Have you been running marketing campaigns and noticed that your email metrics have suddenly dropped? Chances are that your emails are being blocked by Gmail or being sent to the spam folder, preventing you from messaging Gmail users.
but why does gmail block your mail server when you’ve been following email delivery best practices and bulk sender guidelines?
first, you need to check if you are on the gmail blocked address list:
this article will show you what to do if gmail is blocking your emails and how to remove it from gmail blacklist.
why does gmail block emails?
Being the world’s largest email service provider with over 1.8 billion gmail users can sometimes lead to emails being incorrectly classified as spam. however, there are a few reasons why gmail blocks emails or sends them to the spam folder.
gmail can block an email address when:
- your emails have been frequently marked as spam
- you are sending a high volume of emails too quickly
- your message headers might be formatted incorrectly
- you are missing a reverse dns record
- you need to configure your ptr records
- your email authentication is not configured correctly
how to improve email deliverability to gmail
here are a couple of things you can do to prevent gmail from blocking your emails and make sure your emails reach your gmail subscribers.
- implement email authentication
- reduce gmail spam reports
- clean up your email list
- check your dmarc reports
- request removal from gmail blacklist
include your server ip address in your email authentication
esps can sometimes block emails that have failed authentication. Email authentication is critical to running a successful email marketing program. configuring spf, dkim, dmarc, and bimi will not only improve your email deliverability, but also increase your email security and show spam filters that you are a trusted email sender.
When setting up authentication, it is important to define every sending server’s IP address that will send mail on behalf of your own domain by creating a valid SPF record. You should authorize your own sending IP address, third-party IP addresses, and any new IP address before sending future messages.
note: emails sent from g suite or gmail use a shared ip address which may affect your email deliverability.
contact your domain administrator or learn how to set up your email authentication with these articles:
- what is spf (sender policy framework) and how to configure it
- what is dmarc: email security with dmarc, spf and dkim
- what is bimi : ultimate guide to bimi in 2022
incorrect dns settings are an immediate red flag for any spam filter and can lead to email being blocked. check your dns records to make sure your emails are properly authenticated before sending your next email campaign.
avoid the spam folder by reducing gmail spam reports
esps will also block spam emails that receive a large number of spam complaints. spam complaints will influence your ip reputation and gmail inbox location. If you have a large number of spam complaints, the spam filters may think you have been spamming your gmail users and may block the emails.
You can avoid spam filter problems by demonstrating to your recipient’s email service provider that their mail servers do not send spam.
start by reducing your email volume and sending frequency. Track your email volume to see if your daily sending quota has exceeded the gmail limit of 2,000 (500 for trial accounts). If your email quota has exceeded that number, Google may add you to a list of suspended IP addresses.
You can also decrease the number of people who report spam by sending them more relevant and personalized marketing emails. Make sure you are using double opt-in to ensure that people actually want to receive mail from you instead of thinking your messages are unsolicited mail.
verify your recipient’s email address by cleaning your email list
Another reason gmail blocks emails is due to poor list hygiene. If you buy an email list (which you shouldn’t) or haven’t cleaned your list in a while, some emails on your list may have typos, misspellings, or may have been abandoned.
These abandoned emails are sometimes recycled by email service providers and used as spam traps. Internet providers assume that an email message that was sent to spam traps or invalid email addresses is most likely unsolicited mail. If you accidentally message either of those, your email may bounce, which negatively impacts your email account, email deliverability, and tarnishes your IP reputation.
Therefore, you should use the double opt-in option when people sign up for your newsletter to ensure that the recipient’s email address and domain are not misspelled. If your recipient’s email address contains a typo or does not belong to you, it will not be added to your list and will not affect your email marketing reputation.
Another way to practice good list hygiene is to include an unsubscribe link in all of your marketing emails. it’s better for your domain’s reputation if unengaged subscribers opt out of your email marketing campaigns rather than mark it as spam and damage your domain’s reputation. unsubscribe requests should be removed from your list immediately to avoid damaging the reputation of your ip address.
more information: list hygiene: how to maintain a compromised list
find spam originating from your domain with dmarc reporting
sometimes you may find an abnormal amount of unsolicited email coming from your domain. these spam emails are more likely to be marked as spam and affect your domain reputation. therefore, you should check your dmarc reports regularly for phishing attacks.
When you set up dmarc, you will start receiving xml files as reports every time an email campaign is sent. these reports are sent to the email address chosen for your dmarc registration.
It is important to proactively monitor your dmarc reports to analyze who is sending email on your behalf. you will be able to identify spam originating from your domain.
dmarc reports tell you:
- the ip address of who is sending emails that fail dmarc
- how many messages from your domain pass dmarc
- the ip address of which server you are sending emails to your domain</li
- what action (none, quarantine, or reject) a mail server takes when it receives an unauthenticated email message from your domain
use a dmarc report parser to help you more easily manage, store, and analyze these dmarc reports.
A DMARC report analyzer helps you quickly pinpoint any problems affecting your IP address reputation. In order to find unsolicited mail originating from your domain, search for unauthenticated emails that fail DMARC with the DMARC analyzer tool.
learn more about using a dmarc parser: dmarc report parser: improve email deliverability
request removal from gmail blacklist using gmail sender contact form
Because email marketing has become so popular with spammers, Google had to increase its security measures to protect each Gmail account from spam. implemented strong filters and used blacklists to block emails that attempted to send any form of spam message.
check if google blacklisted you
If you’re sending mail to gmail contacts and find your email account blacklisted by gmail, it’s best to pause your current workflow and review the tips above to prevent your emails from being blocked.
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Once you’ve completed all of the steps above, please verify that you’re following all of Google’s bulk email sender guidelines before submitting a removal request. Google published the Bulk Sender Guidelines to define the best practices that email marketers should follow when sending mail to a gmail user.
If you don’t change the practices that caused you to be blacklisted in the first place, that may result in your mailing being rejected and your mail relayed.
what is the gmail sender contact form?
Google’s Sender Contact Form is a way you can request for Google to remove you from their list of blocked addresses. They might reconsider blocking your messages or placing your emails in the spam folder if you’re argument is strong enough.
Remember to be professional, understanding, and courteous when expressing your concerns and requests.
some things to keep in mind when submitting a takedown request:
- google won’t respond to your request, but will review your ticket.
- although it may take a couple of weeks, you may see your gmail inbox location improve.
- there is no status update or follow-up process to speed up the process.
more information: how to remove your ip address from the gmail blacklist
additional resources:
ip blacklist removal: how to fix a blacklisted ip address how to remove your ip from yahoo blacklist how to remove your hotmail/outlook ip address blacklist