Why are Yahoo/AOL blocking my emails and what can I do about it?

Email marketer from Email Marketing Forum shares that monitor your domain reputation. Just like an IP address, your sending domain has a reputation that affects deliverability. Use tools to track your domain reputation and address any issues promptly to avoid being blocked by Yahoo/AOL.

Email marketer from Sender Score responds that maintaining a good sender reputation is essential for deliverability. Check your sender score regularly to identify any issues that may be affecting your reputation with Yahoo/AOL. Address any problems promptly to avoid being blocked. Use tools such as their Sender Score to monitor your email sending reputation.

Email marketer from ReturnPath shares that monitor blacklists. Check if your sending IP or domain is listed on any email blacklists. If you are blacklisted, take steps to get removed promptly to restore your deliverability. Being on a blacklist.

Email Marketer from Email Geeks explains that ISP's complaint rates can be calculated differently. ESPs often say (# of complaints/ # of mail sent). If any of your mail is being bulked and that increases, it may falsely drop your complaint rate. Also shares that with Yahoo if you are getting deferred and you don’t stop (meaning you just keep retrying the mail), it’s only going to degrade your reputation further.

Email marketer from EmailToolTester responds that make it easy for recipients to unsubscribe from your emails. Provide a clear and accessible unsubscribe link in every email. Honor unsubscribe requests promptly to avoid complaints and maintain a positive sender reputation. Compliant unsubscribe process.

Email marketer from GMass shares that consider using a dedicated IP address for sending emails to Yahoo/AOL. A dedicated IP allows you to build a reputation that is not affected by other senders. This can improve your deliverability and reduce the risk of being blocked.

Email marketer from Reddit explains that poor list hygiene is a common cause of deliverability problems. Regularly clean your email list to remove inactive or invalid email addresses. Sending to engaged users improves your sender reputation and reduces the risk of being blocked by Yahoo/AOL. Use a reputable email verification service to ensure your list is clean and up-to-date.

Email marketer from Mailjet Blog shares that IP warming is critical. Gradually increase your sending volume to Yahoo/AOL over time. Starting with a low volume and slowly increasing it allows you to build a positive reputation with the ISPs. Monitor your deliverability and adjust your sending volume accordingly.

Email marketer from Litmus responds that preview your emails across different email clients and devices. Ensure your emails render correctly in Yahoo/AOL to provide a good user experience. Poorly formatted emails can trigger spam filters and negatively impact your deliverability. Render well on all email clients.

Email marketer from StackExchange shares that email content can trigger spam filters. Review your email content to ensure it is not spammy or misleading. Avoid using excessive capitalization, exclamation points, and spam trigger words. Use a content checker to identify any potential issues and make necessary adjustments.

Email marketer from GlockApps responds that use email placement testing tools to check how your emails are being delivered to Yahoo/AOL. These tools simulate real email sends and provide reports on inbox placement, spam folder placement, and missing emails. Use this information to identify and fix any deliverability issues.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that filters do change and adapt to ongoing threats. And, sometimes, they adapt because the folks working the filters figure out a way to identify and block spam that they couldn’t before. Best practices evolve and get better over time. What we thought was OK a few years ago may not be OK now.

Expert from Word to the Wise explains that proper email authentication is crucial for establishing trust with Yahoo and AOL. Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records to verify your identity as a legitimate sender. Ensure your authentication records are correctly configured and regularly monitored to prevent deliverability issues. Correct Authentication.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that its important to pause your sending. Give it a rest so that the bad whatever is further back on the trend lines and you can start sending low volumes. Plus: yahoo sees all your content before they return any reject message. They do know if you've changed your content even if they don't accept mail. They know if you're sending to the same group or you've modified your strategy. They don't need to accept your mail to identify your changes.

Expert from Word to the Wise responds that address list acquisition methods significantly impact deliverability. Purchasing lists or using third-party data often results in low engagement and high complaint rates, triggering blocks. Focus on building your list organically through opt-in methods, ensuring recipients have explicitly consented to receive your emails. First party data is key.

Expert from Email Geeks shares that complaint rate can also mean “complaints about mail that contain these URLs or link to these sites” - and senders never get those complaints through FBLs. But they see the full text of the message before they return the reject message - so they do content scan as part of their delivery process. And they will block based on URLs in the message. Suggests looking hard at the content.

Expert from Spam Resource shares that content filtering is a key factor. Avoid using common spam trigger words, excessive capitalization, and overly promotional language. Ensure your email content is relevant, valuable, and clearly communicates the purpose of the message. Review and test your content regularly to identify and eliminate any potential spam triggers.

Expert from Email Geeks shares her experience is that TSS04 is an escalation of blocks, that there were delivery problems beforehand but those were not addressed by the sender at the lower levels.

Expert from Email Geeks shares that from Yahoo’s perspective there isn’t anything wrong with their filtering and the filters are working as intended. They also reiterated what some of us have said here and if you’re getting TSS04 responses then you need to back off sending volume.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that if Yahoo/AOL is only giving feedback to “follow the best practices” that often means that there’s something very problematic about how the recipients are reacting to your messages and they’re seeing patterns that lead them to believe that your permission practices are a problem.

Expert from Spam Resource explains that Yahoo and AOL heavily weigh sender reputation and engagement. Low engagement rates (opens, clicks) signal that recipients don't want your emails, leading to blocks. Focus on sending to highly engaged subscribers, segmenting your lists, and removing inactive users to improve your reputation and deliverability.

Expert from Email Geeks explains that the only thing we can do is adapt as they’re not going to tell us specifics because the spammers get the message, too. Also shares that many folks over the year tell her “we’re following all best practices” and then discover that includes buying addresses, or whatever. Best practices is extremely vague and they appear to mean different things to different people.

Documentation from Yahoo Help Central explains that to ensure your bulk mailings are delivered, adhere to Yahoo's bulk sending guidelines. These include authenticating your email with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC; maintaining a low complaint rate; and providing an easy way for recipients to unsubscribe. Avoid sudden spikes in sending volume and ensure your sending IP has a good reputation.

Documentation from AOL Postmaster responds that AOL emphasizes the importance of email authentication. Implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records to verify the authenticity of your email. This helps AOL identify legitimate senders and reduces the likelihood of your emails being blocked. Ensure your authentication records are properly configured and up-to-date.

Documentation from RFC-Editor.org explains that adhere to SMTP standards. Ensure your email sending infrastructure and practices comply with the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) standards outlined in RFC documents. This helps ensure compatibility with receiving mail servers and reduces the risk of deliverability problems. Compliance with standards.

Documentation from SparkPost explains that setting up feedback loops with Yahoo/AOL allows you to receive reports of complaints from recipients. Monitor these reports closely and remove users who are complaining from your mailing list. Addressing complaints promptly improves your sender reputation and reduces the likelihood of being blocked.

Documentation from DMARC.org states that correctly implementing DMARC is vital to protect your domain from spoofing and phishing attacks. Ensure your DMARC policy is set to 'reject' or 'quarantine' to instruct receiving mail servers on how to handle unauthorized emails using your domain. This helps improve your email security and deliverability.