Can I get notified when someone opens my link?

Yes, with a host that supports per-view notifications. LiveSend can send an email the moment a viewer registers a new opening, with timestamp and optional viewer email. URL shorteners give you a counter but no real-time notification.

Is it legal to track when someone opens my link?

In most jurisdictions, tracking that someone opened a link you sent them is allowed, especially in a B2B context where the recipient knows they are receiving a deliverable. Privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA) come into play when you collect personal data (like email or precise location); in that case, you need a lawful basis and a privacy notice. LiveSend records timestamp, country (approximate), and optional viewer email if you turn on the email gate. Always disclose what you track in your privacy policy.

How do I see how long someone spent on my document?

You need a host that tracks heartbeat events while the page is open, not just the initial page load. LiveSend uses a periodic heartbeat from the viewer page plus a final beacon when the tab closes, so it can report time-on-document accurately. URL shorteners cannot do this because they only see the click, not what happens after.

Can I track a link I've already sent?

Not retroactively, no. The original URL has to point at a host that logs views. If you sent a link to a Google Drive file or a Vercel deploy without analytics, you cannot retroactively learn who opened it. You can send a follow-up with a new tracked URL pointing at the same content (e.g. re-upload to LiveSend) and at least track from that point on.

What's the difference between views and unique views?

A view is each time the page is opened. A unique view typically counts each distinct viewer once over a period (e.g. one calendar day). Some hosts use the IP address to deduplicate, others use a cookie, others use the email captured by an email gate. LiveSend distinguishes the first view of a document (used for the first-view notification) from subsequent views and reports both in the dashboard.

How to know if someone opened your link

Why the question matters

Sending a deliverable and not hearing back is one of the most expensive ambiguities in consulting and freelance work. If the client opened the link yesterday and ignored it, that is a product issue. If they never opened it, that is an attention issue. Those two situations call for very different follow-ups, and you cannot pick the right one without knowing which is happening.

Why a plain link tells you nothing

A URL by itself has no observation point. The HTTP request hits the host, the host serves the page, and unless the host is configured to log and surface those requests to you, the information vanishes. Cloud drives, GitHub Pages, Vercel free-tier hosting, and most generic file shares fall in this bucket. The request happened, but nothing reports it back to you in a useful form.

Option 1, LiveSend (host-side tracking with notifications)

Every document on LiveSend has a view log. Each entry records timestamp, approximate country, time spent on the document, and the viewer's email if you enabled the email gate. The first view of a document can trigger an instant email notification, so you know the moment the client opens it. The time-on-document metric is based on heartbeat events from the viewer page, so it reflects real engagement rather than just a click.

Trade-offs: the viewer has to be on the LiveSend-hosted URL for tracking to work. If you forward the raw HTML elsewhere, you lose the tracking. The email gate adds friction (the viewer has to enter their email before seeing the document), which is appropriate for client work and inappropriate for marketing landing pages.

Option 2, URL shorteners with analytics (Bitly, etc.)

Bitly, Rebrandly, and similar URL shorteners log every click and give you aggregate counts. You learn how many people clicked, when, and roughly where they were. You do not learn who they were (unless you generate one short link per recipient and track which one was clicked, which is workable but tedious). You also do not learn whether they spent 2 seconds or 20 minutes, because the shortener only sees the redirect, not the destination experience.

Use it when: you just want to know whether a link was clicked, and the destination host does not provide its own tracking.

Option 3, email tracking pixels

Some sales tools (HubSpot, Mailtrack, Streak) embed a tracking pixel in the email body. When the email is opened, the pixel loads and you see "email opened". This only tells you the email was opened, not the link inside it, and modern mail clients (especially Apple Mail with Mail Privacy Protection) actively block these pixels or pre-fetch them in ways that make the data unreliable.

Option 4, just ask

Genuinely underrated. If the relationship allows it, "did you get a chance to look at the deck?" in a short message gets you a real answer faster than instrumentation. It does not scale, and you cannot do it with prospects you barely know, but for ongoing client relationships it stays the highest-quality signal you can get.

Clicked is not the same as read

A click is a low bar. The recipient might have clicked the link in the preview pane, immediately closed it, then forgotten. The more useful signal is time-on-document combined with the number of views. Two visits of 6 minutes each is engagement. One visit of 4 seconds is not. Choose a tracking method that captures duration, not just the click event, when the answer actually matters.

Picking the right option

Document delivery to clients or prospects, want timestamp, email, and time spent: LiveSend with the email gate on. Generic link click counting: Bitly. Email opens specifically: HubSpot or similar (with the asterisk that the data is unreliable). Trusted ongoing relationship: just ask.