Guide to Google and Yahoo's 2024 email deliverability news
Duncan
First up are the new email-sending requirements that all senders have to follow. If you don’t adapt to these changes, your deliverability will be affected and your emails more likely to hit the spam folder or bounce.
Google has also announced that it will start removing inactive accounts. This matters because if you send to deleted accounts your messages will hard bounce, potentially impacting your sender reputation.
Read on for all you need to know about the changes, plus steps you can take to minimize the impact on your email marketing.
Gmail and Yahoo Mail’s new email-sending requirements
Google and Yahoo’s new regulations aim to reduce spam by requiring senders to secure and configure their systems.
This will help inbox providers verify that an email is from the sender it claims to be from, reducing the potential for email spoofing and increasing trust among users.
All email senders will have to:
Authenticate their sending domain
Keep their spam rate below 0.3%
Bulk senders, defined as those who send 5,000 or more messages a day to Gmail or Yahoo accounts, will also have to:
Allow for one-click unsubscribe
Set up DMARC
The regulations come into effect in February 2024, so make sure that you’re following these guidelines by then. We’ve listed the exact steps to take later in this article.
The good news is that the new rules turn current best practices into requirements, which means many email senders will see minimal impact. But you should still double-check whether you have everything in place to stay compliant.
Google is deleting inactive accounts
Google has also started deleting accounts that haven’t been used in 2 years. The company says that abandoned accounts are 10 times less likely to use security best practices, making them targets for malicious practices like identity theft and spam sending.
This is relevant to email marketers because messages sent to mailboxes that don’t exist will hard bounce. Too many hard bounces will hurt your overall sender reputation, impacting whether your emails reach your subscriber’s inboxes.
Google will take a phased approach to deleting accounts. The company began deleting accounts that were opened but never used in December 2023.
Yahoo already takes a proactive approach to deleting accounts by removing those that haven’t been accessed in 12 months.
Inbox providers give email senders a sender reputation score based on their sending practices. Factors like opens, clicks, bounces and spam complaints impact each sender’s overall score. Those with a high score hit the main inbox, while senders with a low score end up in spam.
How to prepare for Google and Yahoo email changes
Now you know more about the changes, here’s what to do about them. Follow the 5 best practices below to keep your deliverability high and stay on Google and Yahoo’s good side.
1. Clean your email list
Remove deleted accounts from your subscriber list so your emails don’t hard bounce. You can do this by cleaning your email list before sending.
Tools like MailerCheck analyze your subscriber list for invalid addresses, including those that no longer exist, and allow you to delete them in bulk before hitting send.
MailerCheck looks for:
Email addresses with typos
Role-based accounts
Full inboxes that no longer accept emails
Disposable email addresses
Spam trap email addresses
See an example report in the screenshot below:
You can upload a spreadsheet containing your email addresses to MailerCheck, use the MailerCheck API, or import your subscribers directly with one of our built-in integrations with ESPs including MailerLite and Mailchimp.
Since Google will delete accounts gradually, it’s worth checking your email list every few months, especially if you notice an increase in bounced emails or if you plan to send to subscribers you haven’t contacted in a while.
2. Buy a domain to send emails from (if you haven’t already)
Most email marketers already send from a custom domain [[email protected]]. If you currently use a free email address from a provider like Gmail or Yahoo [[email protected]], now is the time to upgrade.
You need a custom domain because it’s impossible to authenticate a domain from a free email provider. You won’t be able to comply with the new rules and your messages will be more likely to end up in spam or bounce.
Domain names cost as little as a few dollars per year and your brand will appear more professional when you use one. There’s no reason not to make the switch if you haven’t already.
You can buy a domain from any domain registrar or most website builders and website hosts. Once you have your domain, set up an email inbox so you can create and verify email addresses.
3. Authenticate your domain
Authenticate your domain so inbox providers like Gmail and Yahoo Mail can confirm that your message is really from you.
