How to fix WordPress emails going to spam (2026 guide)

To fix WordPress emails going to spam, start by testing email delivery using tools like Mail-Tester. This shows whether your messages are landing in inboxes or spam folders.

Next, install an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) plugin. This changes how WordPress sends emails by using a reliable email service, like SendLayer or Mailgun, instead of the default WordPress email system.

The next step is setting up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records. These are security settings that confirm to inbox providers that your emails are genuinely sent from your website. They help inbox providers like Gmail trust your emails so they don’t end up in spam.

If you don’t fix WordPress emails being sent to spam, order confirmations and marketing emails may not reach users, which can reduce brand trust and sales.      

In this guide, you’ll learn how to diagnose why your WordPress emails are going to spam and how to fix it step-by-step.

How to check if your WordPress emails are going to spam 

Before you fix WordPress emails going to spam, confirm where the issue is coming from. WordPress email spam can occur due to blacklisting, missing authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC), or how WooCommerce emails are sent from WordPress.     

1. Check if your domain or server is blacklisted with MXtoolbox 

Start by running an email blacklist check using MXToolbox. This free tool scans your domain against more than 100 email blacklists used by inbox providers like Gmail. 

A blacklist means your domain has been flagged by inbox providers for spam-like activity. This can include sending unwanted emails. 

Enter your domain name or server IP into the tool and review the results: 

If all results are green, your domain is not blacklisted.

2. Test your emails with Mail-Tester

Mail-Tester checks how inbox providers like Gmail evaluate your emails. Meaning, it shows whether your email would go to the inbox or spam based on authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) or other issues like an incorrect sending domain. 

To test this, send an email to the address generated by Mail-Tester, then check your score:

The example below of a nine out of 10 score shows how even a near-perfect score can reveal authentication gaps worth fixing:

• Missing DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail). Inbox providers can’t verify that the email was genuinely sent from your website.
• Missing DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance). Inbox providers have no instructions for handling failed authentication (such as DKIM), so your emails may be sent to spam immediately.     
• Reverse DNS mismatch. Inbox providers can’t verify that the mail server matches the domain; for example, an email sent from server123.hostingcompany.com instead of yourstore.com looks suspicious and may trigger spam filters.  

3. Run a WooCommerce test

This test checks whether emails can be successfully sent from your website. Go to WooCommerce > Settings > Advanced > Features. You can preview your email in the Email Preview section and send a test email to an address of your choice. 

WooCommerce sends emails using PHP mail or SMTP. PHP mail is WordPress’s default method, but it can lack authentication, which includes SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. This is one of the reasons WordPress emails end up in spam.

SMTP plugins like WP Mail SMTP send emails through trusted services, such as Brevo or Amazon SES, that support authentication. This improves email delivery.

After sending the test email, check whether it reaches your inbox, spam folder, or never arrives. If it never arrives, your hosting provider may be blocking emails. If it ends up in spam, your inbox provider, like Gmail, likely doesn’t trust your domain or authentication setup.

You can also monitor open rates in email marketing tools like Omnisend. While the WooCommerce test confirms whether emails are being sent correctly from your website, open rates provide an ongoing signal of what happens after emails are delivered in inboxes. 

A sudden drop can indicate that emails are going to spam. If this happens, you should run blacklist checks, check authentication with Mail-tester, and repeat WooCommerce email tests.        

Why WordPress emails go to spam: 5 main causes

WordPress email spam occurs due to default WordPress sending methods, missing domain authentication records, new Gmail and Yahoo rules, or shared hosting reputation issues. Even a contact form misconfiguration can result in WordPress email spam. 

Let’s break down why emails go to spam: 

1. WordPress uses PHP wp_mail() without proper authentication 

By default, WordPress sends emails using wp_mail() (PHP mail). This sends emails through your hosting provider, such as Bluehost or Hostinger, instead of a verified email service like SendLayer.

These emails may lack authentication mechanisms such as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC (we’ll break these down below). Meaning, inbox providers cannot clearly verify the sender. Think of it like sending a letter without a return address. The email is sent, but inbox providers can’t verify who sent it. This increases the risk of WordPress emails being marked as spam. 

To fix this, use an SMTP plugin like WP Mail SMTP or FluentSMTP. SMTP sends emails through trusted services like SendLayer and adds authentication. This helps inbox providers verify your emails, which improves delivery.

2. Missing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records

These are email security records that help Gmail, Outlook, or Yahoo verify that your emails are genuine and not spoofed. These are fake emails sent out pretending to be from your domain: 

• SPF (Sender Policy Framework): Lists the email services that can send emails from your domain
• DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): Adds a digital signature to emails to prove that they aren’t altered before reaching subscribers’ inboxes
• DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and Conformance): Tells providers what to do if authentication checks such as SPF and DKIM fail

Without these records, emails are often treated as untrusted by inbox providers and sent to spam.

3. Gmail and Yahoo bulk sender rules (2024 update)

In February 2024, Gmail and Yahoo introduced stricter sender requirements. For example, Google mentioned that all senders should use SPF or DKIM authentication. Bulk senders that send 5,000+ emails daily must also use DMARC.

