# Why your emails are marked as spam
Source: https://docs.webgee.com/en/email/why-are-my-emails-being-marked-as-spam



Mail you send arrives in recipients' spam folders. Applies to shared, reseller
and Premium hosting.

Deliverability comes down to four things. Work through them in this order — the
first two account for most cases.

## 1. Authentication [#1-authentication]

Receiving servers check whether you are authorised to send as your domain. A
domain that fails these checks is filtered almost everywhere.

* **SPF** — [Set your SPF record](/en/email/what-are-the-correct-spf-records-when-using-webgee-hosting)
* **DKIM** — enable it under **cPanel → Email Deliverability**
* **DMARC** — [Publish a DMARC record](/en/email/publishing-dmarc-records-on-your-cpanel-domain)

**cPanel → Email Deliverability** validates all three and shows what is wrong.
Start there; if it reports a problem, nothing else you change will matter much.

## 2. How you are sending [#2-how-you-are-sending]

**Authenticate over SMTP.** Sending unauthenticated adds points to the spam score
immediately — see
[Fix "550 Please turn on SMTP Authentication"](/en/email/understanding-and-resolving-the-550-please-turn-on-smtp-authentication-error).

**Do not use PHP `mail()`.** It relays via the server hostname while your
application claims a different From address, and receivers read the mismatch as
spoofing — see [Enable PHP mail()](/en/email/enabling-phpmail-on-your-account)
and [Send WordPress email over SMTP](/en/hosting/wordpress/how-to-send-emails-in-wordpress-using-the-wp-smtp-mail-plugin).

**Send from an address on your own domain.** A From address of
`noreply@gmail.com` sent from your server fails alignment.

## 3. Content [#3-content]

Spam scoring reacts to recognisable patterns:

* Subject lines in capitals, or heavy exclamation marks
* Bulk-mail phrasing — "act now", "limited time", guaranteed returns
* A message that is one large image with almost no text
* Shortened links such as `bit.ly`, which hide the destination

See [Fix "550 This message was classified as SPAM"](/en/email/understanding-and-resolving-the-550-this-message-was-classified-as-spam-error).

## 4. Reputation [#4-reputation]

Sending IP reputation is largely handled for you: outbound mail routes through a
dedicated relay rather than your account's shared IP, so a neighbour's problems
do not become yours — see
[How outbound mail is relayed](/en/email/outbound-mail-relay).

Your **domain's** reputation is yours, and it is damaged by:

* **A compromised mailbox sending spam** — see
  [Fix the 550 5.7.1 \[SS\] rejection](/en/email/fix-550-5-7-1-ss-rejection)
* **Sending to purchased or scraped lists**
* **High complaint rates** from recipients marking mail as spam

## Bulk sending [#bulk-sending]

Do not send campaigns from a normal mailbox. It will be scored as spam
regardless of content, and hit your
[sending limits](/en/email/email-sending-limits). Use a dedicated bulk service —
it handles unsubscribes and reputation, which is the whole point.

## Diagnosing a specific message [#diagnosing-a-specific-message]

Get the [full headers](/en/email/how-to-obtain-email-headers-a-step-by-step-guide)
from a message that was filtered. `Authentication-Results` shows whether SPF,
DKIM and DMARC passed, and the spam score shows how close it was — which tells
you whether you have one problem or several.

## Related [#related]

* [Set your SPF record](/en/email/what-are-the-correct-spf-records-when-using-webgee-hosting)
* [Publish a DMARC record](/en/email/publishing-dmarc-records-on-your-cpanel-domain)
* [How outbound mail is relayed](/en/email/outbound-mail-relay)