Why are my emails going to spam or being blocked?
If your emails are landing in spam folders, bouncing, or being rejected, it is almost always one of three things: the receiving provider does not trust your domain or server, your email looks like bulk mail, or something on your account is sending email without your knowledge. This guide explains what we configure for you, what you can check yourself, and when to open a ticket.
Why does email end up in spam?
Email providers like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo decide where your email goes using three signals:
- Authentication. They check that the email really comes from your domain (SPF, DKIM, DMARC records).
- Reputation. They look at the history of your domain and the sending server, including how many recipients report your mail as spam and how many of your emails bounce.
- Content and behaviour. Emails with very little text, lots of links or attachments, or all-caps subject lines can look like bulk mail. Sending large numbers of identical emails at once is the fastest way to be treated as spam.
What we configure for you
For domains hosted with us, your email is authenticated automatically:
- SPF records declare which servers are allowed to send email for your domain.
- DKIM signs your outgoing email with your domain's private key so receivers can verify it.
- DMARC tells receivers what to do with unauthenticated email claiming to be from you.
We also monitor outgoing mail for abuse and will temporarily limit sending if an account is sending spam or exceeding normal volumes. You can check your current records with these guides:
If you moved your website or email to another provider but your DNS is still with us, those records can go out of date. A quick check of your SPF record is one of the most common fixes we make.
First things to check
- Check the recipient's junk or spam folder. Gmail, Outlook, and other providers sometimes filter a single message even when everything is configured correctly. Ask the recipient to mark it as "not spam" and add your address to their contacts.
- Make sure the address is right. Emails to mistyped or old addresses bounce, and repeated bounces damage your reputation.
- Look at how many emails you are sending. If you are sending to a large list, or the same message to many people, see the bulk email section below.
- Check whether you recently changed anything. New website host, new email provider, a new mailing list, or a fresh domain all affect deliverability.
Sending bulk email
Our mail servers are designed for normal business correspondence, not mass mailouts. Newsletters, promotions, and announcements to large lists should be sent through a dedicated bulk email service such as Mailchimp, Campaign Monitor, or Klaviyo, which manage list quality, throttling, and reputation for you.
If you do send to a list from your account:
- Only send to people who asked to receive your email. Never use purchased lists.
- Remove addresses that bounce, and let people unsubscribe.
- Keep individual messages personal and different from each other where possible.
- Keep total volumes modest. A sudden spike of hundreds of identical emails will look like spam to every provider.
Was your account sending email without you knowing?
Spam sent from your own address is the most common cause of a damaged reputation. If you or your customers are receiving bounce messages about email you never sent, or your address book contacts receive spam "from you", your email account or website may have been compromised. Change your email and cPanel passwords straight away:
Then open a ticket and we will check the sending logs, clean up any compromise, and confirm whether your domain has been listed anywhere.
Blacklists
If enough spam complaints or bounces accumulate, your domain or the server IP can end up on a public blacklist such as Spamhaus or SpamCop. Blacklisted senders are rejected or sent to spam by many providers. We check these lists as part of our investigation and handle delisting requests for you. Most blacklists clear quickly once the cause is fixed.
What to send us when you open a ticket
The fastest way for us to help is:
- The exact error message or bounce, or a screenshot of it
- The sender address and the recipient address
- When it started, and whether it affects one recipient or everyone
- Whether it is outgoing mail (you cannot send) or incoming mail (you are missing email)
- A recent example message, including its full headers if you can get them (our Tracking Email Delivery guide shows how)
How we help
We investigate the delivery path of your exact message, check your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records, review server sending logs, check public blacklists, and fix anything on our side. Where a server IP has been flagged, we manage the cleanup or rotation and confirm the fix once your email is delivered normally again. For incoming email being filtered, our SPAM Filtering and Settings guide covers adjusting your spam controls.
