Demystifying Feb 2024 Google Email Guidelines

Kenneth (Admin) SendSteed

In the past 2 weeks, we have received many inquires about the need to comply with the new Google Email Guidelines.

You can learn about the new guideline here.

The common questions are:

1) Do I need my own domain to use SendSteed now?

2) Can I continue to use gmail for SendSteed?

3) Do I need DKIM, SPF and DMARC for my domain?

4) Is SendSteed ready for the new changes?

Today, I will answer these four questions.

1) Do I need my own domain to use SendSteed now?

No, you don’t.

I understand that there are autoresponder companies that say you must register a domain name to use their service.

I can’t speak for other companies. But if you use SendSteed, there is no need to.

This is because we do not send out emails using your email address.

Let me explain why…

Let’s say your email is admin@yourwebsite.com. SendSteed will send your emails using the email address admin.yourwebsite.com@sendsteed.com.

Take a close look at the above email address.

Although it looks like your email, it is not. It is simply a Sendsteed email address.

Don’t understand? Let me illustrate with this…

Imagine you work in a company called Amazona.com. You are given a corporate email address. Imagine the company uses your name as the email address, which is pretty common. Then imagine that your name is John Adam Mo. Your corporate email address will be john.adam.mo@amazona.com.

See how admin.yourwebsite.com@sendsteed.com and john.adam.mo@amazona.com are technically the same?

I hope through the above illustration, you can understand that regardless of what email address you use, the email that is used to send out your SendSteed emails will always be a SendSteed.com email address.

2) Can I continue to use gmail for SendSteed?

Yes, you can, for the reason explained above.

3) Do I need DKIM, SPF and DMARC for my domain?

If you are using SendSteed, regardless of what email address you use, you don’t need any of those, for the reason explained above.

SendSteed.com will need DKIM, SPF and DMARC, but that’s our problem, not yours.

However, if you send out emails using other mailing system or using your own domain hosting, you will have to check with that mailing system or your hosting support.

4) Is SendSteed ready for the new changes?

To my best knowledge, our current practice already complies with the new rules.

There is nothing we or you have to do for the new changes.

For your assurance, below are the 3 most important requirements in the new guidelines.

Requirement 1: DKIM, SPF and DMARC Authentication

Below is the screenshot from Google Postmaster.

You can see that Sendsteed.com is DKIM, SPF and DMARC authenticated.

Requirement 2: Maintain below 0.1% Spam Rates, never above 0.3%

Sendsteed.com spam rate is at 0.1% consistently.

Requirement 3: One Click Unsubscribe link

One click unsubscribe can be tested by yourself. Just try sending a broadcast to yourself.

A Final Remark

I have been reading and re-reading the new guidelines. My answers above are based on my interpretation of the guidelines.

But I may be wrong.

Nevertheless, Google is not unreasonable.

It has given email senders enough time to react.

From February to April, a small percentage of the emails that do not comply with the new rules will receive 4.0.X temporary error. The actual rejection will only begin in April.

We will be monitoring bounced emails very closely from 1st Feb onwards. If there is a need to change anything, I will inform you asap.

41 thoughts to “Demystifying Feb 2024 Google Email Guidelines”

  2. Thanks Kenneth. That is my interpretation, too, but it’s good to have it confirmed. I understand Yahoo are bringing in similar changes, if they haven’t already, but the same advice should apply.

    Reply

    1. Yahoo has been practicing most of the changes. Generally, Yahoo is the strictest amongst all email providers. Google has been the lax one. Now Google has tighten its security.

      Reply

  5. Thanks for this update and break-down Kenneth. I knew you would be on top of things. Just more reasons for people to use LeadsLeap. And if they’re not, why not?

    Reply

  7. Thank you very much Kenneth it is great to know that you have our back and that you are constantly upgrading your platform to ensure proper delivery of our emails. God bless you.

    Reply

  9. Thanks Kenneth, the only good advice I have had during an extremely stressful month.

    Given the lack of help I have had from other auto-responders to make my domain compliant, I will recommend all future clients to use LeadsLeap.

    Reply

  10. Kenneth, your update is greatly appreciated. It instills confidence in me that LeadsLeap is steering us in the right direction.

    Reply

  12. Thanks for the updates! Before these new rules, I knew we were in good hands with Leadsleap. I believe even more people will switch to Leadsleap because of the issue with other companies requiring customers to register a domain just to create a personalized email address.

    Reply

  14. Right on the mark Kenneth.

    Have spent a few months digesting this subject and complex as it is, you have done your homework.

    Reply

  16. Thanks Kenneth, for explaining so clearly, and I am happy to learn that we will not be needing any Domain names.

    Reply

  18. Thanks for the update Kenneth. Over the years I have been a member of many online companies, but I have never felt as welcomed and as comfortable as I do with LeadsLeap. Congratulations on building a perfect online business for everybody to enjoy.

    Reply

  20. Having messed around trying to send from my own domain and falling foul of the various acronyms, I am grateful to Kenneth for Sendsteed.

    Good explanation too. Many thanks.

    Reply

  23. Hi Kenneth, thanks for the heads up. But I didn’t see in your explanation that these guidelines are for mailers which consistently mail at least 5000 emails per occurrence. Now, I haven’t quite reached this threshold yet, but wonder among all the hype, what about guidelines for the rest of us?

    thanks,

    Rick

    Reply

    1. You have to understand that the new Google guideline is nothing new. Most of them have been the best practices for mailing, not just for mass mailing.

      If you are sending mass mails through your domain name, meaning you are doing what SendSteed is doing, except you volume is less than 5000 a day, you should still comply. You are not doing this for Google but for other email providers.

      The reason why Google has to set a minimum of 5000 a day, I feel, is because of the 0.1% spam rate. If the sample size is small, the fluctuation will be big.

      In any case, you should practice the ‘best practices’. If you think you are below 5000 now and can do anything, you are set to fail, maybe not in google but in other email providers.

      Also, if your list is not clean (say you didn’t practice double opt-in), hence you have high spam rate, when you reach 5000 a day, your spam rate is not going to change suddenly. In fact, it will be worse, because your list is not clean. Try to clean your list by then will be too late, because there is no effective way to clean a list, unless you do it right since day 1.

      Reply

  27. Thanks so much! I’ve been having a heck of a time trying to get my Aweber and domain connected, but now I’ll just use Sendsteed. Been looking for reasons to drop aweber and this is another one!

    Thanks again!

    Reply

  30. This is very helpful. Thank you.

    Currently struggling to get my aweber account updated. I wish I could move all those lists over to LL. That’s a project on my list of to-dos to figure out if it’s possible.

    Reply

    1. Hi Kat, we do not allow list import from other sources due to the risk of importing spam trap emails.

      To ensure high delivery rate for all members, we have to fully comply with the COI standard.

      What you can do is create an opt in offer, send the offer to your lists. Over time, all your active subscribers will be in your SendSteed list.

      Reply

  32. I always share with my subscribers, and not only, all the wonderful things offered by LeadsLeap.
    All explanations and information are understandable to everyone.
    Thank you Kenneth for the care and support offered to LL members.

    Reply

  33. Thank you so much this is much needed and in time I been needing something like this for a very long time and it came to me just in time thank you again

    Reply

Login To Comment (Login here)

Not a member? Join here free