Why are my business emails going to spam?
Business email usually goes to spam because the receiving service cannot confirm who sent it, or because recipients are marking it as unwanted. Gmail and Yahoo both ask senders to set up email authentication for their sending domain, and both warn against bought lists. Send from your own domain, ask whoever runs your email to confirm authentication is set up, email only people who expect to hear from you, and make unsubscribing easy.
What Gmail and Yahoo now ask of senders
Gmail's sender guidelines say that starting February 1, 2024, all senders to Gmail accounts must meet its requirements, which cover personal accounts ending in @gmail.com or @googlemail.com. Yahoo's sender page sets out similar standards, with enforcement beginning in February 2024.
The two providers side by side
SPF, DKIM and DMARC are the names of the checks. Gmail says receiving servers use DKIM to verify that the domain owner actually sent the message. It counts a bulk sender as one sending more than 5,000 messages a day to Gmail accounts. Many small service businesses send far fewer, so the Every sender row below usually applies.
| Gmail | Yahoo | |
|---|---|---|
| Every sender | Set up SPF or DKIM authentication for your sending domains | Implement SPF or DKIM at a minimum |
| Bulk senders | SPF, DKIM and DMARC, plus, for marketing messages, one-click unsubscribe and a visible unsubscribe link | SPF, DKIM and a DMARC policy, plus, for marketing messages, one-click unsubscribe, a visible link and unsubscribes honored within 2 days |
| Bought lists | "Don't purchase email addresses from other companies" | "Don't purchase mailing lists" |
What you can check as an owner
- Send from an address at your own domain. Gmail says to set up email authentication for each sending domain at your domain provider. The business needs a login to that account; the related answers on own-domain email and on who owns your domain cover both.
- Ask whoever runs your email whether SPF, DKIM and DMARC are set up for your domain, and ask them to show you a test message that passes.
- If a separate service, such as a newsletter tool, sends email for you, ask it the same question. Gmail says to verify that an email service provider authenticates your domain's email with SPF and DKIM.
- Email only people who expect to hear from you. Gmail says not to send messages to people who didn't sign up to get messages from you. The related answers on email marketing and on buying an email list cover who to email.
- Make leaving easy. Gmail says to always give recipients an easy way to unsubscribe, and Yahoo recommends processing unsubscribe requests within 2 days.
How to test
- Send a test from your business address to a few personal addresses, including one at Gmail and one at Yahoo. Check each inbox and spam folder.
- If one lands in spam, tell whoever runs your email which one, and ask them to confirm your test messages pass authentication.
- Test again after a change, such as a new email provider, website host or sending tool. A change can break a setup that worked.
- If a customer says your message never arrived, ask them to check spam and mark it as not spam.
What authentication does and does not do
Gmail says authenticated messages are less likely to be rejected or marked as spam by Gmail. It also says some legitimate messages may be marked as spam. As general advice, no setup makes inbox delivery certain. Gmail lists other technical requirements too; those are for whoever runs your email.
Sources
Related answers
- Should your business email use your own domain instead of a free address?
- Who should own your business's domain name?
- Is email marketing worth it for a small service business?
- Should a small business buy an email list?
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