What is email sender reputation?
Sender reputation is a trust score that mailbox providers like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo assign to your sending domain and IP address. It reflects your sending history, bounce and complaint rates, recipient engagement, and authentication setup. A strong reputation means your mail is more likely to reach the inbox, while a weak one sends it to spam or gets it blocked.
How do I check my email sender reputation?
Enter your domain in the checker above. It evaluates your authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), blacklist status, DNS configuration, and mail infrastructure, then returns an A to F grade with specific fixes. For provider data, pair it with Google Postmaster Tools for Gmail and Microsoft SNDS for Outlook. Checking at least monthly is a good habit.
What is a good sender reputation score?
On this tool, an A (90 to 100) is excellent and a B (75 to 89) is good, both consistent with reliable inbox placement. A C is fair with room to improve, and a D or F signals problems that are likely sending mail to spam. The grade reflects how closely your domain follows established email best practices.
What is the difference between IP reputation and domain reputation?
IP reputation is tied to the sending server's IP address and changes when you switch providers. Domain reputation is tied to your sending domain and follows you regardless of infrastructure. Modern providers, Gmail in particular, lean heavily on domain reputation because a domain is harder to swap and more closely tied to your brand.
Why are my emails going to spam instead of the inbox?
The usual causes are a weak sender reputation driven by spam complaints, high bounce rates, low engagement, or missing authentication. Check your grade above, confirm SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are valid, clean invalid addresses off your list, and focus your sends on subscribers who actually open and click.
How do SPF, DKIM, and DMARC affect sender reputation?
They prove you are an authorized sender. SPF lists which servers may send for your domain, DKIM signs each message so receivers can confirm it was not altered, and DMARC tells receivers what to do when a check fails and sends you reports. Since 2024, Google and Yahoo require all three for bulk senders, so missing any of them drags your reputation down.
How long does it take to fix a bad sender reputation?
Recovery usually takes a few weeks to a couple of months depending on the damage. Fix the root cause first (clean the list, cut complaints, set up authentication), then warm volume back up starting with your most engaged recipients. IP reputation tends to recover faster than domain reputation.
What factors affect email sender reputation the most?
Spam complaints are the single fastest way to damage it, so keep them below 0.1 percent. Bounce rate (stay under 2 percent), recipient engagement, and proper authentication follow close behind. Hitting spam traps or landing on a blacklist will also cut your standing sharply.
Is this sender reputation checker really free?
Yes. No signup, no email, no limits on normal use. The tool reads publicly available DNS and blacklist data to produce your score, so you can check any domain you manage as often as you need.
How does this score relate to Google Postmaster Tools?
Google Postmaster Tools is a free Google service that shows the domain and IP reputation Gmail assigns to your mail, along with spam rates and authentication results, based on how Gmail recipients engage with your messages. This checker is complementary: it grades the public, verifiable signals like authentication, blacklists, and DNS that you can fix directly, while Postmaster Tools shows the engagement-driven reputation at one provider. Strong senders watch both.
How can I improve my domain reputation?
The fastest gains come from getting authentication right, cleaning your list, and sending mainly to people who engage. Make sure
SPF,
DKIM, and
DMARC are valid and aligned, remove hard bounces and long-term non-openers, and keep complaint rates low. If you are recovering or starting fresh, warm up volume gradually and lead with your most engaged recipients so positive signals build before you scale.
What is email warmup and do I need it?
Email warmup is the practice of ramping sending volume gradually on a new domain or IP while keeping engagement high, so mailbox providers build a positive reputation before you send at full volume. You need it whenever you start sending from a fresh domain or IP, or when you increase volume sharply, because a sudden spike from an unknown sender looks like a spam outbreak. Most warmups run over a few weeks, starting small and increasing steadily.