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✉️ Email Delivery

Documentation, reference material and tutorials for CRM-NG SMTP Email: setup guides for every mail service, troubleshooting, and one article per error message.

Emails landing in spam

Updated

By Duane GarnerChief Executive Officer (CEO)
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Why your site's emails go to spam even though they send, and the checks that move them back to the inbox.

A successful send only means your mail service accepted the message. Whether it reaches the inbox or the spam folder is decided by the receiving provider. This article walks you through the causes in order of how often they matter. It is for anyone whose test emails or real site emails arrive in spam.

How receivers decide

Gmail, Outlook.com, Yahoo and company mail filters weigh several things:

  1. Authentication — do SPF, DKIM and DMARC pass, and do they match your From address?
  2. Reputation — has this domain and this sending service sent wanted mail before?
  3. Content — does the message look like typical spam?
  4. Engagement — do people open, reply to, or report your mail?

Fix them in that order. Authentication problems cause the most spam placement and are the easiest to fix.

1. Send from your own domain

Use a From Email on a domain you control, such as orders@yourshop.com, set at CRM-NG SMTP → Settings → General.

  • Do not send from a free webmail address (@gmail.com, @yahoo.com, @outlook.com) through a different service. The webmail provider's DMARC policy tells receivers to distrust it, and you cannot fix that.
  • Tick Force From Email so form and shop plugins cannot swap in a visitor's address as the sender. See Using Force From Email.
  • If a form needs to let you reply to the visitor, set the visitor's address as the Reply-To in the form plugin, not as the From address.

2. Pass SPF, DKIM and DMARC, with alignment

Add the three DNS records your mail service gives you: Adding DNS records. Then check a real message:

  1. Send a test to Gmail

    Use CRM-NG SMTP → Tools → Email Test.

  2. Open Show original

    In Gmail, open the message, click the three-dot menu and choose Show original.

  3. Read the three results

    SPF, DKIM and DMARC should each say PASS.

The detail that catches most people is alignment. DMARC only passes when SPF or DKIM passes for the same domain as your From address. If DKIM shows PASS but names your provider's domain (for example mailgun.org) instead of yours, you have not finished domain authentication in the provider's dashboard. Complete it so the provider signs with your domain.

More on reading results: Verifying your DNS records.

3. Stop using the host's PHP mail

If the Mailer is still Default (none), your email comes from your web host's shared server, which other sites also use and which rarely passes authentication. Pick a real mail service. See Default (PHP mail) — why to avoid it.

4. Warm up a new domain or service

A brand-new domain, or a new account at a sending service, has no reputation yet. Receivers are cautious with it.

  • Start with your normal, low volume of site email (receipts, password resets, form copies) for a week or two before sending anything large.
  • Do not launch a big newsletter on day one. If you need to, spread it over several days, using Email rate limiting to pace it.
  • Keep sending steady. Long silences followed by bursts look suspicious.

5. Check the content

Content matters less than authentication, but it can tip a borderline message into spam.

  • Use a real subject. Avoid all capitals, many exclamation marks and phrases like "act now".
  • Balance text and images. An email that is one big image with little text looks like spam.
  • Check your links. Link to your own domain. Avoid URL shorteners. A link to a site on a blocklist can sink the whole message.
  • Send HTML with a sensible structure. Most WordPress email is HTML; make sure your template is not broken.
  • Include who you are. A clear sender name and a footer with your business name help.

6. Watch engagement and complaints

  • Only email people who expect it. Marketing email to people who did not opt in generates spam reports, and reports hurt the delivery of your password resets too.
  • Make unsubscribing easy for any marketing mail.
  • Remove addresses that bounce. The email log and delivery webhooks show bounces.
  • Consider sending marketing and transactional mail from different sub-domains (for example news.yourdomain.com and yourdomain.com), so one cannot damage the other.

7. Check blocklists

If everything above is right and mail still goes to spam, check whether your domain or your provider's sending IP is on a public blocklist. Search for a "blacklist check" tool and enter your domain. If you use a shared IP from a sending service and it is listed, contact the service.

Still in spam?

  • Ask the recipient to mark the message as "Not spam" and add your address to their contacts. This helps for that person and, over time, teaches the filter.
  • Ask your mail service's support. They can see reputation data you cannot.
  • Work through the general Troubleshooting email delivery checklist.
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