Email Authentication (and other deliverability factors)

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock, you will have heard something about Google and Yahoo’s Email Authentication Changes which came into effect this month (Feb 2024).

This has sent the internet in a frenzy with people going into panic over what needs to happen. And some creators really haven’t helped with this.

Well first I’m here to reassure you that if you haven’t got it sorted out yet that you are not going to get put into Google or Yahoo spam jail yet.

But it is important so I’m going to step you through a few key things you need to have in place. I cover:

What Google and Yahoos requirements actually are
How to add the one-click unsubscribe
How to keep your spam rate below their threshold of 0.10%
What SPF, DKIM and DMARC mean and how to add them
Email Tool Testers latest deliverability test results on the most popular email marketing software providers

This is an important episode but my hope is to take away the fear about this overwhelming topic and show you it doesn’t need to be that hard. It may only take you 10 minutes to sort out.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Google: New Gmail protections for a safer, less spammy inbox

Google Workspace: Email Sender Guidelines

Yahoo Announcement

Google Postmaster Tools

ActiveCampaign SPF, DKIM and DMARC authentication

Klaviyo understanding email authentication

ConvertKit Domain Verification

DMARC Record Checker

Email Tool Tester January 2024 Deliverability Test

Sample DMART TXT Record:

Name: _dmarc. Value without email address: v=DMARC1; p=none OR