My email ends up in spam at Gmail. Check SPF, DKIM and DMARC for this domain
and whether the sending server is on a blacklist. Tell me in plain words
what I need to change.
Normally this is a question that takes three websites and output you want a manual for. The assistant on your hosting account does it in one request, because the Network checks skill is always on. It uses our own toolbox at invoker.tools and, more importantly, it looks at your domain from outside the server, the way a visitor or a receiving mail server sees it.
What it can check
| Your question | What it looks up |
|---|---|
| Which DNS records are there now? | all records for the domain |
| Has my change gone through? | what resolvers worldwide see right now |
| Where does my email go? | the MX records |
| Is my email set up correctly? | SPF, DKIM and DMARC, and how they combine |
| Am I on a blacklist? | the known blacklists for the sending IP |
| When does my certificate expire? | validity and the chain of the SSL certificate |
| Is my site reachable and fast? | status, response time, redirects and headers |
| Who owns this domain, when does it expire? | the registration details |
| Does the name match the server IP? | the reverse DNS |
Two things to remember. These are lookups only: the checks never change anything, so you can run them while your site is live. And they look from the outside, so they also catch problems you would not notice on the server itself, such as a record that is only correct in your own cache.
Four requests you can copy
Email that does not arrive:
Check the email setup for this domain: MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC. For each
part say whether it is correct and what is missing. Change nothing yet.
After a DNS change:
I changed the A record an hour ago. Check whether that is visible worldwide
yet and say how long it can still lag behind.
Certificates and availability in one go:
Go through my three websites: are they reachable, how fast do they respond,
and when do the certificates expire? Put it in a table.
Site feels slow:
Measure the response time of my home page and the redirects a visitor goes
through. If there is an unnecessary step in between, show it.
Notice the pattern: you say what you want to know and whether it is allowed to change anything. That last part saves a round trip, because an assistant that sees the outcome usually wants to get to work straight away.
DNS: why a change is not visible immediately
The most common question after an edit is "why can I not see it yet?". A DNS record has a validity period, the TTL. Resolvers all over the world are allowed to keep handing out the old answer until that time is up. The propagation check shows which resolvers already have the new answer, and the assistant can work out how long it can still lag behind.
Practical consequence: if you are moving a site or switching your email, lower the TTL a day in advance. The assistant can check that for you too.
Email in spam: the four things to run through
With "my email ends up in spam" it is nearly always one of four things, and you look at them in this order:
- SPF is missing, or does not name the sending server.
- DKIM is missing or the signature does not match. If you do not know the selector, in DirectAdmin it is
x. - DMARC is absent, or it is set to reject while SPF and DKIM are not right yet.
- The sending IP is on a blacklist, often because of a hacked account or a form that lets spam through.
The assistant can check all four and then tell you what to change in DNS management in DirectAdmin. If you want it to make the change as well, say so separately; the checks themselves change nothing.
Common mistakes
"I asked for a check and it started changing things." The checks never change anything, but afterwards the assistant may propose and carry out changes. Put "change nothing yet" in your request if you only want to look first.
"I checked my email while I send from another address." If you send through an external newsletter or form service, that service has to be in your SPF. A check on your own server alone says little then; name the service in your request.
"Everything came back green, but my email still ends up in spam." Technology is one side. Content, a sudden spike in volume or a list full of old addresses all weigh in. Ask the assistant about the recent rejections in your account's mail log.
"I thought a blacklist was about my domain." They are nearly always about the IP address of the sending server. On shared hosting another account can affect you; report it, because then it is ours to fix.
"I switched off Network checks to save tokens." You cannot: this pack is always on, just like the knowledge of the platform itself. See Skills on and off for what you can choose.