Google and Yahoo’s New Email Authentication Policies for 2024

Yahoo and Google users are going to see some major changes in their email systems this upcoming year.  This 2024, both tech companies have decided to strengthen their email security protocols. This is to be accomplished by requiring additional authentication requirements for email. Users can expect to see these changes in full swing by February 2024. 

Email marketing has proven to be a crucial tool to businesses. Email marketing allows businesses to reach out to customers and potential clients. However, the rise in the number of emails being sent out also causes problems. More emails subsequently means an increase in concerns regarding SPAM and other unwanted emails. In response to these concerns, Google and Yahoo plan on putting up some stringent policies regarding email authentication. These are especially true for users who send out an upwards of 5,000 emails daily. 

These requirements primarily aim to assure users that the emails they receive in the inboxes are authentic. More than that, they allow users to easily subscribe and unsubscribe from email lists. Finally, they ensure that inboxes are free from any SPAM or unwanted emails.

Moreover, they plan on implementing the recognized best practices of email deliverability by making users authenticate their emails with SPF, DKIM, and DMARC. Anyone who refuses to comply with these policies will see their emails sent to SPAM, or have their emails blocked or delayed by the system.

What does this mean for email marketing users?

Here’s what you need to know to get ahead of these upcoming Yahoo and Google email authentication changes.

Once the new policies are in place, authentication will be key to ensure your emails don’t bounce or end up in the spam folder. However, it is not enough to configure your Email Sending Domain. You will need to verify that your ‘from addresses’ are using your connected domain. 

Moreover, you need to make sure that your domain is authenticated with the industry standard email authentication protocols: Sender Policy Framework (SPF), Domain-based Message Authentication (DMARC), and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM). Setting these three up will allow users to be verified under Brand Indicators for Message Identification (BIMI). BIMI signifies that emails that are sent through these domains are genuine, indicated by the brand’s logo being displayed alongside the sender’s name when it appears in the inbox.

Mx Toolbox is a tool that allows you to type in your domain in a search box, and complete a Dmarc lookup. It is totally free and comes back with a report that tells you if your Dmarc, Dkim, and SPF are set up properly. If there are any issues, it will show up in the report, along with tools and explanations to help you fix it.

Learn more about Email Authentication in our Email Marketing Workshop 1

Make sure that everyone on your email lists is able to easily subscribe and unsubscribe from your emails. This has been part of the best practices of email marketing for a long time.

Here’s how to send out desirable emails that have a lower chance of getting marked as spam:

Make sure you are sending your recipients relevant and engaging quality content. By all means relate it to your product, service or business, but make sure you are sharing things that your audience can directly relate to. Sending information that is deemed valuable is expected to get better reception and more clicks.

Be aware of how your emails are doing. You can monitor the engagement of your recipients by looking at open and click-through rates. In the same way, have a look as well at your spam complaints. Google users can use Google Postmaster Tools (GPT) for this. This tool allows users track how many people have marked their emails as spam. With this, users should target maintaining a 0.1% spam complaint level. Anything above a 0.3% spam complaint level is expected to be met with delays, as well as bounces, and other performance issues.

Update and clean up your email lists regularly. Do this by removing duplicate and inactive subscribers. It is important to note that sending out emails to a smaller, more engaged list of recipients has proven to be more effective. This is compared to sending to larger lists of unresponsive recipients.

With all the changes to technology nowadays it can seem pretty daunting to keep up with email authentication policies. However, if you want your emails to successfully land in the inboxes of your audience, it’s best to get ahead and prepare for the chances to come. Ultimately, these new email authentication protocols are brought up with the security of users in mind. Of course it intends to protect users from spam and malicious emails. More than that, it executes what has been long known in email marketing as best practices.