# Deliverability & reputation

> Read your sending metrics, understand the bounce and complaint thresholds that matter, act on recommendations, and recover if sending gets paused.

Source: https://knowledge.estage.com/email/deliverability/
Part of the ESTAGE knowledge base (https://knowledge.estage.com). Full corpus: https://knowledge.estage.com/llms-full.txt

---
**Deliverability** is the difference between email you sent and email that arrived. The card of
that name on **Settings → Email sending** is where you watch it — and where you'll see trouble
coming before it becomes a suspension.

It appears once your [domain is authenticated](/email/domain-authentication/). Before that there
is nothing real to measure.

## The numbers

Six tiles, with a **30 days / All time** toggle at the top right:

| Tile | What it counts |
| --- | --- |
| **Sent** | Emails handed to the mail provider |
| **Delivered** | Accepted by the receiving server, with the delivery rate |
| **Opens** | Recipients who opened, with the open rate |
| **Clicks** | Recipients who clicked a link, with the click rate |
| **Bounces** | Couldn't be delivered, with the bounce rate |
| **Complaints** | Marked as spam, with the complaint rate |

Opens and clicks tell you whether the writing worked. **Bounces and complaints decide whether
you get to keep sending**, so they're the two to watch.

### The two thresholds

A bounce or complaint tile changes colour when its rate crosses a line:

| | Elevated | Above the safe limit |
| --- | --- | --- |
| **Bounces** | 2% | 5% |
| **Complaints** | 0.1% | 0.5% |

**Elevated** is a nudge — clean the list. **Above the safe limit** is serious: sustained rates at
that level get an account's sending paused by the mail provider.

:::note
Your [sending level](/email/sending-levels/) uses a stricter line for complaints — it holds you
at 0.10% and drops you at 0.30%, where this card only turns red at 0.5%. So a complaint rate can
cost you a level while these tiles still read amber. Treat the sending-level zone as the earlier
warning of the two.
:::

:::note
The warning colours always reflect your **recent** rates, even when you're looking at the
**All time** view. A great lifetime average doesn't make this month safe, and the tiles won't
pretend otherwise.
:::

## Recommendations

When the mail provider flags something fixable, a **Recommendations** block lists it — each with
an impact badge, what it is, and what to do:

| Type | Typically means |
| --- | --- |
| **DKIM authentication** | The domain isn't authenticated — nothing else matters until it is |
| **SPF** | The return-path records for your `mail.` subdomain aren't published |
| **DMARC** | No policy at enforcement (`p=quarantine` or `p=reject`) |
| **BIMI** | No record for your [brand logo](/email/brand-logo/) |

High-impact items come first, and fixed ones stay visible marked **resolved** so you can see the
work landed. When there's nothing outstanding and your rates are fine, the card says so:
*"Deliverability looks healthy — no issues flagged."*

## Sending is paused

A red banner reading **"Sending is paused"** means sending has been disabled for your project —
almost always because bounce or complaint rates stayed over the limit. New emails won't go out
until it's re-enabled.

What to do:

1. **Stop sending campaigns.** Nothing will go out anyway, and queueing more doesn't help.
2. **Find out which list did it.** Look at the last broadcast's numbers before the rates spiked.
3. **Clean up.** Remove addresses that bounced, everyone who complained, and anyone who hasn't
   opened anything in a year.
4. **Contact Estage support** to have sending reviewed and re-enabled.
5. **Restart small** — a modest send to your most engaged contacts, not the campaign that caused
   it.

## Keeping it healthy

- **Suppressions do a job.** Bounced, complained and unsubscribed addresses go on the suppression
  list and stop receiving mail. Never re-import them to get around it — that's the fastest route
  to a pause.
- **Send to people who asked.** Bought, scraped and "we met at a conference in 2019" lists are
  where complaint rates come from.
- **Prune the inactive.** Someone who hasn't opened anything in a year is more likely to report
  you than to buy. The broadcast composer warns you before a send to a largely unengaged
  audience.
- **Be recognisable.** A real From name, a subject that matches the body, and a
  [reply address someone reads](/email/senders/).
- **Be regular.** A predictable rhythm builds reputation; a six-month silence followed by a blast
  destroys it.