Glossary
What is deep linking?
Deep linking directs users to a specific page or piece of content within an app, rather than simply opening the app at its home screen.
Why it matters
A user who taps a link about a specific product and lands on a generic home screen has been given more work, not less. They now have to find the thing they were already looking at, and a substantial share do not bother.
Deep linking preserves the destination through the transition. It is one of the highest-return, least-glamorous conversion improvements available, and it is skipped constantly.
The types
- Standard deep link. Opens specific content when the app is installed. Fails if it is not.
- Deferred deep link. Preserves the destination *through* an install, so a new user lands on the right screen after downloading. The most valuable and the most often missing.
- [Universal links](/resources/glossary/universal-linking) on iOS and [Android App Links](/resources/glossary/android-app-links), which use standard HTTPS URLs and fall back to the web automatically.
- Contextual deep links, which carry additional data — a referrer, a promotion, a shared item.
Why deferred deep linking is the hard one
Standard deep linking is a routing problem inside your app. Deferred deep linking requires remembering a destination across an app store visit and an install, for a user you cannot identify at either end.
That is why it usually requires attribution infrastructure rather than a code change, and why implementations skip it. It is also where most of the value sits: a new user arriving from a specific piece of content is exactly the user most likely to be lost by a generic landing.
The same problem appears in web-to-app flows and smart banners, which frequently promise a seamless transition and deliver a home screen.
Common questions
Do I need a third-party service for deep linking?
Not for standard deep links, which are platform features. Deferred deep linking generally does require attribution infrastructure to carry the destination across the install.
What happens if the app is not installed?
With universal links and app links, the URL loads in the browser as a normal web page. With custom scheme links, nothing happens — which is why the HTTPS-based mechanisms replaced them.
More in engineering and integration
The interfaces and plumbing an ad stack is wired together with.