Why your emails land in other people's spam

If you use Gmail, Outlook.com or iCloud

• Avoid ALL-CAPS subjects, lots of links, and phrases like "FREE!!!" or "Act now".
• Send big files as a share link (OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox) rather than attachments.
• Ask regular contacts to add you to their contacts.

If you use your own domain (you@yourbusiness.ca)

Email providers check three settings on your domain to decide if an email is genuine:

• SPF lists which servers may send email for your domain.
• DKIM adds a digital signature proving the email wasn't changed.
• DMARC tells providers what to do with email that fails those checks.

Since 2024, Gmail and Yahoo expect businesses to have all three.

Check yours

Send an email to a Gmail address, open it, click ⋮ → Show original, and look for SPF: PASS, DKIM: PASS and DMARC: PASS. If any fail, your domain's DNS needs updating.