What are “linked” vs “embedded” images?
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You've got two ways to put images in your emails. Linked images live on a server somewhere, and your email just points to them. Embedded images get attached to the email itself and travel along with the message.
Linked images are usually your best bet. They're lightweight (your email file stays small), trackable (you can see exactly when someone opened them), and updatable (change the image on your server without resending). The catch? Recipients who've blocked images won't see them unless they click to enable. Embedded images always show up, even if the client blocks external content. But they make your email huge (bad for deliverability), they get flagged as spam more often, and webmail clients like Gmail often have trouble with them. You're trading size and security for a guaranteed display, which isn't usually worth it.
Best practice? Use linked images from a reliable CDN. Pair them with solid alt text so blocked images don't break your message. Test how your images render across clients with Review My Emails.
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