Gmail Troubleshooting

Basic steps to fix loading problems in Gmail

Here are some Gmail troubleshooting steps to follow if you are experiencing spam folder placement in Gmail.

• Are you registered in the Gmail complaint comment loop (FBL) and are you actively reviewing the data?

• You can register on the Gmail Postmaster website. High volume senders can use the Gmail FBL to identify problematic campaigns that cause large complaints.

• Have you recently started sending from a new IP address or domain? If you do not heat your new IP address or domain, the email will be sent to the spam folder.

• Heating your IP or domain too quickly can also make it look like a spammer and lead to spam folder placement.

• The Gmail spam filter needs time to learn how subscribers interact with your email to help you determine where to place your email.

• Be sure to heat your IP or domain with compromised subscribers who will open and interact with your email.

• Are you sending subscribers who are committed to your email?

• Send to many subscribers who have not been involved with your email (ie, open and read, saved from the spam folder, answered) recently you can have the email sent to the spam folder. Some senders succeed in Gmail by being very aggressive with sending to committed subscribers. Try sending only to subscribers who have participated in the last 6 months. If you do not see an improvement in the inbox location, go to 5 months, 4 months (etc.) until you see a change in the inbox location. If you have delivery capacity problems in Gmail, you may only have to temporarily send to users who have been involved in the last 15 to 30 days to improve your shipping reputation. As the inbox location improves, you can start adding less compromised users slowly so as not to sabotage any progress.

• If you see a threshold of participation in Gmail (for example, committed in the last 90 or 180 days) where performance begins to suffer, reconsider your content strategy to keep more subscribers involved over time. The commitment is important to Gmail, as it is a reliable indicator that it is less likely to be a spammer and more reliable.

• Verify your activated email rules.

• Activated emails and their influence on the shipping reputation and inbox location are sometimes forgotten, since they occur automatically. Check the current rules for possible frequency problems (too much), as well as sending to uncommitted subscribers (such as a birthday, anniversary, renewal reminder, etc.).

• Do you ship too often?

• If you send every day or several times a week, you can try reducing the frequency to see if there is any benefit to your complaint rate.

• Do you have a link to unsubscribe at the top of your email?

• Some senders see a benefit by adding another link to unsubscribe at the top of the email, this makes it easier for a subscriber to unsubscribe instead of marking the email as spam.

• Do you make frequent adjustments to your email program?

• Frequent changes in your shipping behavior and identity make you look like a spammer. How:

• Frequency (common during holidays)

• Volume

• Shipping Domain

• DKIM domain

• IP sending

• Did you acquire email addresses from a high-risk source?

• Look at subscriber lists that have recently been added to your list file. Addresses acquired through a list purchase, list collection or joint registration (with a partner that does not follow best practices) cause delivery problems in Gmail.

• Are your domains blacklisted?

• Gmail cares about protecting its users from phishing email and dangerous websites. Although Gmail does not publicly disclose how they identify dangerous websites, you can verify:

• SURBL

• URIBL

• DBL Spamhaus

Verify all domains in your header, as well as within the content.

• Are you authenticating all your email and passing the verification?

• Ensure that you are authenticating with the Sender Policy Framework (SPF), DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), and the Domain-Based Message Authentication Report and Compliance (DMARC). Make sure there are no configuration errors in all authentication methods or it could result in messages sent to the spam folder.