{"id":8112,"date":"2024-02-07T05:53:02","date_gmt":"2024-02-07T11:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/?p=8112"},"modified":"2025-10-02T06:32:05","modified_gmt":"2025-10-02T11:32:05","slug":"domain-reputation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.atom.com\/blog\/domain-reputation\/","title":{"rendered":"What is Domain Reputation? How to Check and Improve It"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Photo by: Pavel Danilyuk<\/a> courtesy of Pexel.com<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Warren Buffet famously said, \u201cIt takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it.\u201d Brands today know that reputation is key in the business world, that\u2019s why they put so much effort into finding a business name<\/a> that tells customers all about their values.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While most business founders throw themselves into building their brand\u2019s reputation, fewer understand the importance of domain reputation. This isn\u2019t a case of asking what your customers think of you. It\u2019s the opinion of a more shadowy group: the mail providers, ISPs, and anti-spam services who determine who\u2019s in and who\u2019s out of your customers\u2019 inbox.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domain reputation plays a significant role in the efficacy of your email marketing campaign. Learning how to improve won\u2019t just see your emails received, but well-received by your audience because the right content will reach the right people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result? Happy customers, strong customer service, and, yeah, a great reputation. Let\u2019s find out all about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Domain Reputation?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Domain reputation is a score assigned to your domain by mailbox providers like Gmail<\/a>, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), and anti-spam services to determine the overall quality of your domain for email purposes. A poor domain reputation will lead your emails to be marked as spam, or go undelivered altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The domain in discussion is the one you send emails from. If your email address is angela@coolbiz.com or offers@coolbiz.com, the domain coolbiz.com has an assigned reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domain reputation is like a credit score for your email marketing campaigns. Financial providers assign your credit score based on your financial behavior such as your debt and the regularity of your payments, and use this data to limit the lines of credit you can receive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


Similarly, domain reputation is assigned based on your email marketing performance (among other factors) and mail providers will limit where your emails are received if you have a bad reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While we talk about domain reputation in the singular, in fact, your domain has many different reputations with the individual mail providers and ISPs it interacts with. Just like there\u2019s no one credit scorer, and many financial institutions perform their own calculations, mail providers like Google, Yahoo, Outlook, and more have private algorithms that calculate domain reputation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why is Domain Reputation Important?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Around 45% of emails are marked as spam<\/a> and one in six never make it to a recipient\u2019s inbox at all<\/a>. With over 3 million emails sent every second, your email marketing campaign is taking place in one of the most competitive environments for your audience\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Domain reputation plays a major role in determining whether your emails are received in the inbox or spam folder, and a very poor domain reputation can lead to email receiver services blocking your emails altogether.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here\u2019s why domain reputation matters:<\/p>\n\n\n\n