Why are my business emails going to spam?
Usually because Gmail and Outlook can’t confirm the email really came from your business. Your domain (the part after the @ in your email address) has settings that list which tools are allowed to send in your name. If one of your tools isn’t on that list, its emails look fake and go to junk. The fix is a few changes in one place, and you don’t need a new email service.
Check your own email first. Free, about 90 seconds. You get a grade and a plain-English list of what's working and what isn't.
Why this happens
Think of it like a return address that the post office now checks. Since February 2024, Google has asked everyone who emails Gmail users to prove their mail is real. Microsoft started enforcing the same kind of rule for Outlook.com in May 2025.
Here’s the catch. Your email doesn’t come from one place. Outlook or Gmail sends your everyday messages, QuickBooks sends your invoices, Mailchimp sends the newsletter and your website sends contact form messages. Each one has to be approved on your domain. Start using a new tool, skip that step, and its emails start landing in junk.
What to do
- Run the free check below. Type in your web address and you’ll see what’s missing, in plain English.
- List everything that sends email with your business name on it. Your email account, your invoicing tool (QuickBooks, Xero, FreshBooks), newsletters (Mailchimp, Constant Contact), your website’s forms, and any booking or payment tools.
- Find out where your domain is managed. Often that’s GoDaddy, Cloudflare, Squarespace, Wix or your web host. Not sure? Search your email for the yearly renewal receipt.
- Turn on the “verify your domain” setting in each tool. Most business tools have one. Mailchimp calls it domain authentication. The tool gives you a few lines to copy into your domain’s settings.
- Run the free check again the next day to make sure everything now shows as working.
If everything checks out and you’re still in spam
Sometimes the settings are fine and email still lands in junk. Then the problem is usually what you’re sending, or how much of it.
- A big email blast from your everyday address. Sending a newsletter to hundreds of people from the same address you use for invoices can drag both down. Send newsletters from a newsletter tool instead.
- People marking you as spam. Google asks senders to stay under 3 complaints for every 1,000 emails. A list of people who never asked to hear from you gets there fast.
- Emails that look like scams. A message that’s only a link to a file, with no real text, looks a lot like the fakes people get every day. Write a sentence or two like you normally would.
- A brand new domain. A web address that’s only a few weeks old gets less trust. Email normal amounts to people who know you, and it builds.
- Your business is on a spam blocklist. The free check looks at the main lists for you.
What this guide can’t do for you
It covers the common causes. It can’t tell you which of your tools is the one that’s failing, or give you the exact settings for your business and the company that manages your domain. That’s what the Email Fix does. We check every tool that sends email for you and give you steps written for your setup. If we can't find what's wrong with your email settings, you get your $299 back. The guarantee covers your email settings. No settings can fix email sent to people who didn't ask for it, like bought lists or mass emails.
See what's wrong with your email, free
Type in your business's web address (the part after the @ in your email). You'll get a plain-English answer: what's working, what isn't, and what to do next.
Common questions
Will asking customers to add me to their contacts fix it?
It helps for that one person, and it's worth doing with your most important customers. It doesn't fix the cause, though, and new customers won't have done it.
Do I need to pay for a different email service?
Usually not. The settings that matter live on your domain, not in your email account, so Outlook, Gmail and most business tools work fine once they're set up.
How long do the changes take to work?
Usually within an hour, and up to a day or two with some domain companies. Emails that already went to junk stay there. It's the new ones that improve.
Why did this start now, when my email worked for years?
Google and Microsoft tightened their rules in 2024 and 2025, so settings that used to be good enough may not be now. Adding a new tool without setting it up has the same effect.
For your IT person or web developer
You can forward this page as it is. Everything below is written so someone who doesn't work with email settings every day can follow it.
The owner's email is landing in spam. The usual cause is missing or incomplete sender authentication (SPF, DKIM and DMARC) for the domain, or a sending service that isn't covered by it. Run the free check at senderfix.com first; it shows which of these is missing.
1. Find where the domain's DNS is managed
Look up the domain's nameservers with any WHOIS or DNS lookup site. Nameservers ending in domaincontrol.com mean GoDaddy; ns.cloudflare.com means Cloudflare. Log in there and open the DNS settings for the domain (often labeled “DNS”, “Manage DNS” or “DNS records”). If the owner doesn't have the login, the renewal receipt email usually says which company it is.
2. SPF: one TXT record listing every sender
Look for an existing TXT record at host @ that starts with v=spf1. A domain must have only one, so edit it if it exists rather than adding a second. It should look like v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com ~all for Microsoft 365, or v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all for Google Workspace. Each other sending service lists its own include value in its help pages. Add them before the ~all, separated by spaces.
3. DKIM: turn on signing in each service
Google Workspace: in admin.google.com go to Apps → Google Workspace → Gmail → Authenticate email, select the domain, click Generate new record, add the TXT record it shows at the host it names, then click Start authentication.
Microsoft 365: in security.microsoft.com go to Email & collaboration → Policies & rules → Threat policies → Email authentication settings → DKIM. Select the domain, add the two CNAME records it shows at the DNS host, then switch signing on.
Other tools (Mailchimp, Constant Contact and so on) have a domain authentication page in their settings that gives you records to add.
4. DMARC: one TXT record at _dmarc
Add a TXT record with host _dmarc and the value v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:[an address that can receive reports]. Start with p=none. Only move to p=quarantine once the reports show every real sender passing.
5. Check it worked
DNS changes usually show within an hour, though some hosts take up to a day or two. Then send a test message to a personal Gmail address, open it, click the three dots at the top right of the message and choose Show original. You want to see SPF: PASS, DKIM: PASS and DMARC: PASS. You can also run the free check at senderfix.com again.
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Written by the SenderFix team. Last updated .