Mailbox providers decide where to put your mail by looking at how you have behaved before. The summary of that behaviour is your sender reputation.
Two reputations, plus one
- Domain reputation follows the domain in your From address and DKIM signature. It travels with you if you change IP address.
- IP reputation follows the address you send from. It matters most on dedicated IPs. See IP reputation.
- Account standing is AWS’s own judgment of your Amazon SES account, built from your bounce rate and complaint rate. It is separate from what Gmail thinks, and it is the one that can switch your sending off.
What builds it
Steady volume, low bounces, almost no complaints, passing authentication, and recipients who open, click and reply. Each of those is a small vote of confidence, and they add up slowly.
What breaks it
- A spike of complaints after a mailing nobody expected.
- Hard bounces from an old or bought list.
- Hits on spam traps.
- A sudden jump in volume from a domain with little history.
- Broken authentication that makes your mail look forged.
Reputation falls faster than it rises, which is why you want to notice a problem within hours, not at the end of the month.
Reading the signals
None of the big providers shows you the number. You read it indirectly: rising bounces in your SES events, complaint data from feedback loops, and the spam-rate view in Google Postmaster Tools. Blocklist listings are a third source. See blocklist.
Common questions
Is there one sender score I can look up?
No. Each mailbox provider keeps its own view and does not publish it. Third-party scores are estimates. Postmaster tools from the providers themselves are the closest thing to the real data.
How long does it take to rebuild a damaged reputation?
There is no fixed time. It follows your behaviour: clean the list, send only wanted mail at a steady pace and expect improvement over weeks, not hours.