send to your own address runs from the editor, and merge-tag profiles insert tracking parameters without hand-editing code.
Build an email with links and buttons that work.
Browse templatesFrequently asked questions
Why were the links in my email replaced with unfamiliar ones?
Your sending platform rewrites them to count clicks: the person lands on a platform address which records the tap and forwards them onward. This is normal. It can be turned off in settings, but click statistics disappear with it.
Only the button text is clickable, what do I do?
Padding is set on the table cell rather than on the link. Move it onto the link and make the link block-level. Outlook additionally needs VML code, since it ignores padding on links.
Is checking links in the editor enough?
No. Between the editor and the recipient inbox the email is processed by your sending platform: addresses get rewritten and parameters can be lost. Check in a test email that reached a real inbox.
