Domain reputation
Domain reputation is the trust score mailbox providers assign to your sending domain based on its authentication, sending history, engagement and complaint signals. Unlike IP reputation, it follows the domain wherever it sends, which is why it has become the dominant reputation signal as senders share pooled IPs.
How it works
Providers track how recipients treat mail from your domain — opens, replies, spam complaints, deletions without reading — plus authentication (SPF, DKIM, DMARC) and volume consistency. Positive engagement builds the score slowly; spikes, complaints and spam-trap hits erode it fast.
Why it matters
Because domain reputation travels with the domain, damage on one mailbox or subdomain can affect your whole domain's mail. Many teams send cold outreach from separate sending domains to protect their primary brand domain if reputation is harmed.
How Autocloz handles it
Autocloz protects domain reputation with mailbox warmup, SPF/DKIM/DMARC monitoring, per-domain sending caps and rotation, and bounce/complaint tracking — so volume scales only as fast as the domain's reputation can safely support.
FAQ
What is the difference between domain and IP reputation?
IP reputation is tied to the sending IP address; domain reputation is tied to your domain and follows it across IPs. As shared and pooled IPs became common, providers weight domain reputation more heavily, so protecting the domain is now paramount.
Should I use a separate domain for cold outreach?
Many teams do. Sending cold volume from a dedicated sending domain (or subdomain) isolates reputation risk, so if outreach reputation is damaged it doesn't drag down your primary brand domain's transactional and corporate mail.
Related terms
Mailbox warmup is the practice of gradually increasing a new email account's sending volume while generating positive engagement (opens, replies, moving mail out of spam) so mailbox providers build trust in the sender before real campaigns ramp up.
Sender reputation is the trust score mailbox providers assign to your sending domain and IP based on how recipients react to your mail — opens, replies, spam complaints, bounces and spam-trap hits. A high reputation lands you in the inbox; a low one routes you to spam or blocks you.
Inbox placement rate (IPR) is the percentage of delivered emails that actually land in the primary inbox rather than the spam/junk folder or a tab like Promotions. Unlike 'delivered' (which only means accepted by the server), IPR measures whether a human is likely to see the message.
IP warmup is the process of gradually increasing sending volume from a new or dormant dedicated IP address while maintaining high engagement, so mailbox providers build trust in that IP before it sends full volume. Sending large volume from a cold IP triggers throttling or spam-foldering because providers have no history to trust.