

Yahoo Mail deliverability FAQs

We know it's important that your emails reach your intended recipients. Here are answers to some of the most common deliverability questions we get from mailers sending to Yahoo Mail.

Frequently asked questions

How can I get my email delivered to Yahoo Mail inboxes?

The short answer is there’s no way to ensure consistent inbox delivery.

Yahoo understands email is a mission critical real-time service for all its users. No one wants to miss an email or have it delayed. We work very hard to ensure a high quality of service so the right mail reaches the right user at the right time.

At the same time, we have to make sure our users are protected from unwanted email, especially spam, viruses and malware. To that end, we have a complex anti-spam filtering system that weeds out unwanted email before it reaches the inbox.

How does Yahoo Mail determine a mailer's overall reputation?

Yahoo Mail considers many factors including, but not limited to:

  • IP address reputation
  • URL reputation
  • Domain reputation
  • Sender reputation
  • Autonomous System Number (ASN) reputation
  • DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) signatures
  • Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) authentication

Even if you have a reputable sending history, users can vote your email as spam and affect your overall reputation. So, if you want to get your emails to the inbox, the best practice is to send relevant content to the users who want it and have opted to receive it.

Can Yahoo whitelist my IPs?

No. The term whitelisting tends to imply guaranteed inbox delivery. Yahoo doesn't have a whitelisting program.

We do have a program where bulk senders can submit their IPs for review. If you're a new sender, or have new IPs, we ask that you submit an application for review.

Based on our review, we'll modify your reputation in our systems if needed. Keep in mind that still doesn't guarantee inbox delivery

Why is my email going to Yahoo Mail's spam folder?

As we mentioned earlier, there are several factors that determine which emails land in the inbox and which goes to spam. Even if Yahoo’s systems aren't filtering out the email, the user may have specifically blocked certain domains and email addresses. These user rules will override determination by Yahoo’s spam filtering system and still put the email in the spam folder. Again, this is entirely between the sender and user. If your emails are being delivered to the spam folder, we encourage you to review your email sending practices.

What actions can a sender take to improve delivery to Yahoo?

Review our best practices for senders for tips on how to ensure optimal deliverability.

Here's a sample of what you'll find in the help article linked above:

  • Opt out users who have marked your email as spam in the past. Enroll in the Yahoo Complaint Feedback Loop program to get that information.
  • Check your email streams. Use separate IPs and streams, depending on your email content type. If the IPs you're sending your presumably valid email from are also sending unsolicited commercial email, your sending reputation can be impacted.
  • Make sure your emails are DKIM signed. DKIM signature helps Yahoo authenticate that email is safe, secure and from the senders who claim to send it.
  • Control your email traffic. If you send emails at a certain rate and suddenly have a spike of activity, you could get flagged as a compromised sender and marked as spam. Instead, plan your campaign and spread it out over a period of time.
  • Check your email content. If the subject lines are not helpful or appear to be generic, users may not be interested and mark it as spam. When many users mark an email you send as spam, it can impact your overall deliverability.
  • Publish reverse DNS (PTR) records for your sending IPs. Yahoo is more likely to downgrade an IP’s sending reputation if there isn't a reverse DNS entry for your IP address. Not having a reverse DNS entry can cause your mailing IP to look like a dynamically-assigned IP instead of a static mail server.

Why is Yahoo blocking the sending IP I just registered?

As mentioned earlier, Yahoo uses a number of factors to determine deliverability to our users' inboxes. The IP address is only one of the parameters.

There can be other reasons your email may not reach a Yahoo Mail account's inbox including, but not limited to: the sending domain and email address, the URLs in the email, and the email content itself.

Yahoo advises senders to have high-quality overall sending practices to improve deliverability. Our best practices for senders help article, linked above, has more details.

How does DMARC affect my email delivery to Yahoo?

DMARC, an industry consortium to promote safer email and reduce spoofing, is supported by Yahoo. If a sender publishes a DMARC policy, Yahoo will honor it.

DMARC allows senders to specify how receivers can act on email which may not be sent from their domains. Depending on the policy published by the sender it may get rejected, or go to the spam folder or no action may be taken.

Yahoo Mail also publishes a DMARC policy as a sender that guides receivers to reject email that may not be legitimately sent by Yahoo. For more information on this, review our DMARC policy change on the Yahoo Mail blog.