Why does email from my new business domain go to spam?
Email providers don’t know a brand-new domain yet, so they’re careful with it. Two things help most: get your domain’s settings right before you send much, and start slowly with people who expect to hear from you. Google’s own advice to new senders is to start with low volume and increase it slowly.
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
Trust is built from history. A domain that has sent steady, wanted email for months has a track record. A new one has none, and a sudden burst of email from a domain with no history looks exactly like what spammers do. So a new business can do everything right and still see some email in junk for the first few weeks.
What to do in your first few weeks
- Set up your domain’s settings first. Run the free check below before you send anything important.
- Test every tool that sends for you: your mailbox, invoicing, booking app and website forms.
- Email people who know you first, and ask a few to reply. Replies tell Gmail and Outlook your email is wanted.
- Hold the big announcement email. Grow how much you send over several weeks rather than emailing your whole contact list on day one.
- Write normal emails. A sentence or two of real text, not just a link or an attachment.
Using Microsoft 365?
Make sure you’re sending from your own domain, not the starter address Microsoft gives you (the one ending in onmicrosoft.com). Microsoft limits that starter address to 100 outside recipients a day.
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
How long until a new domain is trusted?
There's no fixed time. It builds as you send steady, normal email that people open and reply to. Getting your settings right on day one gets you there faster.
Do I need to pay for a warm-up service?
Not for normal business email. Sending real email to real customers, and growing slowly, does the same job.
Should I send my launch announcement to everyone at once?
Better to wait a few weeks and send it through a newsletter tool, in smaller batches. A big first send from a new domain is the classic way to land in spam.
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.
New domain, no sending history. Set up authentication before volume, then ramp slowly.
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. Publish SPF, DKIM and DMARC from day one
Full click-by-click steps are in the business email going to spam guide. Start DMARC at p=none with a reporting address.
3. Microsoft 365 tenants
Add and verify the custom domain and set it as the default for users. Mail from the default onmicrosoft.com domain is limited to 100 external recipients per day (bounce 550 5.7.236).
4. Ramp volume
Google's sender guidelines: start with a low volume to engaged recipients and increase slowly, avoid sudden spikes, and keep the Postmaster Tools spam rate below 0.10%.
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.
Related guides
Written by the SenderFix team. Last updated .