FAQs About Email Sending Problems

The current most common problem which causes email sending to fail is that sender domain authentication has not been setup properly. The key DNS records on the domain (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) need to have the right settings to qualify for sending and to protect the domain reputation. Poor settings or reputation can land sent emails in spam, or cause them to be rejected by email servers. Contact us about email domain authentication service.

Contact forms normally send email from the website using SMTP. The same sending requirements apply when sending notifications from contact forms as for sending most email. The domain being used to send the email must be authenticated, and have the right settings in the DNS records.

If your recipients are not receiving emails you sent, you may be having email sending problems caused by a lack of authentication. Either the sending domain cannot be authenticated due to poor settings, or the domain has a poor reputation.

Sometimes when a website is moved to a new host, the domain name settings do not get copied over. This can happen if the technician/web designer lacks knowledge and experience about domains and hosting. They often point the domain to the new website and lose the settings which point to the email provider. A skilled web developer or site admin such as Studio City Web can setup your new website without any impact to your ability to send and receive email.

Authentication and DMARC work together to check for and provide proof that email was sent from the domain shown in the sender’s email address to reduce unauthorized sending from your domain (spoofing). The DMARC policy contains instructions on how to handle emails sent without proper authentication. This greatly reduces the chance of your domain being used by others to send spam and phishing email campaigns, and as a result it improves deliverability.

Email Delivery is the successful delivery of email to the recipient’s email server. Email Deliverability is the ability for email to be successfully received in the recipient’s inbox. The difference is whether the server determines the email to be spam or suspicious (spoofed, malware, etc), in which case it will either reject it, quarantine it, or send it to the spam folder. If the server determines it to be none of those, and most likely sent by the domain it purports to be sent from with proof of authentication, then it will successfully deliver it to the inbox.

DMARC stands for Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance. It is a policy based on security protocol designed to combat email spoofing to reduce phishing, spamming, and scamming. Read: What is Email Authentication and DMARC?

If it is properly and adequately implemented, a DMARC policy can prevent the domain from being misused. A policy of p=none is very common but unfortunately provides no protection. Protecting the domain reputation will improve the likelihood that your legitimate emails will not be quarantined or rejected. In some cases, such as for bulk senders, just the absence of a DMARC record will reduce the delivery rate.

Although this record is currently not “required” for non-bulk senders by some receiving email platforms (Gmail, Yahoo), DMARC is highly recommended for all senders. Domains without a DMARC policy are at risk of being misused by bad actors, landing your domain on block lists. In the past, emails could often succeed delivery despite missing or inadequate authentication and DMARC settings. Since email spoofing continues to increase, sending requirements are now being enforced more strictly by email service providers. DMARC greatly improves the odds that legitimate emails will be delivered as expected, illegitimate sends are rejected, and good domain reputation is preserved.