Deliverability
Why good email still lands in spam
Usually it is not the words. It is the sender, the links and the people who press the spam button.
Most people blame the subject line. Mailbox providers rarely do. The usual causes are about who is sending, how they send, and how readers react.
The usual causes
- No authentication. SPF, DKIM or DMARC missing or misaligned.
- A new domain or IP that sends a lot at once. Volume without history looks like a spam run.
- Complaints. Even a small share of "report spam" clicks moves a sender into the spam folder.
- Old lists. Addresses that bounce or never open teach providers to distrust you.
- Links. Shorteners, mismatched domains and links to newly registered sites all lower the score.
- Blocklists. One listing can move the whole account.
What helps
- Authenticate every message, then move to a DMARC reject policy.
- Send to people who asked, remove bounces, and make unsubscribing easy.
- Warm up new domains slowly, and keep a steady pattern instead of big bursts.
- Check the postmaster tools that providers offer for your domain.