How to interpret GlockApps, Mail-Tester, or Postmaster results?

You ran your email through a testing tool, and now you're staring at a dashboard full of scores, red flags, and percentages. What actually matters? Here's how to read the results without spiraling.

First, know what each tool does best

GlockApps is primarily an inbox placement tester. It sends your email to a network of real seed addresses and tells you whether it landed in the inbox, the spam folder, or nowhere at all, broken down by provider. Mail-Tester focuses on content and authentication scoring. It gives you a score out of 10 and flags specific issues with your headers, setup, and content. Google Postmaster Tools is different from both. It shows you your domain and IP reputation directly from Gmail's perspective, over time, based on real sending history. Each tool tells you something different. None of them tells you everything.

Start with authentication, every time

Before you look at anything else, check whether your SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are passing. Every tool surfaces this. If any of these are failing, fix them before touching anything else. A failing authentication record undermines everything downstream. Content improvements, subject line tweaks, none of that matters if the receiving server can't verify your email is legitimate.

Then look at placement by provider

If you're using GlockApps, look at inbox placement broken down by provider. Here's a quick diagnostic frame:

• One provider showing 0% inbox, others fine. That's a provider-specific reputation issue. Your domain or IP has a bad signal at that particular mailbox. Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo Mail each keep their own reputation data.
• All providers showing poor placement. That points to something more global. Check whether you're on a blocklist (more on that below).
• Placement above 80%. Generally healthy. Below 80% is worth investigating. Below 60% is urgent.

Check your spam score, but keep perspective

Mail-Tester will give you a number and a list of reasons points were deducted. Some of those reasons are genuinely important. Others are minor suggestions that won't meaningfully affect real-world delivery. Focus on anything related to authentication failures, blocklist hits, or missing headers. Ignore the cosmetic stuff unless you've already fixed everything else.

A score of 9/10 or higher on Mail-Tester is solid. Anything below 7/10 usually means there's a real structural issue, not just a suggestion.

Use Google Postmaster Tools for the long view

Postmaster Tools won't tell you about a single email. It shows trends. If your domain reputation drops from High to Medium over a few weeks, that's a signal that your Gmail engagement is declining, your complaint rate is rising, or both. You want to see Domain Reputation sitting at High or Medium. Low or Bad means Gmail is actively filtering your mail. You can't fix that overnight, but you can spot it early here.

Blocklists are their own category

Now most tools will flag if your sending IP or domain appears on a known blocklist. If you see this, don't ignore it. A blocklist hit is one of the fastest ways to lose inbox placement across multiple providers at once. You can cross-check with our free Blocklist Checker to see exactly where you're listed and what kind of blocklist it is.

What to fix first

If you're looking at a page of results and don't know where to start, here's the priority order:

1. Authentication failures (SPF, DKIM, DMARC)
2. Blocklist appearances
3. Provider-specific placement issues (especially Gmail)
4. Spam score problems flagged as significant
5. Everything else

Most of the time, fixing items 1 and 2 clears up a surprising amount of the rest. If you've fixed those and you're still stuck, our SOS hotline is free and we'll take a look with you.