Why Email Goes to Spam

Common technical reasons legitimate email lands in spam and how to investigate them.

Authentication is the first checkpoint

Missing or failing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC makes a message look less trustworthy.

Check DNS records and headers together because a record can be correct while a specific sender still fails alignment.

New domains, shared IPs, spammy copy, broken unsubscribe links, and user complaints can all hurt placement.

Fix the technical foundation first, then measure engagement and complaint signals.

Recommended next steps

Turn this guide into a concrete DNS report for your own domain.

Generate SPF and DMARC records before publishing DNS changes.

Paste raw email headers to inspect routing hops, authentication results, and message metadata.

Find the SPF TXT record that controls which senders can mail for a domain.

Inspect a domain's DMARC policy for email authentication and reporting.

No. They are necessary trust signals, but reputation, content, engagement, and recipient policy also matter.

Start with headers from an actual spam-folder message, then verify SPF, DKIM, DMARC, and sender reputation.