domain reputation scoring tool  is one of the leading factors mailbox providers use to determine where your emails land in recipients’ inboxes. Adhering to best practices can help keep your domain reputation healthy, safeguarding your deliverability and boosting your email marketing ROI.

Mailbox providers have their own reputation-scoring systems, and each has its own criteria for evaluating whether a sender is trustworthy or not. For example, Gmail may consider your email sending behavior solid, but Outlook might not. That’s why most ESPs don’t publicly share their reputation scoring systems, and it’s often difficult to get a comprehensive picture of your domain’s health.

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Luckily, there are several tools available to provide a glimpse into your reputation score across multiple mailbox providers. Some, like Google Postmaster Tools, give you a clear view into your reputation as seen by the email provider, including spam complaint rates (try to keep these below 0.5% to avoid getting flagged), blacklist status, and authentication protocols.

Other tools, like Talos Intelligence, offer a more holistic view of your domain reputation, aggregating results from multiple reputation-scoring services and providing a single readout. Finally, services like Microsoft’s Smart Network Data Services (SNDS) act as a sort of mirror to your reputation, showing you a snapshot of your domain’s reputation as seen by the Microsoft server, including complaint rates, spam trap hits, and more.

Unlike IP reputation, which follows your email server, domain reputation is tied to your domain name and follows you wherever you go. That’s why changing your IP address or switching ESPs isn’t always enough to rebuild your domain reputation if it gets hit by a blacklist or otherwise hurt by poor email sending practices.