How to troubleshoot Gmail performance issues and spam filtering?
Summary
What email marketers say14Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Reddit explains that implementing DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) helps protect against email spoofing and phishing attacks, improving email deliverability and preventing Gmail from filtering legitimate emails as spam.
Email marketer from Litmus stresses that making your email accessible improves deliverability as well as provides a better experience for users.
Email marketer from ZeroBounce discusses the importance of sender reputation, which is based on IP address and domain, and how it effects deliverability. The higher the reputation, the more likely email is to be delivered to the inbox.
Email marketer from ActiveCampaign explains that high engagement rates, in the form of opens, clicks and replies, can have a direct impact on deliverability. If a subscriber interacts with your email, ESP's are more likely to consider the content useful and therefore increase deliverability rates.
Marketer from Email Geeks provides the definitions of Google Postmaster Tools color ratings (Bad, Low, Medium/Fair, High) in relation to spam volume and deliverability. They recommend segmenting and assessing engagement rates.
Marketer from Email Geeks suggests signing up for Google Postmaster Tools to gain insights into how Gmail views sender reputation.
Marketer from Email Geeks suggests comparing open rates by domain to identify potential spam foldering issues in Gmail and emphasizes the importance of engagement and list hygiene.
Email marketer from Mailjet shares tips for improving email deliverability, including segmenting email lists, cleaning inactive subscribers, personalizing email content, and optimizing email sending frequency. They also emphasize the importance of monitoring email analytics to identify and address potential deliverability issues.
Email marketer from Stackoverflow shares strategies to improve email deliverability, suggesting avoiding URL shorteners, personalizing emails, and ensuring emails are mobile-friendly.
Email marketer from Email on Acid emphasizes the significance of regularly cleaning email lists to remove inactive or invalid email addresses, reducing bounce rates and improving sender reputation with Gmail. Also recommends using double opt-in to ensure subscribers are genuinely interested in receiving emails.
Marketer from Email Geeks recommends setting the Feedback-ID header, noting it may be useful if a large percentage of traffic is marked as spam.
Email marketer from Gmass explains that avoiding common spam trigger words (e.g., 'free,' 'guarantee,' 'urgent') in email subject lines and body content can help prevent Gmail from filtering emails as spam. They also recommend using a spam checker tool to identify potential issues.
Marketer from Email Geeks shares their method of testing email placement daily using various Gmail seeds to monitor inbox placement.
Email marketer from SendPulse explains the importance of warming up new IP addresses for sending emails, which involves gradually increasing the sending volume over time. This allows email providers like Gmail to establish a reputation for the IP address and reduce the likelihood of spam filtering.
What the experts say3Expert opinions
Expert from Spam Resource explains that sender reputation is crucial for Gmail deliverability. Factors impacting reputation include IP address history, domain age, authentication practices (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), spam complaint rates, and engagement metrics. Maintaining a positive sender reputation is key to avoiding spam filtering.
Expert from Word to the Wise answers that list hygiene is important to ensure subscribers are engaged with emails. By cleaning lists of inactive subscribers, deliverability rates can improve.
Expert from Spam Resource states that proper bounce processing is a must. Ignoring bounces or not processing them immediately can be taken as a sign of a spammer.
What the documentation says4Technical articles
Documentation from RFC defines Sender Policy Framework (SPF) as a method to prevent sender address forgery, where domain owners can specify authorized mail servers, helping to improve email deliverability and reduce spam filtering issues.
Documentation from Google Postmaster Tools Help explains how to use the platform to monitor sender reputation, spam rates, and other key metrics to identify and troubleshoot Gmail delivery issues. Highlights the importance of maintaining a 'Good' or 'High' sender reputation.
Documentation from Microsoft Learn describes DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) as a method to add a digital signature to outbound emails, allowing recipient mail servers like Gmail to verify the authenticity of the sender and prevent email spoofing.
Documentation from Google Workspace Admin Help emphasizes the importance of following Gmail's bulk sender guidelines, including authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), maintaining low spam rates, using a consistent sending IP address, and subscribing users before sending messages. Also recommends using Google Postmaster Tools to monitor sender reputation.