Google and Yahoo Announce stricter requirements on bulk email senders

Email domain providers Google and Yahoo have both announced that starting 1st February 2024, stricter requirements on senders of bulk email will come into effect. The goal is to keep more spam messages out of their users’ inboxes.

The stricter requirements can be summarised as "no authentication, no access" and are as follows:

• SPF or DKIM authentication;
• DMARC protocol;
• All domains and IP addresses that send email must have valid forward and reverse DNS records (PTR records);
• Reported spam rates in Google Postmaster Tools must remain below 0.3%;
• Comply with RFC5322 (emails in the correct format);
• It is strongly recommended to add ARC headers if you forward a lot or use a lot of mailing lists as DKIM and DMARC might fail then;
• List-ID: headers must be added to emails sent on behalf of a mailing list.

We applaud this move towards less spam and phishing attempts for the end users, and we are happy to reassure you: As Custobar users, you most likely already meet those requirements. During the standard Custobar onboarding process, we ensure that authentication steps are covered, and we have already guided and advised you towards even stronger optional authentication configurations and steps for optimal deliverability.

So what should you do? Well, probably nothing at this stage, but if you have any concerns, feel free to reach out to us at support@custobar.com.