As of February 2024, Google and Yahoo require email senders to use proper authentication and adhere to policy changes around user consent and engagement. Senders who don't comply risk having their emails delayed, blocked, or routed to spam.
While this may feel sudden, these requirements have been industry-wide best practices for maximizing deliverability for years. Use the checklist below to get your account into compliance.
Elevate Your Brand with a Dedicated Sending Sub-Domain
Setting up a branded sending sub-domain gives you greater control over your sender reputation and removes the generic "sent via msgsndr.com" disclaimer from your outgoing emails. This is a deliverability best practice — and now a key part of meeting the new compliance requirements.
After enabling your dedicated sending sub-domain, plan for a gradual warm-up of your sending infrastructure over the following 2–4 weeks.
Check out the guide on setting up a dedicated sending sub-domain for step-by-step instructions.
Example of what a dedicated sending domain looks like to Gmail recipients:
Establish DMARC Email Authentication for Your Sending Domain
DMARC is a standard that builds on SPF and DKIM. It tells mailbox providers how to handle emails that fail authentication — helping protect your domain from spoofing and phishing.
Who needs to act? If you don't have a DMARC record and are sending more than 5,000 emails per day (aggregated across sub-accounts using a shared sending domain), you need to add one to your DNS.
Implementation Steps
Use a free DMARC checker like Dmarcian. Enter your root domain (e.g. yourdomain.com) and click Inspect. If you see "Hooray! Your DMARC record is valid." — you're done, skip the remaining steps. If not, continue.
Log in to your DNS host (e.g. Cloudflare, GoDaddy, Namecheap) and create a new record with the following values:
Record type: TXT
Host / Name: _dmarc
Content / Points to: v=DMARC1; p=none;
Google recommends gradually tightening your DMARC policy over time. Read their Recommended DMARC Rollout Tutorial to learn more.
Here's what the DMARC record looks like when set up in Cloudflare for a domain called demohighlevel.com:
Save the record and use Dmarcian to confirm it has propagated (this can take a few minutes). You can also send yourself a test email and inspect the header in Gmail by clicking the three-dots icon and selecting Show Original.
A valid DMARC record in the Gmail header looks like this:
Ensure Brand Consistency
Align your "From" address with your dedicated sending domain for a cohesive, recognizable email identity.
To comply with DMARC standards, the domain in your "From" address must match the root domain of your branded sending domain. For example, if your dedicated sending domain is lc.msgsndr.com, the corresponding root domain is msgsndr.com. Using hello@msgsndr.com as your "From" address maintains that alignment.
Double-check all "From" addresses across your workflow emails and campaigns to ensure they align with your sending domain before the deadline.
Avoid Impersonating Gmail or Yahoo in the "From" Header
Gmail and Yahoo now enforce a "quarantine" DMARC policy on their own domains. If your "From" address claims to be from Gmail or Yahoo (e.g. example@gmail.com), your emails are very likely to be blocked or sent to spam.
Never send emails with a "From" address at @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, or any other inbox provider's domain. Always use your own domain so authentication can pass cleanly.
Make It Easy to Unsubscribe
Google and Yahoo now require that senders make it simple for recipients to opt out. If someone doesn't want your emails, they shouldn't have to search for the unsubscribe button — it needs to be obvious and frictionless.
A one-click unsubscribe link is automatically added to the header of every email you send (except 1:1 emails). The "header" here refers to the behind-the-scenes email metadata — not the visible email body. How this appears to recipients varies by email client. Below is an example from Gmail.
Example of one-click unsubscribe as displayed to Gmail recipients:
Review this guide to enable automatic unsubscribe link insertion in the footer of all your outgoing emails.
Before the deadline, review all your campaign templates and workflow emails. Make sure an unsubscribe link is present somewhere in the email body — the footer is the most common location. It doesn't have to be one-click, but it must be clear and easy to find.
Keep Your Spam Rate Below 0.30%
Only send emails to people who have given permission to receive them. Sending to unengaged or purchased lists leads to spam complaints — and too many complaints can cause delays, spam folder routing, or full delivery failure.
| Spam Rate | Impact |
|---|---|
| Below 0.10% | Healthy — good inbox placement |
| 0.10% – 0.30% | Warning zone — take action to reduce complaints |
| Above 0.30% | Emails may be delayed, filtered to spam, or blocked entirely |
Yahoo spam complaints are visible in the platform's Spam Reports. Gmail, however, keeps complaint data private and does not surface it in the platform's email metrics. To monitor Gmail spam rates, use Google Postmaster Tools — a free tool that gives you visibility into how Gmail is handling your emails.
Set up Google Postmaster Tools before you hit a problem — not after. It gives you early visibility into reputation signals that the platform cannot access on your behalf.
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