“Am I blacklisted?” “What is a good IP blacklist checker?” “How can I find out if my email is being blocked?” These are common, frustrating, and perplexing questions. First, let’s clear up blocklist vs blacklist: these lists are more properly called “blocklists”, not “blacklists”. This is because they are lists which are used to block email spam, not to blacklist people. However we recognize that many people, and even some services, use the more common “blacklist”. (Don’t be common!) Anyways, often people want to determine whether their email server (the computer from which their email is sent) is listed on a blocklist. But how do you find out whether your email is being blocked by a blocklist?
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What is a Good IP Blacklist Checker (Blocklist Checker)?
At this time, one of the best places to look to see whether you are on a blocklist is at BlacklistAlert.org. (Yeah, yeah, we know, blacklist vs blocklist – we told you that even some services use it.) While we don’t specifically endorse any such service, BlacklistAlert has consistently returned reliable results.
Other services that generally will return reliable results include DNSChecker.org, and WhatIsMyIPAddress.com.
Why Am I On a Blocklist?
In order to get removed from a blocklist you will first need to determine why you were added to the blocklist in the first place. About 98% of the time it’s because whomever maintains the blocklist believes that there is spam coming from your IP address and, in our experience, at least 85% or so of the time there actually is spam coming from that IP address, whether you were the one sending it or not. (The other percents of the time it is often because there used to be spam coming from that IP address.)
Most often these are driven by spam complaints from the recipients, or spam traps being hit, or a combination of the two.
How Can I Get My Email Off a Blocklist?
First, you have to fix whatever caused you to end up on the blocklist in the first place. More often than not this means removing people from your list who are not opening your email, as well as removing all email addresses that are bouncing.
Then, if you are on just one or two blocklists, you may be able to go to the blocklist’s website and request removal. Or, you may not, it depends on the blocklist.
If you are on more than a couple, or if there seems no way to get yourself removed, or if you would rather focus on other aspects of your business and leave your email deliverability to us, we can also get you removed from the blocklists (of course you will still need to fix whatever is causing it). If that’s something you’d like to explore go here to get started.
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