My email is going to spam

There's nothing more frustrating than sending an important email and having it disappear into someone's spam folder — especially when you don't find out until much later. This is a deliverability problem, and it's usually fixable.

Step 1 — Identify exactly what is going to spam

Not all spam problems are the same. Different causes have different fixes.

Ask yourself:

• Is it your regular business email going to spam? (e.g., from your you@yourcompany.com inbox)
• Is it email notifications from your website (form submissions, order confirmations)?
• Is it your email newsletter or marketing emails?

Each of these has a different solution. Let us know which type is affected.

Step 2 — Ask the recipient to check their settings

Sometimes the problem is on the recipient's end, not yours.

This won't fix the underlying problem for all recipients, but it helps the specific relationship immediately.

Step 3 — Check your domain's email authentication records

Email authentication records are settings in your domain's DNS (the internet's address book) that prove your emails are legitimate. Three records work together:

If any of these are missing or incorrect, receiving servers may treat your emails as suspicious.

Step 4 — Check your sending reputation

Spam filters also look at your domain's reputation — a score built up over time based on whether recipients mark your emails as spam.

Signs of a damaged reputation:

• You recently sent a large batch of emails to an old or unverified list
• You've had high complaint rates (many people marking your emails as spam)
• Your domain or IP address appears on a blocklist

Website form notification emails going to spam?

This is a common and separate issue. Emails sent by your website (like contact form notifications) are sent by the web server, not your email account — and web servers are often not trusted by email providers.

The fix is to configure your website to use a dedicated email-sending service (SMTP). See I'm not getting form notification emails for details.

Common questions

My emails were fine and suddenly started going to spam.

Something changed — either your email authentication settings, your sending behavior, or the recipient's spam filter. The most common triggers are sending to a new list, a DNS change, or a reputation event. Contact us with examples and we'll diagnose it.

Only Gmail marks my emails as spam. Other providers are fine.

Different email providers use different spam filters, and Google publishes requirements of its own. Google says every sender to personal Gmail accounts must set up SPF or DKIM, and that senders of around 5,000 messages a day or more must set up all three of SPF, DKIM and DMARC. If any of those are missing, Gmail is more likely to filter you even when other providers don't. Send us an example and we'll check your records.

I'm using Mailchimp or another newsletter service but campaigns go to spam.

Email marketing services have their own deliverability settings. Make sure your domain is authenticated within your newsletter platform — most ask you to add CNAME and TXT records to your DNS (Mailchimp's manual setup, for example, uses two CNAME records and one TXT record). Contact us and we'll set it up.

How long does it take to fix?

DNS changes take up to 48 hours to propagate, though usually much less. Getting a damaged sending reputation back takes longer than that: it rebuilds gradually, through consistent, legitimate sending.

Related guides

• I'm not getting form notification emails
• Why your emails land in spam
• SPF records explained
• DKIM records explained
• DMARC records explained
• How to improve email deliverability