Summary
The idea of spam trigger word lists influencing email deliverability is a persistent myth in the marketing world. While once a rudimentary method for spam detection, modern spam filters, which are sophisticated and dynamic, largely ignore static lists of keywords. These filters (or blocklists) assess a multitude of factors, including sender reputation, engagement metrics, email authentication (like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC), and the overall context of the email, not just isolated words.
Key findings
- Outdated concept: Modern spam filters do not rely on simple lists of spam trigger words to flag emails. This method is largely obsolete, replaced by more complex algorithms.
- Context matters: The context in which words are used is far more important than the words themselves. A legitimate email from a trusted sender can use words sometimes associated with spam without issue.
- Reputation is key: Sender reputation, built on consistent positive engagement, low complaint rates, and proper authentication, is the primary factor influencing inbox placement. Focusing on words distracts from real deliverability issues.
- Engagement signals: User engagement (opens, clicks, replies) and lack of negative signals (complaints, unsubscribes) heavily influence whether an email reaches the inbox or the spam folder.
Key considerations
- Avoid focusing on word lists: Spending time agonizing over whether specific words trigger spam filters is unproductive. Instead, concentrate on overall email quality and sender best practices.
- Holistic approach: Prioritize a strong sender reputation, proper email authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), consistent sending patterns, and engaged lists.
- Quality content: Focus on creating valuable, relevant content that your subscribers want to receive and engage with. This naturally reduces the likelihood of being flagged as spam.
- Monitor deliverability: Regularly monitor your inbox placement and complaint rates using tools like Google Postmaster Tools, rather than relying on anecdotal evidence about blocklists or blacklists or spam trigger words.
What email marketers say
Email marketers often find themselves caught between outdated advice and modern deliverability realities. Many still express concern over spam trigger word lists, even as leading deliverability experts and technical documentation dismiss their efficacy. This highlights a gap in understanding how contemporary spam filters (and blocklists) truly operate, which is primarily based on sender reputation and engagement, not simple keyword matching. Some marketers, however, are beginning to recognize the futility of such lists and instead focus on broader best practices.
Key opinions
- Specificity skepticism: Marketers are often skeptical of overly precise lists, such as those claiming 394 specific spam words, questioning the methodology and practical applicability.
- Practical limitations: Adhering strictly to these lists can severely limit natural language, making emails sound unnatural or hindering routine business communications (e.g., a pizza place unable to use the word medium). This points to a deeper issue of whether such lists are truly practical for deliverability.
- Frustration with filters: Some express frustration with complex filtering rules, even jokingly suggesting extreme measures like entirely image-based emails to bypass word-based detection.
- Content quality focus: A few marketers hope that the existence of such lists, even if inaccurate, might encourage better, less pitchy email content overall.
- AI limitations: Even advanced AI struggles to create coherent content using only these trigger words, highlighting the impracticality of such restrictions for human marketers as well.
Key considerations
- Beyond words: Marketers should shift their focus from individual words to the broader context of their email campaigns, including sender behavior and recipient engagement.
- Authenticity over avoidance: Prioritize crafting authentic, valuable messages that resonate with your audience, rather than self-censoring based on arbitrary word lists. Mailmodo's guide, Unveiling the Truth About Spam Words: Myth vs. Reality, reinforces this.
- Learn from experience: Observe email performance metrics (opens, clicks, complaints) to understand what truly affects your deliverability, rather than relying on generalized word lists.
- Educational efforts: There's a need to educate clients and teams that modern email filtering is complex and that a focus on spam words is largely misdirected. This is part of improving overall email deliverability issues.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks humorously questions the extreme specificity of lists that claim a precise number like 394 spam words. Such detailed counts often feel arbitrary and do not reflect the dynamic nature of spam filtering. This level of detail can imply a false sense of scientific accuracy.
Marketer view
Marketer from Email Geeks expresses concern for businesses that might struggle to use common, everyday words like medium in their emails due to these lists. This highlights the impracticality and absurdity of rigidly adhering to expansive lists of spam trigger words, particularly for transactional emails or daily communications.
