These reasons and tips will apply whether you’re just a person sending emails from your personal account, or having delivery issues with your marketing or transactional website emails (such as order confirmations).
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why are my emails being sent as spam? 📧
according to statista, more than half of all emails are spam. [1]
It goes without saying that email spam is a huge problem on the internet, which is why email services have become more aggressive in fighting spam.
Most emails that are filtered as spam are actually just spam. people would be upset if they had to manually filter all these emails, so internet service providers (isps) and email services (like gmail) set up filters to automatically block spam before it even appears in the inbox.
However, if you make a few common mistakes, your legitimate emails could also get caught up in these anti-spam efforts.
In this first section, we’ll look at some of the most common reasons emails end up as spam. then in the next section, we’ll share some tips to make sure you avoid the spam folder.
1. you have not configured proper authentication
One of the biggest problems with spam is the lack of proper authentication.
Think about when people call you on the phone:
- if it sees it’s someone in your contacts, it will answer right away because it knows exactly who is calling.
- if it sees a random number, you can assume it’s another robocall and just ignore it.
It’s the same with emails. there are technologies you can use to authenticate your emails that will automatically make you appear more trustworthy in the eyes of spam filters. instead of being a random number, you have shown who you are and that you actually control the domain name you are sending from.
the most important tactics are:
- dkim (Domain Key Identified Mail)
- spf (Sender Policy Framework)
- dmarc – Requires that you are already using dkim and spf
If you’re using a custom email address and haven’t set up these authentication methods, that’s one of the main reasons your emails are going to be sent as spam. later in this post, we’ll show you what to do.
2. your sender information is inaccurate or missing
In addition to lacking technical authentication tactics like dkim and spf, incorrect sender information can also cause spam problems:
- inaccurate sender/reply information: Make sure the email address you’re sending from matches the sender and your authentication information.
- lack of physical address: the ftc requires that you add a physical address to your mass emails. this is why you’ll typically see an address at the bottom of every marketing email.
3. you are using words or punctuation marks that trigger spam
In a nutshell, there are just a few words or punctuation patterns that look spammy.
for example, “meet singles” or “online business opportunity”. These words alone may not be enough to send you to the spam filter. but they will attract attention and, when combined with some of the other problems on the list, can end up with your emails going to spam.
Also, avoid other spam tactics like:
- all caps
- lots of exclamation points!!!!!!
- an avalanche of emojis ❤✨🔥👍🥺 (some emojis are ok – just not do not abuse them)
Likewise, the use of bad grammar or misspelled words can also trigger spam filters, as many spammers use machine translation to translate their spam emails into English.
4. you are using the wrong email list
If you’re sending mass emails to a list of subscribers, there are a few things that can get you in trouble:
- no permission: If you didn’t get an explicit opt-in from subscribers, that can lead to spam issues.
- stale list: if your list contains a lot of inactive or disabled email accounts where emails bounce, filters will see them as spam.
- low engagement – if your emails have open rates very low, isps may take this as a sign that your subscribers don’t want their emails, which can increase the list of those marked as spam.
5. you are linking to dubious websites or using misleading links
The main goal of most spam emails is to get you to click on some type of link, so it’s no surprise that using the wrong types of links can get you into trouble when it comes to spam.
There are two main things that can cause problems here:
First, you may be linking to a website that seems spammy for some reason. for example, maybe it is associated with copyright infringement, has been infected with malware, or for some other reason. Or maybe it’s totally legit, but it’s too close to another spam domain.
Second, you can run into problems if the target url doesn’t match the display url. for example, if the display url is https://google.com but the actual link is https://anotherwebsite.com, that can get you into trouble because this is a common tactic spammers use to trick people into doing click on the links.
Similarly, using url shorteners can also cause problems for the same reason (you may be trying to trick people into clicking links they wouldn’t otherwise click).
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6. you’re using too many images (or not enough text with images)
Images can also cause you problems with spam filters.
There are two ways this can happen:
First of all, if you have a large image in your email and little or no text, that can trigger spam filters. this ties in with the “junk words” point above. To prevent spam filters from hitting them for using spam words, some spammers have moved to include all the text in a single image file, instead of as actual text.
Because of this, sending a single image looks suspicious to spam filters.
however, you can also have problems in the other direction. if you use a lot of images and very little text, that can also cause you problems.
Basically, using images as a replacement for text can get you in trouble, so don’t do it!
7. you are sending too many attachments
Because attachments are used to distribute malware or other malicious activities, they will always attract the attention of spam filters, especially certain types of files (such as an .exe file).
8. your recipient marked you as spam (perhaps accidentally)
In many email clients, users have the option to manually mark emails as spam.
If the person you’re trying to email previously marked their emails as spam, it’s likely that new emails you send will also end up in the spam folder.
Also, if you’re sending bulk emails, too many people marking your emails as spam can negatively affect your reputation as a sender. this can increase the chances of your emails ending up as spam even when you send them to people who didn’t mark you as spam.
you may also be interested:
- best & cheaper” (+ the one we use)
- how to optimize post-purchase behavior in woocommerce (data says)
six tips to improve email deliverability and avoid the spam folder 🪄
Now that you know what could be going wrong, let’s look at some practical tips you can implement to keep your emails out of the spam filter.
1. use the mail tester to detect problems
mail tester is an excellent free tool for detecting technical problems with email deliverability. all you need to do is:
- go to the mail tester
- send an email to the address you provide (from the email account where you have spam problems). if you’re having trouble with a specific email, make sure you use the same text/images/links in your email.
- click the button then check your score.
- see the analysis.
email tester will give you an overall score along with some suggestions for improvement. you can expand each section for more details:
if your score is very low, usually all you need to do is implement the suggestions to improve your deliverability.
2. configure proper authentication
As the internet has evolved, spam filters are putting more weight on the sender’s overall reputation rather than just the content of their emails.
The content of your emails is still important, but someone with a great reputation could get away with some spam-adjacent content that a sender with a bad reputation can’t.
One of the best ways to improve your reputation is to make sure you properly authenticate your emails with methods like dkim and spf.
If you’re using a free service like gmail, you don’t need to worry about this. this only applies if you are using a custom email address like [email protected]
You can configure these authentication methods by adding txt records in your domain’s dns administration.
You can get the logs you need from your email hosting service. try searching the help documentation for “spf” or “dkim” or ask the support team for help if you can’t find it.
then you need to add those records to your domain name using the dns editor. you will do this:
- through your web host’s panel if you are using your host’s nameservers
- through your domain registrar if you are not using them nameservers of your host
for example, this is what it looks like when adding the zoho mail spf record via the dns management tool in kinsta, a popular wordpress host:
3. use a dedicated submission service for your website
If you’re having spam issues with emails you send from your website, a great way to avoid problems is to use a dedicated email sending service (also known as an smtp provider) instead of trying to send from the server smtp from your host.
This is especially true for wordpress sites. the default method that wordpress uses to send emails will surely end up with your emails in spam folders most of the time.
don’t worry! For a small site, you can find shipping services that are 100% free. you’ll generally be fine on the free tier for up to ~300 emails per day.
We have a post that compiles the best smtp providers for websites. however, for beginners, we recommend sendinblue because it is very easy to set up with a wordpress website and includes a generous free plan.
ℹ️ also, if you ever need more, sendinblue also has affordable plans that allow you to sell more emails and serve more contacts. here is a detailed breakdown of sendinblue pricing.