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Mastering Email Deliverability with Google Postmaster Tools

How to Monitor Reputation, Authentication, and Delivery Metrics for Gmail Using Google Postmaster Tools V1 and V2

Google Postmaster Tools is a free service by Google designed for email administrators and high-volume senders. It enables senders to monitor the reputation, authentication, and delivery performance of emails sent to Gmail users.

Why Using Google Postmaster Tools?

  • Monitor your sender reputation

  • Prevent your emails from being marked as spam

  • Improve email security (SPF/DKIM/DMARC)

  • Identify technical delivery issues

Notes:

  • Data displayed in Google Postmaster Tools is shown with a 48-hour delay.

  • In March 2024, Google officially launched Google Postmaster Tools V2, which is now the standard for monitoring your reputation with Gmail.

    • The Domain Reputation and Sending IP Reputation reports are not yet available in V2 and must still be tracked using Postmaster Tools V1.

    • Some reports exist in both V1 and V2 — we have indicated which ones you should review in each version.

🔍 Exploring Metrics in Google Postmaster Tools V1

→ Subdomain reputation

Google Postmaster Tools allows you to keep track of each of your subdomains reputation:

Google Postmaster Tools - Domain reputation

Subdomain reputation is important. It defined your ability to send emails to Gmail users:

Google Postmaster Tools - Reputation levels

→ IP Reputation

If you are using dedicated IPs, you may want to check their reputation:

Google Postmaster Tools - IP Reputation

🔍 Exploring Metrics in Google Postmaster Tools V2

→ Compliance Status

A high-level dashboard summarizing all key factors that impact deliverability with Google’s email services. This is useful to know what should be improved first.

Google Postmaster Tools - Compliance status

→ Spam

The spam complaint rate is a critical metric used by Google to evaluate domain reputation. It directly affects your ability to reach recipients' inboxes. Currently, it is the only available way to track spam complaints within Gmail (learn more here).

Google-defined spam complaint thresholds:

  • Recommended maximum: 0.1%

  • Absolute maximum: 0.3%

Google Postmaster Tools - Spam complaints

Note: A low number of spam complaints combined with a poor sender reputation is not necessarily a positive sign. It may indicate that your emails are not being seen at all — they could be delivered directly to the spam folder — yet they may still cause frustration among recipients.

→ Feedback Loop

Provides occasional insights into spam complaints if your emails include a Feedback-ID header.

Google Postmaster Tools - Feedback loop

Note: The chart may not always display data. This does not necessarily mean there were no complaints.

→ Authentication

Displays results for email authentication protocols:

  • SPF

  • DKIM

  • DMARC

These metrics help verify that your emails are properly configured and protected against phishing and spoofing.

Google Postmaster Tools - Authentication

→ Encryption

Monitors whether your emails are transmitted securely using TLS (Transport Layer Security).

Google Postmaster Tools - Encryption

→ Delivery error

Tracks the percentage of emails that were rejected or temporarily failed compared to all authenticated traffic.

Google Postmaster Tools - Delivery Errors

Useful Links

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