How can I improve my domain reputation with Gmail?
Summary
What email marketers say9Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Reddit shares that consistently monitoring and promptly responding to feedback loops (FBLs) from Gmail can help identify and address potential issues with your email campaigns. FBLs provide valuable information about spam complaints, allowing you to quickly remove offending subscribers and improve your sending practices.
Email marketer from Neil Patel's Blog explains that consistently sending valuable and engaging content is crucial for improving domain reputation. It encourages recipients to interact positively with your emails, signaling to Gmail that your messages are trustworthy and not spam.
Email marketer from HubSpot Blog recommends that warming up a new IP address gradually is key for establishing a positive sender reputation. Slowly increasing the volume of emails sent from a new IP address helps Gmail learn that your sending practices are legitimate and not spammy.
Email marketer from Quora mentions that monitoring the frequency of your emails and avoiding sending too many emails to your subscribers can help to improve domain reputation. Sending too many emails can lead to recipient fatigue and increase the chances of being marked as spam.
Email marketer from Litmus shares that ensuring your emails are properly formatted and optimized for mobile devices can improve the overall user experience and reduce the likelihood of recipients marking your emails as spam. Poorly formatted emails can be frustrating to read and may appear suspicious.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares that most articles on improving domain reputation are the same and non-informative. They typically list steps like sending less email, sending less spammy email, and using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. They also ask for Postmaster screenshots to further diagnose the issue.
Email marketer from Sendinblue Blog shares that segmenting your email list and targeting specific audiences with relevant content can significantly improve your sender reputation. This practice minimizes the chances of sending irrelevant emails to uninterested recipients, reducing spam complaints and bounces.
Email marketer from Stack Overflow responds that avoiding the use of URL shorteners in your email campaigns can help improve your domain reputation. URL shorteners can often be associated with spam or phishing attempts, leading Gmail to distrust your emails.
Email marketer from Mailchimp Resource responds that actively monitoring your sender score (reputation) through tools like Sender Score or Google Postmaster Tools is important. This allows you to identify potential issues affecting your reputation and take timely corrective actions, such as addressing high bounce rates or spam complaints.
What the experts say5Expert opinions
Expert from Word to the Wise shares that implementing and maintaining robust sender authentication protocols (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) is essential for verifying your sending identity and preventing spoofing, ultimately enhancing your domain reputation with Gmail.
Expert from Email Geeks suggests running through the steps they previously gave and revisit the linked post for guidance.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that setting up and monitoring feedback loops (FBLs) is crucial for identifying and addressing complaints from Gmail users, enabling you to remove problematic subscribers and improve your overall sending practices.
Expert from Email Geeks states the most important thing is to stop sending to anyone who is currently receiving mail in their spam folder at Gmail. Recommends pausing mail to anyone who hasn’t opened recently (within the last 30 days).
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that a proper IP address warmup is important to improve domain reputation by gradually increasing sending volume and monitoring deliverability metrics to establish a positive sending history with Gmail.
What the documentation says7Technical articles
Documentation from Google Support explains that using a dedicated IP address for sending emails can give you more control over your sender reputation. It isolates your email traffic from other senders, preventing their negative sending practices from affecting your reputation with Gmail.
Documentation from Spamhaus responds that avoiding the use of spam trigger words and phrases in your email content can help prevent your emails from being flagged as spam by Gmail's filters. These trigger words are often associated with unwanted or unsolicited emails.
Documentation from RFC-Editor responds that maintaining a clean email list by regularly removing inactive or invalid email addresses is essential for improving your sender reputation. Sending emails to non-existent addresses can lead to high bounce rates, which can negatively impact your reputation with Gmail.
Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools shares that authenticating your emails using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC is crucial for building trust with Gmail. These authentication methods verify that your emails are genuinely sent from your domain and haven't been tampered with, reducing the risk of them being marked as spam.
Documentation from DMARC.org responds that implementing a DMARC policy allows you to instruct email receivers (like Gmail) on how to handle emails that fail authentication checks (SPF and DKIM). This helps prevent spoofing and phishing attacks, which can damage your domain reputation.
Documentation from IETF explains that carefully crafting your email subject lines to be clear, concise, and relevant to the content of the email can help improve your open rates and sender reputation. Misleading or deceptive subject lines can lead to recipients marking your emails as spam.
Documentation from Microsoft shares that providing a clear and easy way for recipients to unsubscribe from your email list is essential for maintaining a good sender reputation. Making the unsubscribe process difficult or hidden can lead to frustration and spam complaints, negatively impacting your reputation.