Your “From” address must also match your authenticated domain. The “From” address is the email address a recipient sees, for example, [email protected]. It should include your domain name, not a personal email like [email protected], so inbox providers can confirm the email is genuinely sent from your website.

4. Shared hosting IP reputation issues

Many WordPress sites are hosted on shared servers. This means multiple websites share the same IP address — a unique digital number assigned to the server hosting your website. 

If other websites on the same server send emails that end up in spam folders, that shared IP address gets a bad reputation. This results in your WordPress emails ending up in spam, even if they are clean.

5. WordPress Contact Form 7 misconfiguration

Contact Form 7 is a WordPress plugin that lets you create a contact form on your website. It allows visitors to type a message and send it to your email. It’s often used to handle “Contact us” messages.

Sometimes, Contact Form 7 may use the visitor’s email address (like [email protected]) as the sender. When Gmail sees an email from [email protected] sent from your website server, it may result in your WordPress emails going to spam. 

Fix #1 — install and configure an SMTP plugin

To fix WordPress emails going to spam, replace the default WordPress mail system with a proper SMTP setup.

This involves five steps. Install an SMTP plugin, choose an email service, connect it using an API key, enable “Force From Email,” and send a test email to confirm delivery: 

1. Install WP SMTP plugin 

The first step is to install an SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) plugin on your WordPress website. This replaces WordPress’s default email system, which sends emails through your hosting server without proper authentication, including SPF, DKIM, or DMARC.

Go to your WordPress dashboard, open Plugins, then click Add New Plugin:

Search for WP Mail SMTP, which has 4M+ active installs, or FluentSMTP. Then click Install and Activate.

2. Choose a mailer

After installing the plugin, choose a mailer. This is the email service that will actually send your emails, rather than WordPress sending them directly.

Open the WP Mail SMTP Setup Wizard. You will see supported mailers like Brevo, SendLayer, or Amazon SES:

Select one and create an account if you don’t have one. Then click Save and Continue.

3. Connect your mailer using an API key

After selecting a mailer, you need to connect your WordPress site to it using an API key. This is a secure code that links WordPress to your email service. 

In WP Mail SMTP, you’ll see an instruction saying “follow this link to get an API key.” Click on it and generate the API key. Then paste the API key into the required field and continue: 

4. Set a fixed “From” email address

Next, you need to set a fixed sender email for all outgoing messages. This ensures every email from your website is sent using your real domain email address, such as [email protected].

Inside the WP Mail SMTP settings, enable the option called “Force From Email.” This locks your sender address so WordPress can’t use a random or incorrect email address: 

When the sender matches your verified domain, inbox providers are more likely to trust your emails and deliver them to inboxes. 

5. Send a test email to confirm delivery

Now test your new email setup. WP Mail SMTP allows you to send a test email directly from the plugin settings. Enter an email address and send the test message to it: 

Check whether it lands in your inbox or spam folder. If it arrives in your inbox, your SMTP setup is working.

Recommended SMTP plugins compared

Here’s a quick comparison of popular SMTP plugins you can use to improve email delivery and reduce the likelihood of WordPress emails going to spam: 

Fix #2 — set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication

After SMTP is set up, your domain still needs email authentication records. Not including them causes WordPress emails to go to spam. 

Authentication records are added in your DNS settings. DNS (Domain Name System) is the internet’s address system. It translates domain names like “yourwebsite.com” into numerical IP addresses such as “192.168.1.1”. Computers use these numbers to locate and connect, so DNS allows you to browse the web without memorizing complex strings of numbers.

Email providers like Gmail check DNS records to confirm whether your domain is allowed to send email. These checks are done using three authentication records — SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.

Example DNS records

SPF tells email providers which mailers are allowed to send emails from your domain. 

So if your website sends an email through SendLayer, SPF tells Gmail, “SendLayer is approved to send emails for this domain.”

If a fake server tries to send emails pretending to be you, Gmail can send them to spam. This rule is stored in your DNS as a TXT record. A TXT record is a simple line of text in your domain settings that inbox providers like Gmail read automatically: 

This means: 

• v=spf1: Tells inbox providers that this is an SPF rule 
• include:_spf.google.com: Allows Google’s email service to send emails from your domain
• ~all: Means any other mailer not listed here is not fully trusted, and emails sent through them may be treated as spam

Next is DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail). This adds an encrypted digital signature to every email sent from your domain. It’s a security check that verifies the email wasn’t tampered with after it left your WordPress site. It looks like this:

This means: 

• default._domainkey.yourdomain.com: This is called the DKIM selector, and it tells inbox providers where to find the DKIM record for your domain
• v=DKIM1: Identifies the text as a DKIM authentication record
• k=rsa: Tells inbox providers which encryption method was used to generate the email’s digital signature — RSA is a commonly used internet encryption that helps securely verify identity
• p=…: The public key used by inbox providers to verify the signature

Finally, DMARC tells inbox providers what to do if an email fails SPF and DKIM checks. For example, DMARC can tell inbox providers to:

• Allow the email in inboxes
• Send it to spam
• Reject it completely

In fact, Google and Yahoo require SPF and DKIM to be set up along with DMARC. A DMARC record is added to your DNS settings like this: 

This means: 

• v=DMARC1: Identifies the text as a DMARC authentication 
• p=none: Tells inbox providers not to block failing emails yet, but still monitor them, generate reports
• rua=mailto:[email protected]: The email address where DMARC reports are sent, showing which emails passed or failed authentication checks

To reduce the risk of WordPress emails going to spam, you can verify that SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are set up correctly using the built-in DNS checker in WP Mail SMTP.

