What is Google Postmaster Tools
Google Postmaster Tools is a free tool offered by Google that allows you to monitor critical data and information for deliverability, such as: your domain reputation, the sending IP reputation, the spam rate, the configuration of email authentication protocols (DKIM, SPF, DMARC), and any delivery errors.
The tool also offers a Compliance Status to see if your domain and emails sent from the domain meet all the requirements that Google and Yahoo! require for senders - particularly for senders of large volumes of emails. Among these, it is important to maintain a spam rate below 0.3%.
If the majority of your contact list comprises Gmail users, using the Google Postmaster Tools is crucial for you as it can help you effectively prevent deliverability issues.
How to set it up
To use Google Postmaster Tools and benefit from the data provided, ensure that you:
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have a Google account to log in. Access is only allowed through a Google account;
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send a consistent volume of emails to Gmail users. Although Google does not specify an exact number, it is believed that you need to send at least several thousand emails a day to obtain significant data on metrics such as domain or IP reputation.
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have properly authenticated your sending domain with DKIM and DMARC;
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have access to the sending domain's DNS management panel for updating and creating DNS records.
Step 1: Access Google Postmaster Tools
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Go to Google Postmaster Tools. Click on Get Started and enter your Google account credentials to log in;
Step 2: Add the domain
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Upon first access, you will see a Welcome pop-up, click on Get Started. Alternatively, click at the bottom right of the screen on the Add button
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Enter your domain name and click Next to display the domain verification window.
Domain ownership verification is necessary to view data in Google Postmaster Tools.
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Access the DNS management panel of your domain and add a new TXT record with the value generated by GPT;
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Return to the Domain Verification window and click on Verify.
Domains are usually verified immediately, but it may take up to 10 minutes for the domain verification status to update.
After clicking Verify, the domain appears on the domains page in Google Postmaster Tools.
Overview of the interface
Homepage
The homepage lists the domains added and for each the status (verified/unverified) and the date on which it was added.
For each verified domain, you can monitor data related to the most important deliverability metrics through various dashboards. Click on the domain to access them.
From the homepage, it is also possible to access the Compliance Status dashboard to verify whether all sender requirements requested by Google are met for a given domain.
Navigation bar
From the menus in the navigation bar, located at the top of the Google Postmaster Tools window, you can select:
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Domain: only verified domains are listed in the menu.
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Dashboard type: spam rate, domain reputation, IP reputation, Feedback Loop, etc.
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Time range: for which you want to view the dashboard data. You can select the last 7, 30, 60, 90, or 120 days.
Spam rate
The spam rate is the percentage of emails marked as spam by users.
This calculation does not include emails that are directly delivered to the spam folder. For this reason, many of your messages might end up in the spam folder even though you have a low spam rate.
Google calculates the spam rate daily. The objective is to maintain the daily spam rate below 0.1%, avoiding exceeding 0.3% on any given day.
Domain reputation
Domain reputation reflects the likelihood that messages are delivered to the spam folder or the inbox. There are four levels: High, Medium, Low, Bad. A higher reputation means a lower risk of ending up in spam.
Domain reputation is just one of many factors considered by Google to decide whether to classify an email as spam, but it remains a good indicator for assessing the overall health of your deliverability.
Feedback loop
The Feedback Loop (FBL) is a tool that allows senders who send a high volume of emails to identify specific campaigns that have received a high volume of spam complaints from Gmail users.
All emails sent from Magnews automatically include a header called Feedback-ID. The identifiers included in this header are used by Google to track and aggregate spam complaint trends.
The Google Feedback Loop offers only aggregated data on spam complaints. Therefore, it is not possible to trace the user who reported the email as spam.
Authentication
This dashboard shows the percentage of emails that passed the SPF, DKIM, and DMARC authentication checks.
It's advisable to keep an eye on this report to see if there are potential issues with the SPF, DKIM, or DMARC configuration.
Delivery error
This dashboard shows the email traffic rejected (Reject) or temporarily rejected (TempFail) compared to all authenticated traffic coming from the domain. Click on a point in the chart to see the reason for registration and the percentage for each type of error (Reject or Temp-fail).
Compliance status
The Compliance Status is available for all email senders, including bulk senders, who send messages to personal Gmail accounts. A bulk sender is considered a sender that sends approximately 5,000 or more emails to Gmail accounts in a day.
You can review the Compliance Status to verify whether your domain and emails sent comply with sender requirements.
For each requirement, the status can be “Compliant” or “Needs work.“
How to give access to your domain data to other users
You can allow others to view and monitor the Google Postmaster Tools data for your domain. To do this, follow these very few steps:
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Log in to Google Postmaster Tools;
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Hover the mouse over the verified domain you want to share data with someone;
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On the right, click on the 3 dots and then on Manage users;
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At the bottom right, click the Add
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Enter the email address of the person or team you want to access your domain's data.
Remember:
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You can only add people who have a valid Google or Google Workspace account.
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The person you grant access to will not receive a notification, so it's recommended to inform them. However, they will be able to see the domain and its associated data when they log in to Google Postmaster Tools.