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See FeaturesHow to meet new sender requirements for Gmail, Yahoo & AOL
From February 2024, there will be new deliverability requirements for Google, Yahoo! and AOL.
The good news is that Google suggests “these practices should be considered basic email hygiene, and many senders already meet most of these requirements.”
But it’s important that you don’t just assume you’re meeting them—if you aren’t compliant, your emails will get sent to the spam folder or may not be delivered at all.
So let’s take a look at what’s changing, who for, and what steps you need to take.
Why are Google, Yahoo and AOL making changes?
In a nutshell: to fight spam. By validating that you are who you say you are, email providers will know that you’re a genuine sender rather than a spammer. In turn, your deliverability rate is likely to increase. Plus, recipients will find it easier to unsubscribe if they want to, which will further benefit your spam complaints ratio.
Who are these changes for?
Some changes are for everybody, and a few are for “bulk senders” but the safest route is to assume it includes your brand. Even if you’re under that threshold today, you’ll be prepared if you exceed it in the future.
This is why in order to ensure your emails land in your customers’ inboxes, you need to meet the requirements listed below.
What are the new requirements?
There are four requirements you must meet in order to ensure audiences receive your emails post-February:
- Recipients must be able to unsubscribe from your emails with one click
- Stronger sender domain authentication
- Low spam threshold, indicating people are only receiving emails they want
- The sender email cannot be from a gmail.com domain
We’ll take care of the one-click unsubscribe requirement, so you don’t need to do anything for this.
The spam complaints ratio should be kept below 0.1%. You may have seen a ratio of 0.3%, but it’s important to note that 0.3% is considered a point of no return—your emails are likely to be placed in the spam folder or possibly rejected entirely.
We recommend you use your Google Postmasters account and monitor Google’s feedback regarding your domain spam rates. This way, you can ensure you stay below 0.1% and act quickly if you start to go above it.
These requirements for strong sender authentication and keeping your spam complaints ratio low may sound daunting, but they’re simple steps that won’t take you much time—please see this guide for more detail.
Starting February 1, you will not be able to send emails from addresses under the @gmail.com domain.
If you are currently using a shared domain, you need to start using a custom domain instead. This will improve your email performance and your authentication. Once you’ve got a custom domain, you can follow our step-by-step authentication guide. You can also read Google’s support documentation about this here.
Check our blog post about Gmail and Yahoo updates and new protections for 2024.
If you have any questions or are unsure about any of this, you can contact our award-winning support team at any time within your account.
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