It might seem helpful and transparent to list email addresses for every staff member on your business website—but doing so can quickly turn into a serious headache. Here’s why:
Bots Are Always Watching
Spambots—automated scripts that crawl websites—are constantly scanning the internet looking for anything that looks like an email address. These bots don’t care whether your team member is the CEO or the summer intern—if it ends in “@yourcompany.com”, it gets harvested and added to spam databases.
Once scraped, these addresses are often sold or distributed, and the result is predictable: everyone starts getting an avalanche of spam, phishing attempts, and junk emails.
It Gets Worse Over Time
Spam builds up. Once an email address is on one list, it tends to get circulated around to many others. Even if you filter spam well, it still clutters inboxes, increases IT overhead, and puts your organization at higher risk for phishing attacks or scams.
Better Alternatives
Instead of listing direct email addresses publicly, consider these alternatives:
- Use a contact form that routes messages internally.
- Display general role-based emails (e.g. info@, support@), and use strong spam filters on those accounts.
- Obfuscate addresses visually (like jane [at] company [dot] com)—though this is only marginally effective, and still gets picked up by more advanced bots.
Final Thought
Publicly listing every staff email address may sound like good customer service—but in reality, it can backfire, lead to compromised inboxes, and create more work and security risk for your team. Use smarter contact methods and protect your staff from unnecessary inbox overload.