What your email spam score actually means
A spam score estimates how likely a mailbox provider is to filter your email. The useful ones weight what providers actually act on — authentication and reputation — not a list of 'bad words'. Here's how to read yours.
Why mailbox providers enforce this
Old spam-scoring tools (and SpamAssassin-style rules) over-weight content. Modern filtering is dominated by sender identity and reputation. A spam score is only useful if it reflects that hierarchy: authentication first, reputation and hygiene next, content last.
How to fix it
- Treat authentication failures as the highest-priority items — they cap your score no matter how clean everything else is.
- Resolve any blocklist listings on your own sending infrastructure.
- Add a List-Unsubscribe header and keep complaint rates low.
- Only then tune content: text-to-image balance, link quality, no shouting.
- Use a checker that measures inbox placement, not just a rules score, for the real picture.
Don't guess — measure it.
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FAQ
What's a good spam score?
On a 10-point scale, aim for 9-10. But the number matters less than the breakdown — a 7 caused by a DMARC gap is more urgent than a 7 caused by one content rule.
Why does my email get a perfect spam score but still land in spam?
Because content-based spam scores can't see your domain reputation or engagement history. A clean content score with a poor reputation still lands in spam — which is why placement testing matters.
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