Email deliverability questions, answered in plain English.

An Email Health Check is a practical review of the technical setup behind your business email. It checks whether your domain, DNS records and email authentication are configured correctly, so your messages have the best possible chance of being trusted by receiving mail servers.

It is for UK small businesses, sole traders, charities and professional firms that send email from their own domain and want clear advice rather than technical guesswork.

The £99 check covers DNS and nameservers, MX records, SPF, common DKIM selectors, DMARC, basic blacklist/domain reputation signals, plain-English findings and recommended next steps. For the fuller report, we also ask for a real test email so headers can be analysed.

No. Nobody credible can guarantee inbox placement. Mailbox providers use their own filtering systems. We focus on finding and fixing the technical setup issues that commonly damage trust and deliverability.

Email deliverability is the likelihood that your messages reach the recipient rather than being rejected, delayed or placed in junk. It depends on domain setup, authentication, sender reputation, content and the recipient provider’s filtering rules.

Common causes include missing or incorrect SPF, DKIM or DMARC records, poor domain reputation, blacklist signals, misconfigured DNS, suspicious content, or the way your website/application sends mail.

Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo and company mail gateways all assess mail differently. One recipient may accept a message while another treats the same setup as risky.

Bounces can be caused by recipient address problems, DNS mistakes, SPF/DKIM/DMARC failures, blacklisting, mailbox limits, blocked servers or routing problems.

SPF is a DNS record that lists which mail servers are allowed to send email for your domain. If it is missing, too broad or incorrect, some messages may look less trustworthy.

DKIM adds a cryptographic signature to email so receiving servers can check that the message was authorised by your domain and was not altered in transit.

DMARC tells receiving servers what to do when SPF or DKIM checks fail and helps align your From address with authenticated sending sources.

For modern business email, yes. They work together. SPF alone is not enough, especially when using Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, CRMs, newsletters, websites and transactional mail providers.

DKIM uses selectors, and the selector is not always obvious from public DNS. A real test email reveals the selector and whether DKIM actually passed.

Website forms often fail because the web server sends email as your domain without being authorised in SPF/DKIM, or because the From/Reply-To setup is wrong.

Yes. WooCommerce order notifications can fail due to hosting mail limits, SMTP plugin settings, sender authentication, spam filtering or DNS alignment issues.

Yes. We can review the domain authentication and DNS records used by Microsoft 365, Google Workspace and common third-party sending tools.

Yes. Marketing platforms often need their own domain authentication records. Incorrect setup can affect campaign delivery and sometimes domain reputation.

We combine public DNS checks with real-world evidence from a test email. DNS tells us what should happen; the message headers show what actually happened.

A test email lets us inspect SPF, DKIM, DMARC alignment, sending IP, mail path, Return-Path, Authentication-Results and other clues that public DNS alone cannot show.

No. The initial health check does not need your mailbox password. A test email can be sent to us without giving login access.

We can check basic domain reputation and blacklist signals. Production blacklist checks should run server-side because some providers block browser-based DNS queries.

Yes. The Email Health Check is a fixed-price diagnostic report. Fixing issues is separate and quoted only if needed.

You complete payment, provide your domain and contact details, then send a test email to the testing address we provide. We review the evidence and produce the report.

The first version should be treated as manual/semi-automated. A sensible target is same or next working day once all details and the test email are received.

The £99 check reports the findings and recommendations. If you want us to implement fixes, that becomes a Delivery Fix quote.

That is still useful. You get reassurance, a record of the checks, and any smaller improvements that may reduce future risk.

No. For the health check we only need a test message and its technical headers. Do not send private customer content.

Usually your domain, contact email, business name, email provider if known, a description of the problem, and one test email.

The service should collect only what is needed for the report. Access to DNS, hosting or Microsoft/Google admin should only be requested later if you ask us to fix something.

Not for the initial report. They may be needed later if changes must be made to DNS, hosting, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace or website settings.

The report prioritises findings by risk and business impact. You can fix them yourself, pass them to your IT provider, or ask Email Desk to quote for the work.

Yes, subject to access and scope. Fixes are quoted separately because every domain and provider setup is different.

Sometimes the recipient’s filtering is the main cause. We will say so where the evidence points that way and avoid pretending DNS changes can fix everything.

Yes. Once the first offer is proven, Inbox Confidence monitoring could check key records periodically and alert when something changes.