Occasionally, we get asked whether publishing an email address on a website website is a good or bad idea. Good question! Here are our thoughts on it and how you should weigh the pros vs. the cons.
We’ve been doing this 25+ years and we’ve seen the advice on the “listing email” issue change a couple of times. In the 90’s, it was common for people to list an email address on their sites, usually for contact purposes. There were scammers and spammers, but far fewer robots and no AI. It wasn’t much of an issue and so adding an email was usually a “yes” for most businesses. Then in the 2000’s, the bots came and the spam/scams exploded… at that point, the advice changed to not list emails on your website at all. Nowadays, the advice for listing email is mixed, but most business owners that we work with tend to agree that listing an email address is worth the extra spam and scam attempts.
With that being said, there is not a definitive yes or no answer to the email-publishing question, but you should weigh the pros and cons against the needs of your clients and visitors and decide what you would work best for you.
Here are some pros, cons and other things to consider before you make a decision:
- Pro: Listing an email address is very common. Visitors expect to be able to get your contact info on your website, including email.
- Pro: Listing email can make your organization look more reputable.
- Pro: Listing an email address is an easy way for visitors to get in touch. Including an “mailto: link” makes that a one-click interaction for many visitors. The easier it is to reach out, the more likely they will be to reach out.
- Con: Just as including email makes it easier for potential customers to reach out, it is also easier for scammers to reach out. You will get many extra spam and scam attempts.
- Consider: Once your email address is out there, it’s out there. If you list your email address anywhere else online that’s public or that might get hacked, then your email address will be out there for abuse.
- Consider: Some companies choose to list one address publicly, and not to list any others (like for specific staff members). This is more for privacy concerns, though, rather than to thwart spam.
- Pro: Mailto linking is an ease-of-use feature for users and doesn’t add much additional risk of abuse.
- Consider: Scammers and spammers can and will get your email without a mailto link. They will get your email if it is listed online publicly ANYWHERE — so if it’s listed on Google, someone else’s website, your social media, a blog post, someone’s comment on a posting… those locations are all very accessible to scammers.
- Consider: The same issues as happen for published emails also happen when publishing phone numbers on a website. If you list a phone number, you will get increased spam and scam attempts via phone call and text. Again, this can happen from any site where your phone number is available and most people agree it’s a cost of doing business these days.
- Consider: It’s sometimes suggested that form mail (a form on your website that sends mail) is safer than listing an email. This is somewhat correct in that if you aren’t going to list an email publicly, you can have the form send the mail behind the scenes out of the public eye. However, anyone or any bot can quite easily submit a form with information that is false, so the submissions are still not to be trusted. Even with captchas and honeypots, it is super easy for forms to be used to send spam/scam attempts, especially in these days of AI.
- Consider: Email communications shouldn’t be trusted by default, or considered secure or safe, whether the address is publicly listed or not. All should be thoroughly scrutinized, even if you think you know who it’s from. Spammers and scammers can spoof any address that they want and sometimes security software will not catch it. The bad guys and their AI bot allies are always finding new ways to break through our defenses,
- Consider: The weakest link in our security is our humanity. Scammers craft messages that trick us into giving away information that we shouldn’t… they create a false sense of urgency, or on the flip, a false sense of security. They trigger our fear, promise us a cure for loneliness, and stoke the flames of greed – this technique is known as “social engineering”, and it works on almost anyone, given the right situation and the right emotion. Educating yourself on how scammers use social engineering to manipulate you, and learning how to recognize spam and scam attempts is the best thing that you can do to keep yourself safe.
To sum up, publishing an email address will make you more accessible to scammers and spammers, but it also makes you more accessible to potential clients. Weigh your needs before you make a decision, but always always be cautious with emails, whether you publish one online or not!
