Emails Going to Spam in Gmail: The Checklist That Actually Fixes It

Gmail decides where a message goes using signals it publishes openly: authentication, the reputation of the sending domain and IP, how recipients react, and whether the sender meets its sender requirements. A small business whose mail lands in spam is almost always missing one of the published items rather than tripping some secret filter. This checklist goes through them in the order that fixes the most cases fastest, and tells you how to confirm each one from a Gmail inbox.

Quick answer

Make SPF, DKIM and DMARC all pass for your own domain (check with Show original), send from a mailbox on the domain rather than through a third-party server, keep the domain's complaint rate near zero, and for a new domain start with small volumes. Then ask a few regular contacts to move one message out of spam and add you to their contacts; Gmail learns per recipient quickly.

Step 1: pass the Show original test

Send a normal message to a Gmail address you control. Open it, click the three dots, choose Show original. The box at the top lists SPF, DKIM and DMARC with PASS or FAIL and the domain each result applies to. All three should say PASS with your domain. A FAIL or a different domain is the first thing to fix; our guide to reading the authentication results explains each line.

Step 2: meet the sender requirements

Since February 2024 Gmail applies published rules to everyone sending to Gmail accounts, with stricter ones for anyone sending 5,000 or more messages a day to Gmail.

• All senders: SPF or DKIM must pass, the sending domain or IP must have a valid reverse DNS record, mail must be sent over TLS, and the spam rate in Postmaster Tools must stay under 0.3%, ideally under 0.1%.
• Bulk senders: both SPF and DKIM must pass, DMARC must be published (p=none is enough) and the From domain must align with it, marketing mail needs one-click unsubscribe headers and the link must work within two days, and the From header must not impersonate Gmail.
• Hosted mailboxes already cover reverse DNS and TLS. On OquMail, the daily limit of 250 messages per mailbox keeps you well below the bulk threshold, so the first list applies.

Step 3: set up Google Postmaster Tools

It is free, takes five minutes, and shows the two numbers Gmail actually uses: domain reputation (bad, low, medium, high) and spam rate. Go to postmaster.google.com, add your domain, and publish the TXT records (short text lines in DNS used for email security) it gives you. Data appears once you send enough volume to Gmail; for a small sender that may take a few weeks. A reputation of "low" or "bad" tells you the problem is history, not the current message, and only time plus clean sending repairs it.

Step 4: check the domain's history

• New domain: Gmail has no reputation data, so it leans on the content. Start with replies and one-to-one mail for two weeks before any announcement; the warm-up guide has a schedule.
• Previously used for marketing: look at the spam rate graph. Above 0.3% for several weeks puts the domain in a hole that takes a month of near-zero complaints to climb out of.
• Shared IP of a web host: if you used to send from a hosting server, that IP may be listed. Sending through a dedicated mail provider separates you from it.

Step 5: content and sending habits

• Send from a real person's address when you want a reply, and keep automatic mail on a separate address such as notifications@. Gmail scores addresses separately.
• No link shorteners, no link text that differs from the destination domain, no single-image emails. Plain messages with one or two links score best.
• Match the From name to something the recipient recognises: your name and company, not a slogan.
• Do not send the same text to fifty people from webmail in one go. Gmail sees identical messages arriving at many accounts as a campaign. Use a proper list tool with unsubscribe links for announcements.
• Stop sending to addresses that never open. A list that is half dead looks like a scraped list.

Step 6: train the inbox

Reputation with Gmail is partly per recipient. Ask regular customers to open one of your messages in spam, click Not spam, and add your address to their contacts. From then on your mail goes to their inbox regardless of the domain score, and each such action feeds into the domain-wide signal.

Common questions

Is Promotions the same as spam?

No. Promotions is an inbox tab, and mail there is delivered. If that is your problem, read why mail lands in Promotions.

Everything passes and it still goes to spam. Why?

Then it is reputation or content. Check Postmaster Tools for the domain reputation, and send a plain text message with no links to see whether the content is the trigger.

How long does recovery take?

With authentication fixed and complaints at zero, most domains move out of spam within two to four weeks. A domain with a bad reputation score can take longer, and no provider can shortcut it.

Want to see how your own domain is set up? Use the free SPF checker and DMARC checker: they run in your browser and store nothing.