How to stop URLs in e-mail body from being tracked?

How do I stop links in html emails from getting swapped with a click.e.mydomain.com tracking link upon send?

We have tried these methods and various permutations:

https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=000314602&language=en_US&type=1&mode=1
https://trailblazers.salesforce.com/answers?id=9063A000000t378QAA
https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=000320926&language=en_US&type=1&mode=1
https://help.salesforce.com/articleView?id=pardot_emails_link_tracking.htm&type=5

But no matter what, when the e-mail shows up in the inbox all links have the click.e.mydomain.com domain.  We want some links in the e-mail to remain exactly as they are entered into the template.

Example of a link we want to not be tracked:

<a href="https://www.mydomain.com/best-sellers?%%=v(@tracking)=%%" conversion="true">Bestsellers</a>

i.e. this is the exact link we want to appear in the customer’s email in their inbox:

<a href="https://www.mydomain.com/best-sellers">Bestsellers</a>

NOT

<a href="http://click.e.mydomain.org/?qs=676162c164f5b61d9409ec0a9db9c7d7c5e689021e7388986c047c2ab6e790csdfsd9jsdhvsdfhj4ccd2b3c7871895f6c766a8011b065f30f96fa8bf8b7">Bestsellers</a>

tried:

1. removing ?%%=v(@tracking)=%%
2. removing conversion="true"
3. %%=CONCAT("<a href='https://www.mydomain.com/best-sellers'>Bestsellers</a>")=%%
4. <blockquote><a href="https://www.mydomain.com/best-sellers">Bestsellers</a></blockquote>

%%[
var @URL
Set @URL = "<a href='http://google.com'>Google 1</a>"
]%%

<br>
%%=v(@url)=%%
<br>