What changed?
As of February 2024, Google and Yahoo are enforcing stricter email authentication requirements to improve security and prevent spam. These changes require senders to prove they own the domain from which emails are sent.
If you send emails from a Gmail or Yahoo address or haven't set up proper authentication, you must update your email settings to ensure continued deliverability.
📌 Before you start: Check out Google's New Gmail Protections and Yahoo’s Enforcing Email Standards for more details.
What you need to do
1. Stop using @gmail.com as your sender address
Google’s new authentication rules do not support sending bulk emails from @gmail.com addresses. Instead, you must use your own domain (e.g., yourcompany.com).
If you don’t own a domain yet, we strongly suggest you to purchase one as soon as possible to comply with these requirements.
2. Set up email authentication (DKIM, SPF, and DMARC)
To prevent spoofing and phishing attacks, Google and Yahoo now require all senders to authenticate their emails using DKIM, SPF, and DMARC.
SPF (Sender Policy Framework)
Prevents email spoofing by ensuring that only approved IP addresses can send emails on behalf of your domain.
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)
Adds a digital signature to your emails, allowing recipients to verify that they were sent from your domain and haven’t been tampered with.
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance)
Provides additional protection by defining policies on how unauthenticated emails should be handled.
📖 Need help setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC? Follow our step-by-step guide: How to set up email authentication.
3. Ensure your domain has valid DNS records
Your sending domain must have proper forward and reverse DNS records (PTR records). These records help prevent email servers from flagging your messages as suspicious.
📌 Ask your IT team to confirm that your DNS records are correctly set up.
How to avoid spam filtering
Even with proper authentication, email deliverability depends on maintaining a good reputation. Here’s how you can stay compliant and keep your emails out of spam folders:
Monitor your performance – Keep track of your open rates, delivery rates, and spam complaints. If spam complaints increase, investigate immediately.
Send emails at a reasonable frequency – Avoid overwhelming recipients with too many messages in a short time.
Maintain a good sender reputation – A low domain/IP reputation can cause your emails to land in spam folders.
Keep a clean email list – Remove inactive or unengaged subscribers to improve engagement rates and reduce spam complaints.
Send relevant content – Personalized and engaging content reduces the chances of recipients marking your emails as spam.