Domain Reputation and Domain Age

Both domain reputation and domain age are crucial factors that determine the email deliverability.

Here, we’ll try to briefly explain the differences between these two to help you get the most out of our campaigns!

What is Domain Reputation?

If you’ve ever read or watched Lord of the Rings, you probably remember that Frodo was chosen to carry the ring, because he was less likely to be corrupted by its evil. Domain reputation is something similar. This means that your emails are more likely to be delivered to your prospects’ inboxes if you have a good domain reputation.

This will signal to the Internet Service Providers that your emails are important and beneficial for your prospects. Also, with the domain reputation, you are proving your “worthiness” to the Mailbox providers. This is vital because both, the ISPs and the mailbox providers are the ones who can decide to land your email in the inbox, or the spam/junk folder.

A domain's reputation is affected by several factors, but some of the most important are:

1. Blacklists If your prospects often mark your emails as spam or junk, this can severely affect the domain’s reputation, decreasing your chances of getting to the prospects’ inboxes in the future. Therefore, it is important that you are reaching out to the right people, by crafting the right content.

2. Lousy email engagement This can also decline your domain’s reputation. How? Negative signals are sent to the ISPs, every time a domain has higher unsubscribe rates and lower open rates.

3. Sudden bursts of emails When it comes to the number of daily sends, if you haven’t used your domain for sending a larger number of emails, it would be better to start with a lower volume and gradually increase your sending volume in the following days. A domain's reputation is highly dependent on the consistency and volume of emails sent.

What is Domain age?

Domain age is exactly what it refers to. It’s the age of your domain and indicates how long the domain has been used. If your domain’s age is 2 years, that means that it has been initially activated in 2020.

Search engines, like Google, can check how long a domain has been in use as well as how long the website attached to the domain has been active. In their world, an older website with an established domain shows more credibility than a newly established website with a brand-new domain. Why is this important? Because domain age is also one of the first things spam filters check. It’s easier for established domains with a positive reputation to have successful email campaigns.

Just remember that all these things go hand in hand. And one can’t guarantee excellent deliverability on their own. After all, you could have a 30-year-old domain, but your messages can still end up in the spam folder if the domain has a bad reputation. So, taking care of your overall domain reputation is needed, as this increases the chances that you’ll be able to get your emails into your prospects’ inboxes instead of the junk folder.