Why are my Google Business emails ending up in spam?
Did you just set up a Google Business email only to have everything you send go to spam?
Hey, me too!
Actually, this happened with one of our email accounts at the company I used to run, so I know it’s not just a ‘me’ thing. I’m going to help you fix it so your Google Business emails don’t end up in your recipients’ spam.
If you’re anything like me, you just want to know the why behind something before you fix it…but, you don’t need to know everything, just enough to be dangerous.
I did the heavy reading so you don’t have to—and I’m summing all the important pieces here, along with the tools you need to fix your email deliverability.
The technical bits for not-technical people
The reason your emails are ending up in recipients’ spam is because of general email security measures. At this point, I think we’re all annoyed by email spoofing and phishing and scams and Nigerian princes who need money and all that, so that’s why these things exist.
But many entrepreneurs or hobbyists setting up emails don’t have these things top of mind when setting up emails—after all, you’re not planning on spamming, right?! But the internet doesn’t know that.
You’ll likely need to set up some records that send safety signals to the Email Gods. These are your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records, and they’re all set up via your DNS records, or Domain Name System records.
If you’re building and managing your own site through a user-friendly builder like Squarespace, it’s easy to find, manage, and change your DNS records.
Since there are so many different providers out there, you’re going to need to take a quick look through the help docs for your specific provider to get headed in the right direction. Searching ‘DNS records’ in the resources should do the trick.
A step-by-step Google Business email fix for not-technical entrepreneurs
Okay! So no that you’ve figured out how to access your DNS records, you’re going to need to set up new records that will stop your emails from ending up in spam.
But first you’ll want to check exactly which records to set up. I used Hello Inbox to do a check of my records and can’t recommend it enough.
Once you enter your domain and email, you’ll be given a specific checklist of all of the things you need to fix or records you need to set up.
Most things will be set up between your domain provider (ie, GoDaddy, Network Solutions, Squarespace/Google Domains, etc) and the admin side of Google’s Business Suite, but setting up DMARC is the one that’s a bit more complicated.
DMARC will take a little time to fix.
Here’s the short version of what you need to know about your DMARC record: it helps control domain spoofing. Like…have you ever gotten a weird email from PayPal? Or maybe someone in your company got a message from the CEO that says something like, “I’m in a meeting and can’t come talk to you, but can you…?”
DMARC helps detect and stop those emails before they hit inboxes.
It can also give instructions on how to handle emails if the first two barriers—SPF and DKIM—weren’t passed.
Go here for the full rundown on DMARC and why it matters.
You need to collect some data before you can get a really solid policy in place, since it’s giving specific instructions on how to handle. It’s definitely overwhelming for the non-technical among us, so using a service is helpful here.
To get the ball rolling, I used the free version of Postmark for DMARC monitoring and am still in the process of collecting data and setting the right parameters—but, services like Postmark make it pretty idiotproof to get there.
You should get a DMARC report emailed to you (and if you don’t, Postmark will send you instructions on how to get one), and you’ll use that information to go back in and tweak your record over time. Again, a service will tell you exactly what you need to put, so no guessing required on your part.
If you’re a low-volume sender, don’t worry too much about DMARC yet.
By all means, get the records set up and get the digests rolling in, but if you’re not seeing too much of concern, you’ll be okay. You want to be sure you’re primed and ready to go once you do get an email program up and running, or you explode with success and are sending emails left and right day in and day out 🙂
Welcome to email delivery bliss.
Whew! We made it. Your emails should now be ending up in (most) inboxes. If this helped you out, go give me a little shout on LinkedIn!
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