Why do the emails I send end up in SPAM?

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What is SPAM How many of you know the origin of the term SPAM? It is a rather singular story that comes directly from 1970 from a Monty Python comedy sketch in which the waitress announced the menu of the day in which each course contained spam (n.b. a particular type of canned meat produced in the USA), and a lady ended up being subjected to the insistent offer of dishes based on this type of meat that she did not like. He was the first victim of "spam"!

Subsequently, the term was adopted, in the IT field, in the meaning that we all know today: to indicate any type of unwanted message, from classic advertising emails to inappropriate comments posted in chats, forums, blogs and social networks.

In addition to the more well-known problem of receiving spam emails, i.e. anonymous and unwanted messages with commercial or, very often, scam purposes (so-called "phishing" messages - messages with the aim of stealing data and personal information), there is the other side of the coin: the risk that the emails we ourselves send are labeled as spam and therefore not received correctly by the recipients of the message. This is certainly a problem that could also cause significant economic damage to our business. In fact, we think about sending a contract to a customer via email, and he doesn't receive it because the message is filtered in the "Junk Email" folder. In addition to the potential loss of the customer, we also risk making a bad impression in terms of reputation and security in the eyes of the customer.

Server or Domain in Blacklist: why does it happen? And so we return to the original question: "Why are my outgoing emails labeled as SPAM?" . Let's see together what are the causes that can determine this problem.

We make a distinction between "normal" messages which are sent to individual recipients and advertising messages (newsletters) which are sent to a large number of addresses.

As for improving the deliverability of commercial emails, we will cover the topic in a separate, more in-depth article. Now we instead deal with when individual emails to individual recipients sent from our account, from our domain, end up in the SPAM folder.

One of the main reasons why outgoing mail can be labeled as SPAM is by blacklisting the domain or the server where the domain is hosted. What causes a domain or server to be blacklisted? Sending potential emails labeled as SPAM. And here we enter a loop where in the end... the messages we send are not received by the recipients as they are considered SPAM.

So let's take a step back and try to better understand what causes a domain/server to be blacklisted following the sending of any SPAM emails.

The importance of the email account password You can confess it: how many of you leave the default password for your email accounts or use easy sequences (the classic 123456) to memorize? Here, now let's explain why this thing is absolutely NOT to be done!

The ease with which simple passwords can be cracked is disarming. It is therefore important to follow some rules to prevent your email account from being hacked to send SPAM messages which can cause your domain to be blacklisted or, even worse, the entire server where it is hosted:

If you have multiple email accounts the first tip is to use long and unique passwords for each account. This way, if an account is hacked, it will be sufficient to change just one password;

As already indicated, try not to use passwords that contain name or surname (or personal data in general) or simple vocabulary words such as sole123 or mare456;

Keep your email account passwords safe and do not share them with other users;

Even if there are no cases of password violations or theft, it is a good idea to change your password regularly;

If possible, choose "two-factor" authentication, i.e. platforms that allow you to perform two steps to verify authentication. In addition to the password, a second factor is required, usually a code created randomly and sent to your mobile device.

By following these simple rules you can prevent your email account from being hacked through password theft through improper use of sending emails that can be marked as SPAM and cause inclusion in the blacklist.

Update = Security Another very common cause that causes the domain/server to be blacklisted due to the sending of messages classified as SPAM is the presence, on the website, of obsolete or unprotected plugins/contact extensions. Let's see in detail what it is.

The main CMS and web applications allow contact forms to be integrated into the sites to allow the user to leave their data following the request for information. These forms usually then send confirmation emails that they have been filled in or automatic response messages and, usually, notification messages also to the owner of the website.

If these contact forms are not properly configured and protected, they could be easy prey for automatic bots whose purpose is to generate and send SPAM.

How can we protect our site from contact forms? Surely the first step to take is to keep the plugins and extensions that manage the contact forms always updated. Updating the site and all its components is always the first thing to do to maintain a high level of security. Furthermore, as regards contact forms specifically, it is important to enable verification request systems by those who fill them out, such as Google's reCAPTCHA, to name the most important.

Shared Hosting: the rules of a good condominium! When your website uses a shared hosting service it means that your domain is hosted on a server, along with other domains of other users. In this environment the "condominium" mechanism is triggered: if all the condominiums (domains) behave well, the condominium (server) will have a good reputation in terms of security. In this ideal situation, all outgoing emails from all domains on that server will have good deliverability (the ability of an email to reach the recipient). Otherwise, if even just one of the domains on the server from which the shared hosting service is provided begins to have problems relating to the sending of emails labeled as SPAM, the control and security systems will potentially blacklist the entire server, causing problems even for the "condominiums" that are behaving well.

This is why it is important that anyone with a domain takes care of keeping the security level of their website high. You can easily put all these tips into practice (security of passwords and contact forms on your site) to eliminate the risk of hacking your email accounts with the consequent inclusion of the domain/server on the blacklist due to the sending of SPAM messages. This will allow you to send your messages with the certainty that the recipients will receive them and, above all, that the recipients will not receive annoying SPAM messages from you. In this way you can contribute to the safety and reputation of your "condominium".

MailOUT – no more emails in SPAM We know, however, that very often these actions are perhaps carried out too late or with little attention.

For this reason, at HOST we have decided to help our customers in preventing SPAM in outgoing email messages. The service we have developed is called MailOUT and is present and active by default in all Shared Hosting profiles and in the Host Reseller plan and, thanks to sophisticated algorithms and machine learning approaches, automatically detects and blocks outgoing emails from compromised email accounts (e.g. violated passwords) or hacked WordPress, Joomla or other CMS plugins.

How does MailOUT work? The service, completely transparent and compatible with any web application, works in 5 phases:

Analyze outgoing emails

Block any SPAM and avoid delivering it to its destination

Detect the source of spam (contact form, broken plugin or compromised email)

Blocks the source of SPAM (in the case of PHP) or does a forced reset of the password of the compromised email

Notify the customer with the actions to take to resolve the problem

In all this, the deliverability of the emails is guaranteed as MailOUT uses hundreds of servers and IP addresses spread around the world and will therefore always use the server and IP with the best reputation to send the "good" emails.

If you want more information on the new MailOUT service active on hosting profiles, please contact us at the toll-free number 800 943 944 or by email at This email address is protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.