Why Do Your Emails Land in the Spam Folder?

You sent a quote and heard nothing back, then the recipient found your message in spam. It is frustrating and can cost you business. Mail providers weigh many signals together when they mark a message as spam. Working through the list below will find the cause in most cases.

1. Prove your domain's identity

SPF, DKIM and DMARC records prove that a message was really sent on behalf of your domain. If they are missing or wrong, the big mail providers may put your message in spam or refuse it outright. Since 2024 Google and Yahoo have required this authentication from bulk senders, and they expect at least SPF or DKIM from smaller senders too.

Setup steps are in our SPF, DKIM and DMARC guide. The Email Deliverability screen in cPanel also shows the status of your records.

2. Keep the sender address on your domain

If your website's contact form puts the visitor's Gmail address in the "From" field, the message appears to be sent as Gmail from another server and authentication fails. Put an address on your own domain in "From" and the visitor's address in "Reply-To".

3. Make sure your account hasn't been compromised

A weakly protected email account or an outdated site plugin can be used to send spam without your knowledge. The server's sending reputation then drops and your normal messages suffer too. If cPanel's Track Delivery tool shows many messages to recipients you don't recognise, change that account's password immediately.

4. Watch content and format

• Messages made of a single large image look suspicious. Balance text and images.
• Shortened links are often abused and can lower your score.
• Capital letters, lots of exclamation marks and phrases like "free" or "urgent" in the subject can cause problems.
• Keep attachments small; avoid executables and encrypted archives.

5. Keep your recipient list clean

Sending bulk email to purchased lists or people who never opted in leads to spam complaints and can get the server blacklisted. It is also prohibited by our Acceptable Use Policy. If you send newsletters or campaigns, bulk email and sending limits explains why you should use a separate service.

6. Test

After making changes, send a message to your own Gmail or Outlook address. In Gmail, open the message and choose "Show original": SPF, DKIM and DMARC should all show "PASS". If one fails, this screen also tells you which record needs fixing.

If your messages still go to spam at one particular provider after all these checks, open a support ticket with the bounce message you received, and we'll check the server-side reputation together.