What the experts say
Experts in email deliverability largely agree that the concept of spam trigger words (or blacklist-activating phrases) is outdated and misleading. Modern spam filters use sophisticated algorithms that analyze numerous factors beyond mere keyword matching, including sender reputation, engagement signals, and the overall context of the message. While some historical spam filtering tools might have relied on such lists, today's systems are far more nuanced, rendering simple word avoidance largely ineffective for improving deliverability.
Key opinions
- Myth debunked: There's no such thing as spam words in the way many marketers perceive them. The concept is largely obsolete in modern email filtering.
- Algorithmic complexity: Modern spam filters leverage sophisticated algorithms that analyze a multitude of contextual factors, not just discrete words. These factors include sender reputation, engagement, and authentication. Learn more about how email blacklists actually work.
- Historical context: Older spam filtering tools (like Spam Assassin) did use keyword lists, but these are no longer the primary determinant of inbox placement.
- Education gap: Many in the marketing community still operate under outdated assumptions about spam words, indicating a need for greater education on current deliverability best practices.
Key considerations
- Focus on reputation: Prioritize building and maintaining a strong sender reputation. This includes ensuring your emails are properly authenticated (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and managing spam complaint rates.
- Content quality over keywords: Develop engaging, relevant content that provides value to your audience. This natural approach minimizes the risk of triggering dynamic spam detection systems.
- Monitor real metrics: Rely on actual deliverability metrics (like inbox placement rates and spam trap hits instead of speculative word lists. ISIPP.com further elaborates on this point: Spam Trigger Words: Do They Exist or Don't They.
- Long-term strategy: Invest in a comprehensive deliverability strategy that adapts to evolving filtering technologies, rather than chasing fleeting spam word lists.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks suggests that many lists of spam trigger words appear to be simple dumps of outdated Spam Assassin rules. While these words might contribute to a minor spam score, their individual impact is negligible unless an extreme number are used simultaneously within an email. Modern filters operate on far more sophisticated principles.
Expert view
Expert from Email Geeks indicates that content marketers at various platforms, including HubSpot, sometimes become overzealous or venture beyond their core expertise when discussing deliverability topics. This can lead to the propagation of misleading information, such as the exaggerated impact of spam trigger words.
What the documentation says
Official documentation and technical standards for email (like RFCs) or those provided by major mailbox providers rarely, if ever, mention specific spam trigger word lists. Instead, they focus on foundational principles of email authentication, sender reputation, and general content quality that avoids deceptive or malicious practices. This reinforces the view that modern spam filtering is a complex, multi-faceted process, not a simple blacklist of forbidden words.
Key findings
- No explicit word lists: Formal email standards and documentation do not provide or endorse specific lists of spam trigger words.
- Authentication emphasis: Documentation heavily emphasizes email authentication protocols such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC as critical for legitimate sending. Proper implementation of these protocols significantly influences deliverability.
- Behavioral analysis: Modern spam filter algorithms are described as dynamic, adapting to sending behavior, recipient engagement, and evolving spam patterns.
- Content context: While content is analyzed, it's typically within the context of the overall message, sender reputation, and user feedback (e.g., spam complaints), not through a simple word count or keyword match.
Key considerations
- Adhere to standards: Ensure your email infrastructure and sending practices comply with established internet standards (e.g., RFCs) for email format and authentication.
- Prioritize authentication: Implement and maintain robust SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. These are crucial technical signals that mailbox providers use to determine the legitimacy of your emails. Understanding what happens when your email is blocklisted is essential.
- Reputation building: Actively manage your sender reputation by sending wanted mail to engaged recipients. This is often cited as the single most important factor.
- Adapt and learn: Stay informed about the evolving landscape of email filtering technologies and adjust your strategies accordingly. The RFC 5322 standard provides foundational guidance on internet message format, which is implicitly factored into filter decisions.
Technical article
Documentation from RFC 5322 suggests that email content should align with general readability guidelines and avoid patterns commonly linked to unsolicited bulk email. However, it does not enumerate specific spam words, indicating that the focus is on overall message integrity and intent rather than specific vocabulary choices.
Technical article
Technical documentation on modern email filtering algorithms describes a multi-layered approach to spam detection. This includes evaluating sender reputation, authentication protocols (like SPF, DKIM, and DMARC), historical engagement data, and sophisticated content analysis that extends far beyond simple keyword matching. The effectiveness of these filters comes from their ability to process diverse signals simultaneously, making static word lists largely irrelevant.
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