How can I improve my domain health and avoid the Google domain dog house?
Michael Ko
Co-founder & CEO, Suped
Published 13 Jun 2025
Updated 17 Aug 2025
6 min read
Finding your domain in the "Google domain dog house" means your email reputation has taken a hit. This often translates to emails landing in spam folders or being outright rejected by Google, making it difficult to reach your audience. It's a common challenge for many senders, especially after changes in sending practices or list quality.
The good news is that this isn't a permanent sentence. While it can be tempting to simply switch to a new sending domain, that's often a temporary fix at best. Addressing the underlying issues and actively working to improve your domain health is the most sustainable approach for long-term email deliverability. This guide will walk you through the steps to understand, diagnose, and ultimately improve your domain's standing.
Understanding domain reputation
Domain health is a direct reflection of how recipients interact with your mail. Internet service providers (ISPs) like Google constantly monitor various signals to determine your domain's reputation. These signals include open rates, click-through rates, spam complaints, bounce rates, and whether your emails are marked as junk.
A crucial tool for understanding your domain's standing with Google is Google Postmaster Tools. It provides insights into your domain and IP reputation, spam rate, feedback loop data, and authentication errors. Monitoring these metrics regularly is essential for catching issues early and proactively improving your deliverability.
When your domain health is poor, it means that recipients are reacting negatively to your emails. This could be due to unexpected content, irrelevant offers, or simply a lack of consent. ISPs view these negative signals as indicators of unwanted mail, leading to lower inbox placement and potential blacklisting (or blocklisting).
Understanding these factors is the first step toward recovery. Improving domain reputation is a marathon, not a sprint. It requires consistent effort and a commitment to best practices rather than quick fixes or attempts to circumvent the system.
Email authentication and compliance
Proper email authentication is the bedrock of good domain health. Without it, even legitimate emails can be flagged as suspicious. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are the three pillars of email authentication that help ISPs verify the legitimacy of your emails and prevent spoofing.
Ensuring your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records are correctly configured is non-negotiable. SPF specifies which servers are authorized to send mail on behalf of your domain. DKIM adds a digital signature to your outgoing emails, allowing recipients to verify that the email wasn't altered in transit. DMARC tells receiving servers what to do if an email fails SPF or DKIM checks, and it also provides reporting on your email authentication results.
Google and Yahoo have recently implemented stricter requirements for bulk senders, making robust authentication more critical than ever. These new standards aim to reduce spam and enhance email security for their users. Non-compliance can lead to severe deliverability issues, including outright blocking of your emails.
This DMARC record tells receiving servers to quarantine emails that fail authentication. For a more lenient start, you could use p=none to monitor authentication failures without impacting delivery.
Content and list hygiene
Beyond technical configurations, the content of your emails and the quality of your recipient list play a monumental role in domain health. If recipients consistently mark your emails as spam, or if your bounce rates are high, your domain reputation will suffer significantly. This is particularly true if you are using a shared list or purchased data.
Effective list management
Consent: Ensure every recipient on your list has explicitly opted in to receive emails from you. Avoid purchased or scraped lists.
Segmentation: Send targeted content to relevant segments of your audience to increase engagement and reduce complaints.
Hygiene: Regularly clean your email list by removing inactive subscribers, bounced addresses, and spam traps. Spam traps are a major threat to domain reputation.
Shared lists, where multiple business units or products share the same contact database, pose a significant challenge. If recipients opted in for one product but receive emails for another, they are more likely to mark your emails as spam. This diluted consent quickly erodes your domain's reputation. Focus on building and maintaining segmented lists where consent is clear and specific to the content being sent.
High spam complaint rates are a strong indicator to ISPs that your emails are unwelcome. Similarly, sending to spam traps can lead to your domain being placed on an email blocklist (or blacklist). Actively monitoring your engagement metrics and cleaning your list are continuous processes that will pay dividends in the long run. If your emails are consistently going to spam, you may need to recover from a bad domain reputation first.
Domain rehabilitation tactics
Rehabilitating a domain with poor health requires a strategic approach. It's often more effective to fix the existing domain than to abandon it for a new one, as the root causes of the problem will likely follow you. A new domain also lacks sending history and reputation, requiring a careful warming-up process before you can send at scale.
One effective strategy, especially with low sending volumes, is to identify your most engaged subscribers and prioritize sending to them. These are the people who actively open and click your emails, sending positive signals to ISPs. Gradually expand your sending to less engaged segments as your domain reputation improves. This process helps to build trust with ISPs over time, showing them that your emails are valued by recipients.
Additionally, actively monitor for blocklisting (or blacklisting) occurrences. If your domain or IP is listed, take immediate action to request delisting after resolving the underlying cause. Ignoring these issues will only prolong your stay in the "dog house." Remember, consistent effort and adherence to best practices are far more valuable than trying to outrun your reputation.
Choosing between rehabbing or a new domain
Changing domains without addressing behavioral issues is a temporary fix. It often takes longer to warm up a new domain than to rehabilitate an existing one, and recipients may mark emails from unfamiliar domains as spam.
Views from the trenches
Best practices
Always obtain clear and explicit consent from every recipient before sending them emails.
Segment your email lists carefully to ensure content relevance for each subscriber group.
Regularly clean your email lists to remove inactive addresses and minimize bounces and spam traps.
Monitor your engagement metrics, such as open and click rates, to gauge recipient interest.
Respond promptly to any spam complaints or feedback loop data by removing affected subscribers.
Implement and maintain strong email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
Common pitfalls
Using purchased or scraped email lists, which often contain unengaged recipients and spam traps.
Sharing email lists across different business units or products without explicit, separate consent.
Ignoring high bounce rates or low engagement, which signal poor list quality to ISPs.
Failing to monitor Google Postmaster Tools for reputation drops and authentication issues.
Sending inconsistent email volumes, leading to unpredictable reputation fluctuations.
Relying solely on a new domain as a solution instead of fixing underlying deliverability problems.
Expert tips
Start by identifying the most engaged portion of your list and focus sending only to them to rebuild trust.
Implement a strict re-engagement campaign to identify truly interested subscribers and remove the rest.
For shared lists, consider sending a re-permission campaign for each specific product or service.
Focus on content quality and personalization to increase positive recipient interactions.
If you have low sending volume, gradual and consistent sending to an engaged list is key for rebuilding.
Consult with a deliverability expert if the issues are complex or persistent after initial efforts.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says domain health reflects how recipients react to the mail you send.
2024-11-19 - Email Geeks
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks says changing domains without changing sending behavior will only provide a temporary solution. It generally takes longer to warm up a new domain than to rehabilitate an existing one because recipients don't recognize the new domain.
2024-11-20 - Email Geeks
Final thoughts on domain health
Improving your domain health and staying out of Google's "dog house" is a continuous effort that blends technical setup with responsible sending practices. It means prioritizing email authentication, maintaining a clean and engaged subscriber list, and consistently monitoring your performance through tools like Google Postmaster Tools.
While it can be challenging, especially when dealing with inherited issues or low sending volumes, focusing on building trust with ISPs and your recipients is the ultimate path to sustained email deliverability. Remember, consistent positive engagement signals will always be your strongest allies in maintaining a healthy domain.
Google is Google Postmaster Tools. It provides insights into your domain and IP reputation, spam rate, feedback loop data, and authentication errors. Monitoring these metrics regularly is essential for catching issues early and proactively improving your deliverability.
