As of February 2024, Google and Yahoo are making changes to their requirements to receive email and route it to a user’s inbox. The goal of these changes is to reduce clutter in recipient’s inboxes, and ensure that only fully authenticated and properly structured mail is received by an inbox.
Changes include requirements for SPF, DKIM and DMARC authentication, as well as updates to unsubscribe and spam complaint rate requirements. If these requirements are not met by February of this year, there will be a significant impact to email deliverability and ultimately, the number of emails that land in subscriber’s inboxes.
In addition, the changes are stricter for senders who deliver more than 5,000 emails per day. This includes infrequent senders who only occasionally hit this daily threshold.
Below is a breakdown of the specifics and what you need to be aware of heading into February.
Authentication best practices are required.
What is needed: DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM), Sender Policy Framework (SPF), and Domain-based Message Authentication, and Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) are now required, including proper configuration for all sending domains.
What do I need to do?
Confirm your authentication is properly set up on each of your sending domains. Use a tool such as mxtoolbox.com to verify your DNS, SPF, DKIM and DMARC authentication configurations.
SPF and DKIM must be properly aligned, and DMARC must be in place.
Provide an easy, one-click opt out method.
What is needed: Starting June 1, 2024, an unsubscribe needs to be able to occur immediately and within the user’s inbox. All emails must include a list-unsubscribe link allowing users to unsubscribe directly in-browser with one click.
What do I need to do?
Confirm that all emails contain a list-unsubscribe function in the header. Typically this is a function applied to all emails by your email services provider (ESP), but it is important to confirm it is being included and hasn’t been redirected to an unsubscribe landing page.
Keep spam complaints to a minimum.
What is needed: Google and Yahoo have provided guidance on spam rate requirements moving forward. The ideal spam complaint rate is “...below 0.10% and avoid ever reaching a spam rate of 0.30% or higher.”
What do I need to do?
Check your spam complaint rate over the last 12 months. If multiple campaigns have a spam rate of greater than 0.1%, or your average spam rate is above 0.1%, you are at risk of being affected by these changes.
Evaluate your sending practices and list management to understand why spam is occurring and take steps to reduce the number of spam complaints you are receiving.
Tekside can help guide you through these changes and ensure your inbox placement rate doesn’t suffer. Contact Mike Riehl at mriehl@tekside.io to discuss opportunities to improve your email sending operations while mitigating the risk of these changes affecting you.