The process involves adding SPF and DKIM records to your domain DNS zone. It sounds complex, but your ESP should make it easy to get these records and your website host will provide information about changing your DNS zone.
For more help, check out these domain authentication videos created by our partner site MailerLite.
The team created walkthroughs to guide you through the process of authenticating your domain with popular platforms including GoDaddy, Siteground and Squarespace.
4. Use sending best practices
Your spam rate is the percentage of people who mark your emails as spam. Google and Yahoo have a strict spam rate limit of 0.3% and they advise you never to go over this percentage.
Follow the below email marketing best practices to stay under the threshold and ensure your emails hit the inbox.
Only send to people who agree to receive emails
Don't pre-select checkboxes on email sign-up forms
Use double opt-in so there's no question that people on your list want to hear from you
Don’t purchase email lists, people on these lists haven’t agreed to hear from you and are likely to mark your email as spam
Only send the emails people signed up for. For example, if they sign up for a weekly newsletter, don’t also send daily promotional campaigns
The key is to send timely and relevant emails to an engaged audience of people who opted in to hear from you. Follow this advice to send messages that people value and don’t mark as spam.
5. Enable one-click list-unsubscribe header
The following two best practices are for bulk senders who send 5,000 or more messages a day to Gmail or Yahoo accounts.
First, you must add a one-click list-unsubscribe header. This is a feature that makes it easy for people to unsubscribe from within the email client, rather than trying to find the unsubscribe link in the email footer. See an example in the image below.
If you use an email marketing service provider to send your emails, this will likely be enabled by default. Be sure to check that’s the case before February.
6. Set up DMARC authentication
Bulk senders will also be required to set up Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC).
DMARC is an authentication protocol that ties SPF and DKIM together for extra security and flexibility. It also lets senders tell mailbox providers what to do with emails sent from their domain that don’t pass SPF and DKIM record checks. This gives senders control over how their outgoing emails are handled, and allows them to track fraudulent activity with reports.
Implementing DMARC stops spammers from spoofing the From Address of an email to send fraudulent emails. This benefits email senders, who reduce the risk of brand damage from spoofing attacks, and email recipients, who are less likely to receive malicious email.
To set up DMARC authentication you have to generate a DMARC record and then paste it into your domain's DNS settings as a TXT file.
MailerCheck's DMARC monitoring tool has a DMARC generator which is the easiest way to create a record. Just choose the relevant settings and the tool will automatically generate a record based on your choices.
Anyone can use this tool for free by signing up for a MailerCheck account. Just make sure you have already added SPF and DKIM records as per step three in this article.
Create a free DMARC policy
Create a MailerCheck account to automatically generate a DMARC policy. You'll also get free credits to verify up to 200 email addresses. Start today, no credit card required.
How to test your deliverability
Once you've implemented the above points you're all set to comply with the new rules. But that's not all you can do to ensure your emails avoid the spam folder.
One of the best ways to improve your deliverability is with MailerCheck's Email Insights.
The deliverability testing tool predicts whether your emails will land in the spam folder or the main inbox of popular mailboxes like Google and Yahoo. It also highlights email issues that increase the chances of your message hitting spam.
The tool checks whether your:
Domain is authenticated
Content contains spam-like words or unusual formatting
Links are working
Images are missing attributes
HTML and CSS are formatted correctly
It's a super clear way to see if your email has any issues so you can take steps to solve the problem.
Act now to keep delivering impactful campaigns
Like previous changes that impact email marketers such as GDPR, Apple Mail Privacy Protection and BIMI, the new Google and Yahoo rules aim to make email inboxes a better place for the user.
It might seem like a lot to take in, but email marketers have to adapt. The good news this time around is that the steps are all relatively easy to take.
All you need to do is:
Buy and authenticate a domain
Follow email marketing best practices
Implement a DMARC record
Check your ESP has enabled one-click list-unsubscribe
Just make sure you take the necessary steps by the beginning of February when the regulations come into effect.
