Check your domain and IP reputation across major providers and reputation services. Monitor scores that determine inbox placement.
Leave blank to auto-detect from domain's MX records
Domain reputation is a score that email providers assign to your sending domain based on your email behavior. Think of it like a credit score, but for your domain. A high reputation means Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo trust you and deliver your mail to the inbox. A low reputation means your messages get filtered to spam or blocked entirely.
There are two separate but related systems: domain reputation (tied to your From address and DKIM signature) and IP reputation (tied to the mail server's IP). Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo now weight domain reputation more heavily, since senders can easily switch IPs but can't easily swap domains without starting over.
Google Postmaster Tools
Four-tier scale: Bad, Low, Medium, High. The most transparent reputation dashboard available.
Microsoft SNDS
IP-level reputation data for Outlook, Hotmail, and Live mail.
Yahoo Feedback Loop
Reports spam complaints from Yahoo Mail users back to senders.
Your domain reputation is calculated dynamically from multiple signals:
High bounce rates tell providers you're sending to unverified or purchased lists. Keep bounce rates below 2% or your reputation will take a hit.
When a recipient clicks "Report Spam," that goes directly to your domain's reputation score. Google's threshold is 0.1%, go above that consistently and your reputation drops fast.
Gmail tracks whether people open, reply, move out of spam, or delete without reading. Positive engagement tells the algorithm your mail is wanted.
Sudden spikes are a red flag. If you normally send 100 emails a day and suddenly blast 10,000, providers treat that as suspicious.
Proper SPF, DKIM, and DMARC prove you're legitimate. Missing authentication actively damages reputation.
If your domain or IP appears on any major blacklist, that's an immediate reputation hit. Use our Blacklist Checker to scan for listings.
Positive loop: Good reputation leads to inbox placement, which leads to higher engagement, which reinforces good reputation. Your reputation keeps climbing.
Negative loop (death spiral): Bad reputation leads to spam folder, which means near-zero engagement, which confirms bad reputation to the provider. Your reputation drops further. This is why catching problems early is far easier than climbing back from damage.
Fix: Run your list through an email verification service before sending. Remove any address that doesn't pass. Aim for under 2%. If already high, pause, clean the list, and resume with smaller volumes.
Fix: Make it easy to unsubscribe. Review targeting, are you reaching the right people? For cold email, improve personalization so messages feel relevant, not like mass spam.
Fix: Ramp up volume gradually. If you need to increase sending, do it in 20-30% increments over days or weeks, not all at once.
Fix: Move to a dedicated IP if possible. For cold email at scale, dedicated infrastructure is essential, shared IPs are too risky.
Fix: Slow down. Reduce volume to 5-10 emails per day and gradually increase over 2-4 weeks. Focus on sending to people who will engage (open and reply). Positive engagement during warmup is critical.
Tied to your From address and DKIM signature. Follows your domain everywhere regardless of which server you send from. Now the primary factor for inbox placement at Gmail.
Tied to the specific IP address of the mail server. The older system. Still matters at Outlook, which weighs it heavily. Matters for shared infrastructure where one bad actor affects everyone.
For most senders, domain reputation is more important than IP reputation. Gmail has explicitly stated that domain reputation is the primary signal. When they conflict, providers generally default to the worse of the two. For the best deliverability, you need both in good standing. Check your full picture with our Deliverability Checker.
A rating assigned to your domain by email providers based on your sending behavior. Google uses a four-tier system (Bad, Low, Medium, High). Your score directly determines whether your emails reach the inbox, get filtered to spam, or are rejected entirely.
On Google Postmaster Tools, "High" is the goal. "Medium" is acceptable but means some mail may get filtered. As a general rule, aim for bounce rates under 2%, spam complaint rates under 0.1%, proper SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication, and no blacklist appearances.
For a brand new domain, expect 2-4 weeks of warmup to establish a baseline. Reaching "High" reputation on Google Postmaster typically takes 4-8 weeks of consistent, clean sending. Volume matters, if you send very little, it takes longer because providers have less data.
Yes, but it takes time. Identify the cause (bounces, complaints, missing authentication, blacklists). Fix the issues, reduce volume, and gradually rebuild by sending clean email to engaged recipients. Recovery typically takes 2-6 weeks.
Domain age matters, but not the way most think. A 10-year-old domain that never sent email has no sending reputation, treated the same as brand new. What matters is sending history, not registration date. Older domains with active clean sending history have a deeper buffer.
Cold email puts extra pressure on reputation: higher bounce rates, lower engagement, and higher spam complaint rates. The solution is careful list verification, proper warmup, gradual volume increases, and domain separation, never send cold email from your primary business domain.
Domain reputation follows your domain everywhere. IP reputation is tied to the specific mail server IP. Domain reputation is now the primary factor at Gmail. IP reputation still matters at Outlook. For best deliverability, you need both in good standing.
Domain reputation is only one piece of the deliverability puzzle. Use our other free tools to get a complete picture:
Verify your SPF record is correctly configured
DMARC CheckerAudit your DMARC policy and authentication handling
Blacklist CheckerScan domain and IP across 100+ blacklists
Deliverability CheckerTest overall email deliverability and sending issues
DNS CheckerVerify DNS records are properly configured for email
MX LookupCheck mail exchange records and confirm routing
ScaledMail protects your domain reputation by handling warmup, monitoring, and authentication setup for every inbox. We watch your domains so you don't have to.
We build and manage cold email infrastructure designed for high deliverability. Domains, authentication, warmup, IP management, and monitoring, all handled for you.
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