How to Check and Improve Your Email Sender Reputation

If you’re noticing a consistently poor ROI on your email campaigns or finding out that recipients never received your messages at all, there’s a strong chance your emails are ending up in spam folders. This can be worrying for any sender and usually happens for several reasons, with one of the main causes being a weak email sender reputation.

Your email sender reputation is like a trust score for your domain. It helps mailbox providers decide if your emails deserve to land in the inbox or belong in the spam folder. For domain owners and marketers, this reputation can make or break email campaigns and brand credibility.

Mailbox providers like Gmail, Microsoft, and Yahoo closely track your sending habits, user engagement, and authentication results to assess this score. In fact, in early 2024, the average deliverability rate for marketing emails was just 83.1%, meaning nearly 17% of emails never reached the inbox due to poor sender behavior and missing authentication (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC). If your reputation drops, even genuine emails might never reach your audience.

Keeping an eye on your email sender reputation is essential to protect deliverability and maintain a positive brand image. This blog focuses on how to check your sender reputation using trusted tools and how to improve it through strong email authentication practices and other reputation-boosting methods.

What is Email Sender Reputation?

Email sender reputation is a technical score that internet service providers (ISPs) and mailbox providers assign to your domain or IP address. This score helps them decide whether to deliver your emails to the inbox, send them to spam, or block them entirely. The higher your reputation, the better your email deliverability and engagement.

IP-Based vs Domain-Based Reputation

There are two main types of sender reputation: IP reputation and email domain reputation.

• IP reputation depends on the trustworthiness of the server or IP address used to send your emails. Shared IPs can hurt your score if other senders on the same IP have bad practices.

• Email domain reputation focuses on the domain itself, not the sending server. Even if your IP changes, a domain with a clean record and proper authentication keeps its credibility intact.

Why Does Email Reputation Matter?

Your email sender reputation directly controls whether your messages make it to the inbox or disappear into spam. For domain owners and marketing teams, this reputation isn’t just about email delivery; it’s about protecting brand trust and communication reliability. Here is a detailed breakdown of why you should consider maintaining a good senderbase reputation score: 

1. Inbox Placement and Deliverability

Mailbox providers use sender reputation as a key signal for filtering emails. If your score is low, even legitimate campaigns can get flagged as spam. For instance, Gmail or Yahoo may automatically throttle or block bulk sends from domains with weak authentication or poor engagement. Monitoring your email domain reputation helps prevent this issue early.

2. Email Engagement and Campaign ROI

A strong email sender reputation improves open and click rates because more of your messages reach real users. When campaigns reach the inbox instead of spam, your conversion metrics naturally increase.

3. Protection Against Spoofing and Phishing

A compromised sender reputation often results from spoofing or unauthorized use of email. Enforcing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC through platforms like EasyDMARC prevents malicious senders from misusing your domain and damaging its credibility.

4. Brand Perception and Business Trust

A poor senderbase reputation score doesn’t just hurt emails; it affects your brand image. For example, if a retail business sends promotional or order confirmation emails that never reach customers, it risks revenue loss and negative feedback. 

Over time, this damages both sender trust and customer confidence. Maintaining a strong sender score reputation network is both a technical priority and a business safeguard.

How to Check Your Email Sender Reputation

You can verify your email sender reputation using Google Postmaster Tools or Microsoft SNDS. EasyDMARC’s Domain Reputation Checker also allows you to check the overall email domain reputation in seconds. It identifies blocklisting issues, low-trust signals, and authentication gaps that may affect delivery.

Key Factors That Affect Your Email Sender Reputation

Your email sender reputation depends on several measurable factors that mailbox providers use to decide if your messages are trustworthy. Understanding these factors helps domain owners maintain a strong email domain reputation and prevent delivery issues.

1. Authentication Results

Mailbox providers validate every message using SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Failing these checks immediately lowers your senderbase reputation score. Setting up and monitoring these records through DMARC Analyzer and SPF Record Generator ensures your emails are authenticated and aligned with your domain identity.

2. Spam Complaints and User Engagement

Every time a recipient marks your message as spam, it harms your sender’s reputation. High spam complaint rates, low open rates, and poor engagement are common reasons for a drop in deliverability. 

3. Bounce Rates and Invalid Addresses

Sending emails to non-existent or invalid addresses signals poor list hygiene. Consistent high bounce rates can trigger filters that block your domain. Use verified mailing lists and test sends before bulk campaigns. 

4. Sending Volume and IP Behavior

Sudden spikes in email volume or inconsistent sending patterns reduce your sender score reputation network rating. ISPs treat irregular activity as potential spam behavior. Gradually increase sending volumes and maintain consistent mailing frequencies to build trust over time.

5. Blocklist Presence

If your IP or domain is listed on public blocklists, mailbox providers immediately lower your email sender reputation. Regular blocklist checks are essential to detect listing incidents early, identify the cause, and submit removal requests through the respective blocklist operators before your domain’s reputation takes a deeper hit.

How to Improve Email Sender Reputation

Improving your email sender reputation requires consistent technical maintenance and smart sending practices. Here’s how domain owners can combine authentication, monitoring, and engagement strategies to keep their email domain reputation high: 

1. Set Up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC Correctly

Authentication is the backbone of a strong email sender reputation.

• SPF (Sender Policy Framework) defines which mail servers can send emails on behalf of your domain.

• DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) adds a cryptographic signature that proves your message hasn’t been altered.

• DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) ties them together and gives you control over how mailbox providers handle unauthenticated mail.

Once you have deployed DMARC, you will start receiving forensic and aggregate DMARC reports that provide crucial insights into your email activities. Since these reports are originally in an unhuman-friendly XML format, you can use a converter to view the information in plain English. 

2. Regularly Check Your Email Domain Reputation

Monitoring is crucial. Use the Domain Reputation Checker to assess email sender reputation and quickly spot issues such as blocklisting or poor IP trust scores. Regular audits help detect sudden drops in the senderbase reputation score caused by spam complaints or authentication failures.

3. Maintain Clean Mailing Lists

High bounce rates and inactive subscribers harm your sender score reputation network. Remove invalid or unengaged addresses frequently. Using verified opt-in methods and suppression lists helps maintain strong engagement metrics, which mailbox providers closely track when scoring your email sender reputation.

4. Warm Up New Domains and IPs Gradually

If you’ve recently launched a new domain or switched sending IPs, increase email volume slowly. ISPs flag sudden spikes as spam-like behavior. A proper warm-up strategy helps establish a healthy email domain reputation early.

5. Monitor Engagement and Complaint Rates

Low engagement or high spam complaint rates are warning signs. Monitor these metrics via Google Postmaster Tools or directly within your EasyDMARC dashboard. If engagement falls, review your content, subject lines, and sending frequency.

Final words

Your email sender reputation defines how much mailbox providers trust your domain. Strong authentication, consistent sending behavior, and continuous monitoring protect both deliverability and brand credibility. 

Regularly checking email sender reputation, fixing issues early, and aligning SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records with EasyDMARC’s tools helps maintain a high score, translating into higher inbox placements and better ROI on marketing campaigns. 

If you still haven’t signed up with us, create your account and start your free 14-day trial that can help you understand the issues and blind spots in your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. 

Frequently Asked Questions