Email Deliverability

WordPress emails going to spam? Let's fix it properly.

WordPress and WooCommerce emails not arriving, going to spam, or getting flagged? We audit your setup, fix the cause, and prove it works.

Free assessment, fixed quote. Standalone service — no care plan required.

Recognise any of these?

  • WooCommerce order emails not arriving

    Order confirmations and shipping notifications going to spam — or not arriving at all. Customers think their order hasn't gone through.

  • Contact form replies going to spam

    You reply to an enquiry and it lands in the customer's junk folder. Or your automated acknowledgement never arrives.

  • Email campaigns underperforming

    Open rates have dropped. Google Postmaster Tools shows a poor sender reputation.

  • Authentication warnings

    Your platform flags missing SPF, DKIM or DMARC records. Or a third party has told you your domain isn't set up correctly.

Why it happens

Why WordPress email goes wrong

Three common root causes — usually a combination of them. Diagnosis first, fixes second.

WordPress is sending email the wrong way

Out of the box, WordPress uses PHP’s built-in mail() function. This works — but most hosting environments aren’t configured to make the result deliverable. The email leaves your server with no authentication, no verified sender identity and no sending reputation.

The fix is to route email through a proper SMTP relay — a dedicated sending service with a verified identity and a maintained reputation.

Your domain has no email authentication

SPF, DKIM and DMARC are DNS records that tell receiving mail servers your email is legitimate and authorised. Without them — or with them misconfigured — email either gets flagged immediately or silently filtered.

These records need to be set up correctly for every domain you send from.

Your sending IP has a poor reputation

On shared hosting your site shares an IP address with dozens or hundreds of other sites. If any of them send spam, the IP’s reputation suffers — and so does your deliverability.

Moving to a dedicated relay with its own clean IP solves this.

What's included

What a free audit covers

We look at your complete email setup — not just the WordPress configuration, but DNS records, your hosting environment, your sending history where visible, and what your emails actually look like to receiving mail servers.

We check and fix

  • SPF record — present, correct, and not over-permissive
  • DKIM signing — is your mail being signed, and is the key valid
  • DMARC policy — is it set, and is it configured appropriately
  • WordPress SMTP configuration — are you using a proper relay or PHP mail()
  • WooCommerce email settings — correct from addresses, reply-to, and headers
  • mail-tester.com score — run before and after so you can see the difference

We configure

  • SMTP relay connection to your preferred sending service
  • DNS records if they need adding or updating
  • WordPress and WooCommerce email settings

What you get at the end: a mail-tester.com result showing a clean score — proof the fix worked, not just our word for it.

We don't cover

  • Ongoing email campaign management
  • Email list hygiene and list building
  • Newsletter template design
  • Bulk sending platform setup (Mailchimp and similar)
How it works

How the audit works

01

Get in touch

Tell us what’s happening — which emails aren’t arriving, what platform you’re sending from, and any error messages you’ve seen. A sentence or two is enough.

02

Free audit

We look at your setup — DNS records, WordPress configuration, WooCommerce settings, sending logs where available. A real look at your specific setup, not a generic checklist.

03

We fix it

We implement the fixes — SMTP relay, authentication records, WordPress configuration. We’ll keep you updated as we go.

04

Proof it works

We run a mail-tester.com test and share the result. You can see exactly what changed and why.

Tools we use

A proper transactional relay, not just a plugin.

Postmark Mailgun Amazon SES WP Mail SMTP Google Postmaster Tools

We recommend and configure a proper transactional sending service — matched to your volume and budget — and we make sure authentication is set up correctly at the DNS level.

Standalone service

You don’t need to be on a care plan to use this service.

Already on a care plan? Email deliverability is something we check as part of onboarding — if something’s wrong, we’ll catch it early.

A better way to send campaigns

Still paying Mailchimp prices? There's a better way.

If you’re sending newsletters or campaigns and paying Mailchimp — or any similar platform — by subscriber count, you’re almost certainly paying more than you need to.

We set up Sendy with Amazon SES for clients who want a proper self-hosted email platform. Sendy is a one-off purchase. Amazon SES charges around £0.10 per 1,000 emails. For a 10,000-subscriber list sending twice a month, that’s roughly £2 in sending costs — compared with £100+ per month on Mailchimp.

A bit more involved than a Mailchimp signup, but the economics make it worth it for most businesses sending regular campaigns.

  • One-off Sendy software cost, not monthly SaaS
  • Sending costs pennies per thousand via Amazon SES
  • Full deliverability control on your own infrastructure
  • We handle setup, configuration and testing
Ask about Sendy + SES setup

Typical cost — 10,000 subscribers, 2 sends/month

Mailchimp
£100+/mo
Billed by subscriber count. Scales with list size.
Sendy + SES
~£2/mo
Amazon SES at ~£0.10 per 1,000 emails. Sendy is a one-off licence.

Save £1,000+ per year on a 10k list.

Setup is more involved than a Mailchimp signup. For regular senders, it pays back in weeks.

Illustrative figures. Actual costs vary with list size and send volume.

Common questions

FAQ

How long does it take?

Most fixes take around an hour once we have access to the relevant accounts — WordPress admin, your DNS provider, and the sending service if one is already in place. More complex situations take longer, but it’s rarely a multi-day job.

Do I need to change email provider?

Not necessarily. If you’re happy with your current setup, we’ll work with it. We’ll recommend moving to a dedicated relay if that’s the right fix, but we’re not tied to any particular provider. We use Amazon SES internally, and we’ve worked extensively with Mailgun and SendGrid.

Will this fix my campaign open rates?

Deliverability fixes help if the root cause is authentication or reputation problems. Open rates are also affected by list quality, subject lines, send frequency and audience engagement. We’ll be honest with you about what a deliverability fix will and won’t improve.

My emails were working fine until recently — what changed?

Common triggers: a WordPress or plugin update that changed email settings, a hosting migration, stricter filtering policies from Gmail and Yahoo (February 2024 changes significantly tightened bulk-sender requirements), or a shared hosting IP that has been flagged. The audit identifies which applies.

Do you work on sites hosted elsewhere?

Yes — email deliverability is a standalone service with no hosting requirement. We’ll work on your site wherever it’s hosted.

Get in touch

Describe the problem.

You don't need a detailed brief. Tell us what you're trying to achieve and we'll tell you honestly if we can help.

Start a conversation
Free audit

Emails not arriving? Get a free audit.

Tell us what’s happening. We’ll take a look, tell you what’s wrong, and fix it.

No diagnosis fees. No obligation. Just a straight answer about what’s causing the problem.