If you find yourself on an IP blacklist or email blacklist, your email deliverability will suffer. Take advantage of ZeroBounce’s free blacklist checker to stay on top of email spam prevention and find out if your domain is at risk.
Email blacklist services track your domain reputation. Spamming your email list with too many messages or emailing invalid addresses will result in spam complaints and email bounces.
Additionally, emailing users that did not opt-in to receive your content can prompt spam complaints, which may place you on an email blacklist.
Email blacklist is an abbreviation of real-time blackhole list (RBL) or DNS blacklist (DNSBL). Blacklists are present at the domain level, an email blacklist, and at the internet service provider (ISP) level, an IP blacklist. Both assist in spam prevention to protect everyday email users.
If you find yourself on an email blacklist or IP blacklist, you can expect your emails to bounce and your email deliverability to decline.
Your email domain or IP can end up on an email blacklist or IP blacklist for numerous reasons.
Email users can report any email as spam with a couple of clicks.
However, you increase the likelihood of building a poor domain reputation if you email users too frequently or submit low-quality, off-topic content. Your email list contacts will inform their domain provider that they’re receiving spam, which becomes a spam complaint.
Spam prevention standards are strict. The industry average for acceptable spam complaints is 0.1% or 1 in every 1,000 emails. Anything higher negatively impacts domain reputation and email deliverability, which can land you on an email or IP blacklist.
If you unexpectedly appear on any email blacklists or IP blacklists when using the blacklist checker, your domain may be at risk.
Spammers and spoofers target vulnerable domains to spread viruses and carry out their phishing scams. Once they do, you end up on an email blacklist to help other domains and internet providers in spam prevention.
Like sending too many messages, users will report spam if they do not sign up for your content.
Be careful where and how you obtain new leads for your email list. Buying an email list might net you some valid email addresses, but there’s a high likelihood of spam complaints if they’re unfamiliar with your company.
Additionally, those lists likely get sold many times over, making it more likely for those emails to be invalid or high-risk. Spam complaints and bounces impact your domain reputation and email deliverability before landing you on an email blacklist.
Sometimes you can end up on an IP blacklist or email blacklist for no reason. The cause is generally that the previous IP owner was guilty of spammy email practices or sending malware to innocent users.
It’s not a fair scenario, but you’ll need to communicate with your ISP and IP blacklist services to inform them of the change.
You can find yourself on an IP blacklist if your website appears low-quality or spammy.
Your pages might have irrelevant, low-quality content, exhibit high bounce rates, or have a stockpile of backlinks from untrustworthy, spammy websites.This all factors into your domain reputation and can land you on an IP, email, or even a website blacklist.
Companies should frequently use an email blacklist checker to stay up-to-date with their domain reputation. Blacklist monitors are affordable, run daily, and automatically notify you of unwanted events.
However, be on the lookout for unusual activity, including
These are indicators of problems with your email deliverability and domain reputation. You can use the free blacklist checker to determine if you’re on an email blacklist or an IP blacklist. Then, investigate your sending practices closely to preserve your email deliverability.
To remove yourself from an email blacklist or IP blacklist, follow the steps below.
When using the email blacklist checker, look for URLs with the “Listed” status. Then, you can follow the URL, look up your domain or IP, and discover why you’re on the blacklist.
Use the information to clean your email domain of unwanted users, malware, or viruses.
If you’ve yet to do so, implement additional email security methods such as email authentication (SPF, DMARC, or DKIM) to demonstrate your spam prevention efforts.
Each email blacklist case is unique, and the remedy can involve anything from virus removal to reconfiguring your email server. You can attempt to contact the blacklist service for more information.
You can submit a removal request once you’re confident you’ve resolved the issue and have proof of your spam prevention efforts.
Most IP blacklist and email blacklist sites will have a featured section for these requests. Check out 0Spam’s dedicated removal request link for reference.
It’s important to note that while most IP blacklist or email blacklist providers will honor requests, they are not obligated to do so.
Instead, you must actively protect your domain reputation and email deliverability with proper email security and spam prevention tactics.
The best way to avoid email blacklists and IP blacklists is to use best email security and spam prevention practices.
Start by configuring your domain’s DNS records to use different forms of email authentication.
Sender Policy Framework (SPF) allows you to specify which hostnames or IPs may send from your email domain.
DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) encrypts your sent emails. This adds a unique virtual signature that helps ISPs identify valid senders using your domain. It stops spoofed emails and aids in spam prevention that would otherwise mar your domain reputation.
Finally, Domain-Based Authentication Messaging, Reporting, and Conformance (DMARC) dictates what an ISP should do if it an email fails an SPF or DKIM check. These three records together protect your email deliverability and keep you off IP and email blacklists.
After using the free blacklist checker to check up on your domain reputation, head over to our other free generators below to protect your email deliverability better.
Emailing invalid contacts hurts your email deliverability, which can land you on an email blacklist.
ISPs and blacklist services also utilize special email addresses called spam traps, which look to bait out would-be spammers. If you email a spam trap, expect to find yourself on one or more email or IP blacklists. It’s a quick sign that you’re not using best practices to obtain new email leads or clean your email list.
Other risky email types like abuse emails, known spam complainers, and disposable emails can increase your bounces and spam complaints. Poor email deliverability equates to a poor domain reputation.
Thankfully, eliminating invalid and high-risk emails is easy. Just upload your list to an email validator and import your clean list back to your CRM.
Get Started for FreeEmail contacts may report your messages as spam anytime they become inconvenient. Remember - high spam complaints hurt your domain reputation, which fast-tracks you to an email blacklist.
Make sure that your email content stays relevant and timely by carefully segmenting your email lists. If you need to send out a communication that only applies to specific leads or customers, create a campaign just for them. You’ll avoid spam reports and unsubscribes more easily.
You can also target your advertisements or provide questionnaires to your email list to determine what type of content they wish to see.
When you curate content for the right audience, you protect your email deliverability, improve your domain reputation, and stay clear of email blacklists and IP blacklists.
Email marketing offers incredible ROI for your company.
Protect your investments by monitoring your email domain with our free blacklist checker regularly. Check for your name on any email or IP blacklists, learn the issue, and submit removal requests as soon as possible.
If you want more proactive domain reputation monitoring, you can try ZeroBounce’s blacklist monitoring service. We’ll compare your email domain and IP against more than 200 email blacklists and automatically notify you when there’s a change.
Get 24/7 Blacklist MonitoringFree email deliverability tools:
You can monitor your domain reputation and IP by using a free email blacklist checker. We compare your provided details with over 300 known IP blacklists and email blacklists. You’ll be able to see where you’re unlisted, listed, or whitelisted. Just click the URL to learn more about the list provider and learn how you can request removal.
