What are the most important email blacklists to monitor and how do you check them?
Summary
What email marketers say11Marketer opinions
Email marketer from Reddit shares that being on major blacklists like Spamhaus can severely impact email deliverability. They respond that it's crucial to regularly check your IPs and domains against these lists and address any issues promptly to maintain a good sender reputation.
Email marketer from Talos Intelligence shares that they provide reputation monitoring services and threat intelligence. They respond that using their tools, you can assess the reputation of your sending IPs and domains and identify potential issues that may affect deliverability.
Email marketer from Email Geeks suggests checking logs to see what blocklists are impacting your volume and going from there.
Email marketer from Mailjet shares that to avoid blacklists, maintain good sending practices, including obtaining explicit consent, using double opt-in, honoring unsubscribe requests promptly, and segmenting your email list. They respond that monitoring your sender reputation using tools like Google Postmaster Tools can also help identify issues before they lead to blacklisting.
Email marketer from Email Geeks corrects that CBL is the XBL.
Email marketer from Email Geeks shares that SpamHaus and SURBL are two of the blacklists they remain most concerned about.
Email marketer from Email Geeks suggests analyzing your traffic to see if a specific block list is showing up more often as a data point on where impacts are happening.
Email marketer from BlacklistAlert shares that they provide comprehensive email blacklist monitoring. They respond that users can check their IP address or domain against multiple blacklists, and set up alerts for blacklist status changes.
Email marketer from Sender Score explains that monitoring your Sender Score helps gauge your email reputation and predict deliverability. They respond that Sender Score isn't a blacklist, but it helps you see how mailbox providers view your IP address. A low score indicates potential deliverability problems.
Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum responds that tools like MXToolbox and WhatIsMyIPAddress allow you to check your IPs against multiple blacklists simultaneously. They respond that these tools can help you quickly identify if you're listed and provide information on the listing details.
Email marketer from Gmass shares that some key blacklists include Spamhaus, Barracuda, and URIBL. They respond that to monitor these, you can use tools like MultiRBL.valli.org or MXToolbox to check your IP and domain reputation across multiple lists.
What the experts say9Expert opinions
Expert from Spam Resource explains the importance of understanding the removal process for each blacklist. They share that each blocklist has its own procedures, and following them carefully is key to getting delisted. Ignoring their specific instructions can prolong the listing.
Expert from Email Geeks shares that they don’t have much respect for lashback’s processes, so they wouldn’t care about unsubscore much.
Expert from Word to the Wise emphasizes the importance of understanding and actively monitoring your sender reputation. She explains that consistent monitoring allows for timely intervention if issues arise, preventing long-term negative impacts on deliverability and suggests using tools like Google Postmaster Tools and Microsoft SNDS.
Expert from Email Geeks clarifies that <http://cbl.abuseat.org|cbl.abuseat.org> is the Spamhaus XBL list.
Expert from Email Geeks poses several questions to consider when evaluating the impact of a blacklist: 1. Do folks block mail based on this list? 2. Do folks use this list as a source of data on which to base deliver decisions? 3. Does being listed by them correlate with poor delivery? 4. Does being listed by them correlate with poor sender practices?
Expert from Email Geeks states that the rest of the blacklists are probably worth caring about to varying degrees.
Expert from Email Geeks mentions that the hostnames sip.invaluement.com, sip24.invaluement.com are old hostnames that haven't been in use by invaluement for over 10 years, subscribers now get a unique license key that they use, that is embedded in the query. As shown, there's not a public host name that is available to be queried by just anyone.
Expert from Word to the Wise explains that Spamhaus is the single most important blocklist to monitor and it is also essential to understand the different types of Spamhaus lists (SBL, XBL, PBL). He shares that you can check your IP against Spamhaus using their Blocklist Removal Center (BRC).
Expert from Email Geeks says it's nice to see the effort to focus on ones that matter instead of throwing dire warnings when listed on Spam Eating Monkey or whatever.
What the documentation says5Technical articles
Documentation from MXToolbox explains that they provide various tools to check email server health, including a blacklist check. They respond that users can use their blacklist checker tool to see if an IP address or domain is listed on multiple popular blacklists.
Documentation from Barracuda Central explains that the BRBL is a real-time database of IP addresses with poor reputation. They respond that you can check if an IP is listed using their lookup tool on the Barracuda Central website. They also offer a removal request process if you believe your IP was listed in error.
Documentation from Proofpoint explains the Dynamic Reputation Filter (DRF) identifies spammers based on IP address reputation. They respond that while you can't directly check the DRF, maintaining good sending practices ensures your IP isn't flagged. Monitoring your sender reputation through other tools can provide indirect insights.
Documentation from MultiRBL explains that they are a tool for checking IPs against multiple RBLs. They respond that users can enter an IP address and view its status on various blacklists, providing a quick overview of potential listing issues.
Documentation from Spamhaus explains that Spamhaus maintains several important blocklists, including the SBL (Spamhaus Block List), the ZEN (which combines SBL, XBL, and PBL), and the DBL (Domain Block List). They respond that to check if an IP or domain is listed, you can use their Blocklist Removal Center (BRC) or query their DNS zones directly.