Meeting Google and Yahoo’s Sender Requirements

Goals and Outcomes

By following the recommendations outlined below, you will enhance your email deliverability, maintain your sender reputation, and ensure that your emails reach your subscribers' inboxes. The goal of this article is to gain an understanding of Google’s and Yahoo’s sender requirements.

Sender Requirements Overview

In February of 2024, Google and Yahoo introduced sender requirements to help combat spam and enhance inbox safety. These sender requirements focus on authentication, spam-rate control, and simplified unsubscription processes. After implementing these requirements, you’ll fully comply with the sender requirements for both Google and Yahoo and more likely to be recognized as a legitimate sender.

Essential Understanding

You can read all of the details in Google’s blog and Yahoo’s blog or skip straight to our recommendations below.

Required Actions

AuthenticateYour Sending Domain

Sending from an authenticated sending domain can increase your deliverability rates and add brand credibility. The sender requirements specify that any merchants whoever sends at least 5,000 emails, must send them from a domain they own. Emails from unauthenticated bulk senders will be rejected.

Public Versus Private Domains

Using a free or public domain such as “gmail.com” or a shared pool email such as “yotpomail.com” is prohibited. You will need to use an email address that contains your domain name.A public domain refers to commonly used, free email domains provided by major internet service providers and platforms, such as Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook. These domains are generally accessible to anyone, which means multiple users can create email addresses under the same domain name (e.g., @gmail.com).

A private domain is owned and customized by a specific person or organization.

How do I authenticate my domain?

Adding and authenticating a sending domain is extremely straightforward in Yotpo. Just follow our step-by-step instructions in Adding a Sending Domain.

After you add a new sending domain, it's necessary to warm up your new domain through a process called “list warming”.

What is list warming?

Yotpo’s Autopilot Warm-up allows you to warm up your domain automatically with no work required on your end - you’ll be able to continue sending as normal after authenticating.

If you prefer to warm up your list manually, please follow our manual warming up your domain. The warm-up period builds up your reputation among ISPs and establishes trust with your subscribers.

Set Up a DMARC Record

After you’ve authenticated your domain, you must set up an additional authentication protocol called a DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) record.

If you decide not to authenticate your domain, you must ensure that you either do not have a DMARC record, or that the value for your existing DMARC record on your root domain is p=none.

Establishing a DMARC record proactively safeguards your brand and audience against phishing and spoofing threats. The aim is to ensure that only valid emails from your domain enter inboxes, thereby enhancing your sender reputation and delivery rates. The minimum required DMARC policy is v=DMARC1; p=none; sp=none. Additionally, it is recommended but not required to set an RUA tag with a valid email address to receive DMARC reports such as rua=mailto:dmarc-reports@mybrand.com.

Note:

If your domain’s DMARC policy is already at enforcement (p=reject or p=quarantine), we don’t recommend downgrading it to p=none.

You can set up DMARC authentication for your sending domain in your DNS provider yourself, but we highly recommend consulting with an email deliverability expert or using an online tool to make sure it was done correctly. A few third-party tools that can help manage DMARC are:

• EasyDMARC

• DMARCian

• Valimail

Learn more about DMARC records in Google Help.

Allow One-Click Unsubscribes

All merchants must now ensure that subscribers can easily unsubscribe from their list.

1. You must allow your subscribers to unsubscribe in one step.

2. There must also be an unsubscribe link in the message body. This link does not have to be a one-step unsubscribe.

Note:

No action is required on your end for the first requirement because Yotpo has implemented a “list unsubscribe header” that will appears at the top of all emails.

To stay compliant with the second requirement, make sure to keep your unsubscribe link clearly visible in your emails.

Stay Below a Spam-Rate Threshold

If you regularly send 5,000 emails a day or more, you must keep your spam rates below 0.3%.

After you’ve authenticated your sending domain, you can check your current spam rate from Google Postmaster.

Important:

Google spam reports do NOT show in Yotpo Email.

Yotpo has tools to help you minimize your spam rate. These include the following:

• Exclude unengaged subscribers: Sending emails to unengaged contacts can harm your sender reputation and deliverability as it may lead to spam complaints or unsubscribes. Learn how to exclude these subscribers from your Yotpo Email campaigns in Sending Email Campaigns Based on Subscriber Engagement.

• Sunset flow: Set up our automated flow to suppress or tag unengaged contacts so they don’t impact your future campaigns.

More best practices for keeping your spam rate low:

• Only email opted-in contacts: By emailing contacts who have given explicit consent and are expecting to hear from you, you will reduce the likelihood of getting spam complaints

• Verify your email list: Use a list verification tool to remove potentially harmful and invalid email addresses from your email list

• Update your welcome email: Make sure your welcome email lets subscribers know what to expect