What should I do if Google is blocking my emails due to poor domain reputation?

Key findings

• Blocking reason: Google blocks emails when a domain's reputation is poor, often due to high spam complaints or low engagement rates.
• Low volume challenge: Domains with low sending volumes might not accumulate enough data in tools like Google Postmaster Tools to self-diagnose, making the problem harder to identify.
• No direct contact: Directly contacting Google's anti-abuse team for individual domain unblocking is generally not effective or possible.
• Reputation lag: Recovering domain reputation takes time and consistent good sending practices.

Key considerations

• Immediate halt: Cease all email sending to Google domains (especially prospecting traffic) to allow your domain's reputation to cool off. This is a critical first step for resolving a low Gmail domain reputation.
• Engagement focus: Prioritize sending to your most engaged recipients to rebuild positive sending signals.
• Authentication: Ensure your email authentication protocols like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are correctly configured.
• Content review: Analyze your email content for potential spam triggers or misleading information.
• List hygiene: Implement strict list hygiene practices to remove inactive or problematic addresses.
• Gradual ramp-up: After a cooling-off period, slowly increase your sending volume, starting with highly engaged segments. The recovery time can vary, so understand how long it takes to recover domain reputation.
• Monitor: Regularly check your domain's health using Google Postmaster Tools for any available data, even if limited.

Key opinions

• Difficult balance: Marketers find it hard to balance business needs, such as prospecting, with the strict demands of email deliverability.
• Impact of cold email: Sending cold or unsolicited emails significantly contributes to poor domain reputation and subsequent blocking. Understanding how to prevent cold emails harming reputation is vital.
• Suppressing Google: It's challenging for B2B marketers to specifically suppress Google-targeted emails, as many business domains use Google Workspace.
• Forced pause: Many agree that pausing all sending to Google is a necessary, albeit difficult, first step.
• Engagement as key: Focusing on engaged recipients is seen as crucial for rebuilding reputation, otherwise your emails are going to spam.

Key considerations

• Prospecting cessation: Marketers advise stopping all prospecting efforts if they are causing deliverability issues with Google.
• Prioritize existing clients: Focus on legitimate outreach to existing, engaged clients to demonstrate positive sending behavior.
• Gradual re-engagement: Re-enter Google's mail stream slowly with highly engaged lists after a period of inactivity.
• Business model review: Some suggest that if a business model relies heavily on practices that lead to blocking, the model itself might be unsustainable for email.

Key opinions

• No direct contact with Google: Experts confirm that there is no effective way to directly contact Google's anti-abuse team for individual unblocking requests.
• Spam filter functionality: Blocking occurs because the email content or sending patterns are identified as spam by the filters, indicating they are functioning correctly.
• Sending practices: The root cause of blocks is usually attributed to poor sending practices, such as cold outreach or sending too much unwanted mail, requiring a plan to recover email domain and IP reputation.
• Reputation rest: A period of no sending (or very low volume, high-engagement sending) is necessary for reputation to recover.
• Long-term change: Simply getting unblocked without changing sending habits will lead to recurring issues.

Key considerations

• Stop prospecting: Deliverability experts strongly advise against sending prospecting or cold emails, as these are primary drivers of poor reputation.
• Adjust practices: Fundamental changes in email sending practices are required to avoid future blocks. This includes monitoring tools like the Google Postmaster Tools V2 Spam Rate Dashboard.
• Don't "warm up" to send spam: Attempting to warm up an IP or domain with good traffic only to switch to spam-like content is easily detected by filters.
• Deliverability over business model: If a business model inherently requires sending unsolicited email, it is considered unsustainable from a deliverability standpoint. Deliverability does not care about your business model.

Key findings

• Authentication importance: Documentation stresses the necessity of correctly configuring SPF, DKIM, and DMARC for email authentication to prove legitimacy.
• Engagement metrics: User engagement (opens, clicks, replies versus spam complaints, unsubscribes) is a primary factor in determining domain reputation.
• Content quality: Email content that is deceptive, misleading, or consistently unsolicited contributes to poor reputation.
• Postmaster tools: Google Postmaster Tools provides data on domain and IP reputation, spam rates, and authentication errors, which are crucial for self-diagnosis (though it has minimum volume requirements). For more information, read the ultimate guide to Google Postmaster Tools.
• Gradual sending: New or warming up domains should start with low volumes and gradually increase to establish a good reputation.

Key considerations

• Monitor postmaster tools: Regularly check Google Postmaster Tools for any available insights into your domain and IP reputation, even for low volumes.
• Adhere to guidelines: Strictly follow Google's sender guidelines to avoid common pitfalls that lead to reputation damage, as outlined in their official documentation.
• Implement feedback loops: Sign up for and monitor feedback loops to promptly identify and remove users who mark your emails as spam.
• Clean lists: Periodically clean your email lists to remove inactive users and invalid addresses.
• Provide easy unsubscribe: Always offer a clear and easy way for recipients to unsubscribe from your emails, as this reduces spam complaints and improves reputation. Learn more about how to improve and protect your sender reputation.