Before we talk about how to delist IP address from Gmail blacklist, let’s see the error messages sent by google bounce servers when your server IP has been blacklisted.
When Google or Gmail blacklist your server IP address, their bounce servers sends any of these messages:
#550-5.7.1 [x.x.x.x 19] Our system has detected that this message is 550-5.7.1 likely suspicious due to the very low reputation of the sending 550-5.7.1 domain. Please visit http://www.google.com/mail/help/bulk_mail.n421 4.7.0 html to review our Bulk Email Senders Guidelines.
Or
421-4.7.0 unsolicited mail originating from your IP address. To protect ourn421-4.7.0users from spam, mail sent from your IP address has been temporarily 21-4.7.0 rate limited. Please visit http://www.google.com/mail/help/bulk_mail.n421 4.7.0 html to review our Bulk Email Senders Guidelines. l41si55243084eef.158 - gsmtp
Or
Remote host said: 550-5.7.1 Our system has detected an unusual rate of unsolicited mail originating from your IP address. To protect our users from spam, mail sent from your IP address has been blocked. Please visit http://www.google.com/mail/help/bulk_mail.html to review our Bulk Email Senders Guidelines.</pre
Why Google or Gmail blacklist your server IP.
In recent times we have come to notice that Gmail spam filters are more aggressive compared to other email client’s filters. A lot of our students and clients have been frustrated when building or using their custom email marketing system by the Gmail blocks. One thing to understand here is that Gmail, just like any other email client has some set of pre-determined algorithms to automatically ban potential spam. Notice that sometimes you do see emails from youtube in your spam folder. Youtube and Gmail are all products by google. What does this tell us? It shows that Gmail spam filters can filter their own message if it looks like what it identified as spam.
Few Reasons You are on Gmail Blacklist.
- Sudden sending volume rap up.
- high volume within a short period of time.
- sending emails to “Non existent” addresses.
- Emails from IP with a high bounce rate.
- mailing to recycled spam traps
- Sending emails to spam traps
- mailing to users who never opted into your list.
- Spamhaus blacklist. You can visit mxtoolbox to see such blacklists
- A lot of spam complaints.
- You are sending from a brand new IP address.
- You have incomplete or incorrect DNS records. see how to configure your DNS correctly here.
- Your server Failing DNS Authentications.
- Poor Sending score
- Not adding an unsubscribe link
- Spammy subject
- Spammy message content.
- No Rdns Configuration.
- Public Blacklist.
I believe the best way to solve a problem is by first identifying what caused the issue in the first instant. Here we recommend you check your email server log or bounce server log if you configured bounce servers. By this, you will know which of the above causes or a combination of causes to fix.
Now, let’s look at some of these causes so that we can understand them better.
Public Blacklist
Public or external blacklists are third-party databases. They can be utilized by email clients like Gmail, outlook, yahoo, etc to detect potential spam. An example of such databases is the ones monitored by Spamhaus.
Before you seek How to delist IP address from the Gmail blacklist, it is important you delist your IP from the public blacklist first.
The picture below shows some public databases run by spamhaus.org
Reports have it that Gmail and other email clients take signals from the above public blacklist to block you from reaching their respective inboxes.
Gmail runs a lot of other internal blacklists not known by the public and might still blacklist you based on their internal blacklist. For now, your focus shouldn’t be on the internal blacklists but on the public blacklists and the other factors I listed below.
Email Authentication
This is a way of telling Gmail that your domain is 100% authorized to send emails from your server. DNS records not correctly configured tell Gmail that you’re not a genuine sender. Here are a few configurations to do:
Rdns Configuration
This is a way to authenticate your IP address from Gmail blacklist. it is a way of preventing Gmail blacklist by pointing your server IP to your sending domain and vice visa. To understand this more you can check How to set up a custom email marketing system.
Dkim (DomainKeys Identified Mail)
DKIM stands for DomainKeys identified mail. it is a text record added to the DNS zone of your domain. This holds a public authentication/validation key. This key will be validated using a private key saved privately in your server.
All emails sent out of your server must be signed, this will avoid any compromise and protect your email originality.
SPF record (Sender Policy Framework)
SPF a TXT record added to your Domain DNS Zone. This allows you to assign the mail servers allowed to send emails from your domain.
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance):
This is a text record that employs the SPF and DKIM to determine the authenticity of the email sent from your server.
DMARC serves as an extra level of security. This is because It allows genuine senders to specify how they want email clients like Gmail to handle emails that failed SPF or DKIM authentication. Senders can authenticate the Dmarc record to send such emails to the spam or reject it or block such emails totally.
To learn more about these important records, you can visit this blog post.
Deliverability best Practices
After you’ve identified and fixed these issues, the best thing to do is to follow email deliverability best practices. This will help you not to fall for the Gmail blacklist in the future. Gmail and other email clients detest affiliate links, long email content, links to known spam sites, etc. My advice is to always shorten and cloak affiliate links or any suspicious link. This will make such a link appear safe to Gmail and other email clients. Personally, I don’t add affiliate links to my emails directly. I prefer to direct my traffics to a blog post. This will save you from all hassles faced searching How to delist IP address from Gmail blacklist
Apply for Gmail blacklist removal
Removing IP from Gmail Blacklist is quite simple and requires a simple form submission. To remove your server Ip or domain from the Gmail blacklist you need to submit the form below. Before you do this, make sure to check the error message returned by your server in your message log and fix it before applying for Gmail blacklist removal. If you don’t fix this issue, you will be blacklisted again. The constant violation also leads to a permanent ban. This is why it is important to address the issue first.
Click on this form to access the Gmail blacklist removal portal.
Watch this video to see practically, How to delist my IP address from Gmail blacklist
Note that you will answer no to most of the questions otherwise they will tell you to wait. Also, note that Gmail does to send feedback from this form. You just have to keep checking your server to see when the issues have cleared. Don’t submit this form more than once per two weeks as it doesn’t speed up the blacklist removal process.
How long Do I wait before I start mailing?
We recommend you stay patient after submitting the delist form. Gmail never notifies you upon removal request. I recommend you keep checking your server log. Also, try reaching those inboxes using different or the same message. Try to notice new changes in your server log.
Google postmaster tools
Adding your domain to Google postmaster tools will help to track your sending reputation. This will give you great insights on things to improve on to increase your chances of hitting the inbox of Gmail users. It also provides you with a txt record to add to your domain registrar. This further helps increase the reputation of your domain and improve the overall delivery to Gmail addresses.
Thank you very much for reading through this blog. If you need further help on this, please comment below in the comment sections. You can also submit your questions in our forum and one of our experts will be glad to answer you.