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Are email addresses with multiple or misplaced periods valid for deliverability?

Summary

The validity and deliverability of email addresses with multiple or misplaced periods are critical aspects of email list hygiene. While certain email providers, notably Gmail, treat periods within the local part of an address differently, official RFC standards define specific rules for dot placement. Understanding these nuances is essential for ensuring your emails reach their intended inboxes and maintaining a healthy sender reputation. ESPs often enforce stricter validation, potentially preventing delivery to addresses that deviate from standard syntax, even if some mailbox providers might internally normalize them.

What email marketers say

Email marketers frequently encounter email addresses with unusual period placements, prompting questions about their validity and impact on campaign performance. The consensus among marketers often revolves around balancing strict adherence to technical standards with practical deliverability outcomes, particularly given the varying behaviors of different email providers and ESPs. Prioritizing list hygiene and effective validation is a common theme to mitigate deliverability issues caused by malformed addresses.

Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks queried whether email addresses containing multiple or misplaced periods, such as jane..doe@gmail.com or janedoe.@gmail.com, should be considered invalid and candidates for list removal, especially for older entries.

08 Nov 2019 - Email Geeks

Marketer view

Marketer from Email Geeks clarified that their ESP (Responsys) rejects emails with local part syntax errors, even if a provider like Gmail might internally handle some period variations, resulting in non-delivery.

08 Nov 2019 - Email Geeks

What the experts say

Email deliverability experts consistently emphasize the importance of adhering to email address syntax standards to ensure successful delivery. While some providers like Gmail have unique internal rules for handling periods, these are exceptions, not the norm. Experts stress that proper formatting, as outlined in RFCs, is fundamental for email acceptance across the broader internet, and any deviation can lead to bounces or blocklisting (blacklisting). They also highlight the role of email validation services in maintaining list quality.

Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks affirmed that Gmail inherently disregards periods within the local part of an email address, treating variations like john.doe@gmail.com and johndoe@gmail.com as the same address.

08 Nov 2019 - Email Geeks

Expert view

Expert from Email Geeks confirmed that while single dots are often ignored, Gmail specifically enforces a rule against consecutive dots in an email address, deeming them invalid for delivery.

08 Nov 2019 - Email Geeks

What the documentation says

Official documentation from various Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) RFCs and major email providers provides the foundational rules and interpretations for email address syntax. These documents clarify what constitutes a valid email address according to the underlying internet standards. While RFCs provide broad guidelines, individual providers like Google also publish their specific handling rules, particularly regarding features like period normalization, which can diverge from general standards.

Technical article

Documentation from RFC 3696 specifies that within the unquoted local part of an email address, a dot character must not be the first or last character, nor appear consecutively, defining standard email address syntax.

22 Mar 2025 - RFC 3696

Technical article

Documentation from RFC 3696 states that if the local part of an email address contains special characters, including consecutive dots or leading/trailing dots, it must be enclosed in quotation marks to be considered technically valid.

22 Mar 2025 - RFC 3696

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