Reputation Monitoring
Track and maintain your sender reputation for optimal email deliverability
Reputation Monitoring
NorthRelay continuously monitors your sender reputation and automatically detects delivery issues. Your reputation score directly affects whether your emails land in the inbox or get filtered to spam.
Understanding Sender Reputation
Every email you send contributes to your sender reputation -- a score that mailbox providers (Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo, etc.) use to decide whether to accept, filter, or reject your messages. NorthRelay tracks this internally and provides a real-time view in your dashboard.
A high reputation means:
- Better inbox placement rates
- Fewer emails landing in spam
- Higher delivery speeds (less throttling by receivers)
- Protection of the shared sending IP everyone relies on
Reputation Score
Your reputation score starts at 100 and adjusts based on your sending behavior. The score is recalculated hourly via automated snapshots.
Score Ranges
| Range | Status | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 90-100 | Excellent | Top-tier deliverability. Keep doing what you are doing. |
| 70-89 | Good | Healthy sending. Minor improvements possible. |
| 50-69 | Fair | Deliverability may be impacted. Review your practices. |
| 30-49 | Poor | Significant delivery issues. Immediate action needed. |
| 0-29 | Critical | Most emails will be rejected or filtered. Sending may be restricted. |
Score Calculation
The score is computed from a base of 100 with deductions based on negative signals:
| Factor | Weight | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Bounce Rate | High | Percentage of emails that hard-bounced (invalid addresses) |
| Spam Complaints | High | Percentage of recipients who marked your email as spam |
| Delivery Failures | Medium | Percentage of emails that failed to deliver (timeouts, rejections) |
| Engagement | Low | Open and click rates relative to your sending volume |
Deductions are proportional. For example, a 5% bounce rate has a larger impact than a 1% bounce rate. The formula weights recent activity more heavily than historical data to reflect your current sending health.
Dashboard Overview
Navigate to Dashboard > Reputation to see:
Current Score
A large gauge displays your current score with color coding (green, yellow, orange, red) and the trend direction (improving, stable, declining) compared to 24 hours ago.
Score History
A line chart shows your daily reputation score over the past 30 days. Use this to spot trends and correlate score changes with sending activity or incident events.
Active Incidents
A list of any currently open incidents that are affecting your reputation, with severity indicators and recommended actions.
Key Metrics
Four metric cards show your current:
- Bounce Rate -- with threshold indicator
- Spam Complaint Rate -- with threshold indicator
- Delivery Success Rate -- percentage of emails accepted by receivers
- Engagement Rate -- opens and clicks as a percentage of delivered emails
Incident Detection
NorthRelay automatically detects problems and creates incidents when metrics cross defined thresholds.
Incident Types
| Type | Trigger | Description |
|---|---|---|
HIGH_BOUNCE_RATE | Bounce rate exceeds threshold | Too many emails are bouncing, indicating list quality issues |
SPAM_COMPLAINTS | Complaint rate exceeds threshold | Recipients are marking your emails as spam |
HIGH_FAILURE_RATE | Delivery failure rate exceeds threshold | Emails are failing to deliver due to server rejections or timeouts |
SCORE_DROP | Score drops significantly in a short period | Sudden reputation decline detected, even if no single metric is over threshold |
Severity Levels
| Severity | Meaning | Action |
|---|---|---|
| WARNING | A metric has crossed its warning threshold | Review your sending practices and contact lists |
| CRITICAL | A metric has reached a severe level | Immediate action required to prevent delivery disruption |
Thresholds
| Metric | Warning | Critical |
|---|---|---|
| Bounce Rate | > 3% | > 8% |
| Spam Complaint Rate | > 0.1% | > 0.3% |
| Delivery Failure Rate | > 5% | > 15% |
| Score Drop (24h) | > 15 points | > 30 points |
Auto-Resolution
Incidents automatically resolve when the triggering metric returns below its warning threshold. You do not need to manually close incidents. The resolution is noted in the incident history with a timestamp.
Improving Your Reputation
If Your Bounce Rate Is High
- Clean your contact list. Remove addresses that have hard-bounced. NorthRelay automatically adds hard bounces to your suppression list.
- Use double opt-in. Require email confirmation before adding contacts to your list.
- Validate emails at collection. Use email syntax validation on signup forms.
- Remove inactive subscribers. Contacts who have not engaged in 6+ months are more likely to become invalid.
If Your Spam Complaint Rate Is High
- Only send to opted-in recipients. Never purchase email lists.
- Include a visible unsubscribe link. Make it easy to opt out -- this reduces complaints.
- Set expectations at signup. Tell subscribers what content they will receive and how often.
- Honor unsubscribes immediately. Process opt-outs within the same sending cycle.
- Segment your audience. Send relevant content to each group rather than blasting everyone.
If Your Delivery Failure Rate Is High
- Check your DNS configuration. Use the Pre-Flight Check to validate SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records.
- Verify your sending domain. Unverified domains have lower trust with receivers.
- Check the Blocklist Monitor. Your IP or domain may be listed on a blocklist.
- Reduce sending volume temporarily. If you are being throttled, slow down and gradually ramp back up.
If Your Score Dropped Suddenly
- Check for new incidents. The incidents panel will tell you which metric triggered the drop.
- Review recent sending activity. Did you send to a new or untested list?
- Check for infrastructure issues. Use the Connectivity Doctor to verify SMTP connectivity.
Best Practices
- Warm up new domains gradually. Start with small volumes (100-500/day) and increase over 2-4 weeks.
- Monitor your dashboard weekly. Catch trends before they become incidents.
- Keep bounce rate under 2%. This is the industry standard for healthy sending.
- Keep complaint rate under 0.08%. Gmail's threshold for filtering is 0.1%.
- Segment by engagement. Send more frequently to engaged contacts, less to inactive ones.
- Authenticate everything. SPF, DKIM, and DMARC should all pass for every email.
Related
- Diagnostic Tools for troubleshooting delivery issues
- Domain Verification for setting up proper authentication
- Sending Infrastructure for how NorthRelay protects its sending IP
- Plans & Pricing for tier-specific reputation features