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Email Deliverability · Blocklists and delisting

Email blocklists checklist for 2026

Short answer

A complete email blocklists checklist has 5 setup items and 2 things to audit against. Work through setup in order, then schedule a quarterly review.

Setup checklist#

  • ☐ Check your IPs and domains against major blocklists weekly.
  • ☐ Identify the cause: compromised account, list purchase, spam trap hits, or a misconfigured forwarder.
  • ☐ Fix the root cause and document what changed.
  • ☐ Submit a delisting request through the blocklist's process with evidence of remediation.
  • ☐ Monitor for relisting for 30 days.

Audit checklist#

  • ☐ Confirm you are not: requesting delisting before fixing the cause; repeat listings become harder to remove.
  • ☐ Confirm you are not: ignoring minor blocklists that some corporate gateways still use.

Ongoing monitoring#

  • ☐ Weekly: review provider dashboards (Postmaster Tools, SNDS) and bounce logs
  • ☐ Monthly: re-run the setup verification after any vendor or DNS change
  • ☐ Quarterly: full audit against this checklist

Frequently asked questions#

How long does Spamhaus delisting take?

Often within hours for SBL and CSS if the cause is fixed. DBL domain listings can take longer.

Which blocklists matter most?

Spamhaus (SBL, XBL, DBL), SpamCop, Barracuda, and SURBL have the widest impact.

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