WooCommerce emails going to spam: Specific fixes

WooCommerce emails usually fall into two types. Transactional emails and marketing emails. Each can end up in a spam folder and needs a different fix. Here’s how to avoid WooCommerce emails going to spam: 

Transactional emails 

These include order confirmations, shipping updates, and password resets. They are essential because customers expect them immediately. If they go to spam or don’t arrive in inboxes, customers miss out on updates like order tracking. This can damage brand trust and lead to more customer support requests.

WooCommerce is a plugin that runs inside WordPress. This means it uses the same default email sending method (wp_mail()). Because of this, transactional WooCommerce emails end up in spam for the same reasons as WordPress emails — such as missing SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication.

To fix this, use an SMTP plugin like WP Mail SMTP and ensure your domain has DNS authentication. This confirms to Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo that WooCommerce is allowed to send emails from your domain.

You should also check your “From” address. It must match your authenticated domain, for example, [email protected]. If it doesn’t match, inbox providers may treat emails as unsafe and send them to spam folders. 

To check this, go to  WooCommerce > Settings > Emails. You can change your “From” address under Email sender options: 

Marketing emails 

These include abandoned cart emails, promotions, and winback campaigns. They should not be sent via WooCommerce or wp_mail(), as these systems are not designed for bulk email. 

They also can’t properly track email open rates or clicks, or run A/B testing to see which email performs better and optimize them to increase sales.  

Instead, marketing emails should be handled through a dedicated email marketing WordPress plugin like Omnisend because: 

• It has automation workflows for abandoned cart, welcome, and post-purchase 
• It connects directly to your store data so that you can send emails based on customer behavior
• It uses strict authentication protocols like SPF and DKIM to ensure your emails land in inboxes
• It has A/B testing to measure email performance and increase email open rates, clicks, and conversions 

Additional fixes: Sender settings, content, and list health 

Sender settings, email content, and email list quality also play a role in WordPress emails going to spam or inboxes. Let’s break these down so you can learn how to improve email delivery in WordPress: 

• Use a domain-based sender email address: Use [email protected] instead of a personal Gmail address. Anyone can create personal addresses without proving ownership, so inbox providers don’t treat them as verified business senders.
• Avoid spam trigger words: This is one of the best WordPress email delivery practices. Inbox providers may flag words like “Free,” “Urgent,” or ALL CAPS because they’re commonly used in spam emails designed to force clicks. 
• Keep a balanced text-to-image ratio: Maintain a 60/40 text-to-image ratio, meaning 60% text, 40% images. Image-heavy emails are often used to hide links, and spam filters like SpamAssassin may mark them as suspicious.
• Use double opt-in: Users sign up to your list, then verify their email via a link sent to their inbox. This helps catch mistakes like @gamil.com instead of @gmail.com, so invalid emails aren’t added to your list.
• Clean your email list regularly: For email list cleaning, tools like Omnisend let you segment inactive subscribers and remove them from your list. Use tools like ZeroBounce to check your email list for invalid or bounced email addresses before sending campaigns.
• Keep WordPress and plugins updated: Outdated plugins can be exploited by hackers, potentially causing WordPress to send unauthorized emails without your knowledge. This damages your sender reputation, causing inbox providers to send your emails to spam folders. 

How Omnisend prevents WordPress and WooCommerce emails from going to spam

Omnisend helps prevent WordPress and WooCommerce emails from being marked as spam by improving email authentication, sender reputation, and email list quality for marketing campaigns.

While SMTP plugins help deliver transactional emails, marketing emails, such as welcome series and abandoned cart campaigns, are better handled through dedicated email platforms like Omnisend. Let’s break down Omnisend’s built-in email delivery features: 

• Automated domain authentication: Generates SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records for your domain and guides you on adding them to your DNS settings
• Double opt-in: Users confirm their subscription through a verification email before being added to your list, improving list quality and email sender reputation
• Automated IP warm-up: To warm up your email domain, Omnisned gradually increases sending volume for new domains so inbox providers build trust in your sending activity, which reduces the chances of emails going to spam
• Real-time deliverability reporting: Omnisend tracks open rates, clicks, bounces, and spam rates so you can optimize email campaigns for different inbox providers: 

Omnisend also supports BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification). This can display your verified brand logo in inboxes. This helps customers recognize your business and trust that the email is legitimate. 

Additionally, the Omnisend WooCommerce plugin connects your store directly to Omnisend and sends emails through its email system instead of WordPress’s default setup. This reduces spam risk.

Frequently asked questions