Why are my website emails being sent to the SPAM window?

Question

All emails sent by my site are sent to the SPAM field in Gmail (I have not tested other mail servers).

I send letters through Gmail using my own domain (through Google Apps). I send letters using the PHPMailer library:

$mail = new PHPMailer(); $mail->IsSMTP(); $mail->SMTPAuth = true; $mail->SMTPSecure = "ssl"; $mail->Host = "smtp.gmail.com"; $mail->Port = 465; $mail->Username = " [e-mail] "; $mail->Password = "mypassword"; $mail->From = " [e-mail] "; $mail->FromName = $websiteName; $mail->Subject = $subject; $mail->AddAddress($to, "Client"); if ($html) { $mail->MsgHTML($content); $mail->AltBody = strip_tags($content); $mail->IsHTML(true); } else { $mail->Body = $content; } if (isset($options['content-type'])) { $mail->ContentType = $options['content-type']; } if (isset($options['charset'])) { $mail->CharSet = $options['charset']; } return $mail->Send(); 

The letter is sent as expected, but always falls into the SPAM field. This occurs in emails that contain HTML and in emails that are raw text as follows:

Hi John Smith

Thank you very much for trusting us.

To complete the purchase, you must deposit 20 USD to the account number:

IBAN XXXX - XXXX XXXX XX XXXXXXX

As soon as we receive your transfer, we will activate your license and send all documents by e-mail (copy of the contract, invoice, user manual regarding the application). You have 15 days to review all the material and the application itself, and if you are not completely satisfied with the product you purchased, we will refund your money.

If you need help from an agent, you can reply to this email.

Hello

Well, this message may contain a few words that could activate the SPAM filter, but this also happens with messages like this:

Hello

You have a new message in your inbox:

 Meeting about next holidays (17:40-18:20). 

We hope to see you soon!

http://example.com/

What happened? What is the best strategy for sending emails via gmail without penalty?

Answer 1

make sure you have an SPF record associated with your domain, see here: http://support.google.com/a/bin/answer.py?hl=en-uk&hlrm=en&answer=33786

Answer 2

Gmail filters emails based on

• their content
• email recipient behavior

The content should not contain words like "payment, money, mlm, oppurtinity, bank, money". Every spammer who wants to achieve success will say that people want to hear, and those are exactly those things.

In addition, if too many people mark your email as spam, then after a certain amount + percentage combination of negative "votes" your email address will be marked as unsafe.