Does domain reputation reset every year?
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No. There's no annual reset, no fresh start on January 1, and no scheduled forgiveness from ISPs. Domain reputation accumulates continuously based on your sending behavior over time.
Think of it like a credit score rather than a lease. Good behavior builds it over months and years. Bad behavior damages it. Once damaged, recovery takes sustained good sending. Usually six to twelve months of clean practices before you're back to where you were, sometimes longer depending on how bad the damage was.
What actually changes reputation: spam complaint rates, bounce rates, engagement signals (opens, clicks, replies, deletions), spam trap hits, and your history on blocklists. None of these reset on a schedule.
One nuance worth knowing: different mailbox providers weight history differently. Gmail gives more weight to recent behavior than old behavior. So if you had a rough year but the last three months have been clean, Gmail will notice that more quickly than an ISP using a longer averaging window. But "more quickly" still means months, not a calendar reset.
If you've had sending issues in the past, the path forward is consistent clean practices: valid authentication, list hygiene, suppressing unengaged contacts, and watching your complaint rate. You can track progress at Google Postmaster Tools (free, shows reputation over time).
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