Since 2024, Google has been tightening the rules for anyone sending large volumes of email to Gmail and Google Workspace users. What started as a push to get bulk senders to adopt DMARC is now moving into a much stricter phase:
If your domain doesn’t have DMARC correctly configured, Google can simply reject your emails.
Not “sent to junk”. Not “low priority”. Rejected. Not delivered at all.
For businesses that rely on email for sales, operations, and customer communication, this is not a theoretical risk – it’s a direct threat to revenue, reputation, and trust.
At White Arrow Technology, we help organisations implement and manage DMARC and wider email security as part of a proactive, security‑first IT strategy. In this article, we’ll break down what’s changing, why it matters, and what you should be doing now.
What Has Google Changed?
In early 2024, Google (and Yahoo) introduced new requirements for bulk senders – typically defined as senders delivering 5,000+ messages per day to their users. These requirements include:
- SPF (Sender Policy Framework) – to define which servers are allowed to send email for your domain.
- DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) – to cryptographically sign your messages so recipients can verify they haven’t been tampered with.
- DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance) – to tell receiving servers what to do when SPF/DKIM checks fail, and to provide reporting.
Initially, non‑compliant emails were more likely to be sent to spam or treated with suspicion. Now, Google is going further:
- Non‑DMARC compliant bulk emails can be rejected outright.
- This means they never reach the inbox or the junk folder. They are simply not accepted.
Google has been clear in its public guidance: modern email authentication is no longer optional for serious senders – it’s the baseline.
Key point: If you send newsletters, invoices, password resets, or marketing campaigns at scale, and you don’t have DMARC correctly configured, your deliverability to Gmail and Google Workspace users is at serious risk.
Why This Matters for Your Business
Even if you’re not a “classic” bulk sender, these changes affect you in several ways:
1. Critical business emails may never arrive
Think about the emails your business depends on:
- Customer invoices and payment reminders
- Order confirmations and shipping updates
- Password resets and security alerts
- Sales outreach and marketing campaigns
- Internal communications to staff on Google Workspace
If Google decides your domain is not properly authenticated, these messages can be rejected. You may not get a clear signal that deliverability is the problem – you’ll just see:
- Lower open and response rates
- More “I never received that email” complaints
- Slower sales cycles and operational friction
2. Your domain becomes an easy target for attackers
Domains without DMARC are significantly easier to spoof. Attackers can send emails that appear to come from your domain, tricking:
- Your customers (fake invoices, phishing links)
- Your suppliers (fraudulent payment instructions)
- Your own staff (business email compromise, credential theft)
Industry data from multiple email security vendors consistently shows that implementing DMARC with an enforced policy (p=quarantine or p=reject) drastically reduces successful spoofing attempts against a brand. While the exact percentages vary by study, the direction is clear: DMARC enforcement makes you a much harder target.
3. You fall behind compliance and best practice
Regulators, insurers, and partners increasingly expect robust email authentication as part of a basic cyber hygiene baseline. For many organisations, DMARC is now:
- A compliance expectation (e.g. for Cyber Essentials‑aligned practices)
- A due diligence item in vendor assessments
- A control referenced by cyber insurance providers
In other words: not having DMARC is starting to look negligent.
SPF, DKIM, DMARC – What’s the Difference?
To understand Google’s enforcement, it helps to see how these pieces fit together:
- SPF:
A DNS record that lists which IPs/hosts are allowed to send email for your domain.
Example: “Only these mail servers and this email platform can send as @yourcompany.com.” - DKIM:
A cryptographic signature added to your emails. The public key is stored in DNS, so recipients can verify the message is genuine and unaltered. - DMARC:
A policy layer that says:- “If SPF and/or DKIM fail, here’s what you should do with the email (none, quarantine, reject).”
- “Here’s where to send reports so we can see who is sending email using our domain.”
Without DMARC, Google and other providers have less guidance on how to treat suspicious messages from your domain. With DMARC, you can:
- Protect your brand from spoofing
- Gain visibility into all sources sending as your domain
- Gradually move from monitoring to strict enforcement
What Does “Strict DMARC Enforcement” Look Like?
For a typical business, the journey to strict enforcement usually looks like this:
- No DMARC
- High risk of spoofing
- Increasing risk of rejection by providers like Google
- No visibility into who is sending email as your domain
- DMARC with p=none (monitoring mode)
- You start receiving DMARC reports
- You can see legitimate vs. illegitimate senders
- No impact on mail flow yet – this is analysis and clean‑up time
- DMARC with p=quarantine
- Messages failing DMARC are sent to spam/junk
- Spoofing becomes much harder to execute successfully
- You’ve cleaned up most legitimate senders by this point
- DMARC with p=reject (strict enforcement)
- Messages failing DMARC are rejected outright
- Spoofed messages claiming to be from your domain are blocked
- You align with Google’s direction of travel and maximise deliverability for legitimate mail
Google’s stricter stance means that staying at “no DMARC” or “misconfigured DMARC” is no longer safe. The risk is not just phishing – it’s legitimate business email not being delivered.
How to Prepare Your Domain for Google’s DMARC Enforcement
Here’s a practical roadmap we use with clients at White Arrow Technology:
1. Audit your current email authentication
- Check if you already have SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records.
- Identify all services that send email on your behalf (e.g. Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, CRM, marketing platforms, invoicing tools, ticketing systems).
2. Fix and align SPF and DKIM
- Ensure your SPF record is valid, not overly long, and includes all legitimate senders.
- Enable DKIM signing on all major sending platforms and verify that signatures pass.
3. Implement DMARC in monitoring mode (p=none)
- Publish a DMARC record with p=none and reporting addresses (rua/ruf).
- Start collecting and analysing DMARC reports to see:
- Who is sending as your domain
- Which sources are failing SPF/DKIM
- Any suspicious or unknown senders
4. Clean up and consolidate senders
- Remove or fix misconfigured services.
- Decommission legacy systems that still send email but are not properly authenticated.
- Ensure third‑party providers are aligned with your SPF/DKIM/DMARC strategy.
5. Gradually move to quarantine, then reject
- Once you’re confident legitimate traffic is passing SPF/DKIM, update your DMARC policy to:
- p=quarantine – to push failing messages into spam
- Then p=reject – to fully block failing messages
This staged approach lets you protect your brand and satisfy Google’s requirements without accidentally blocking your own legitimate email.
Where White Arrow Technology Fits In
At White Arrow Technology, we combine managed IT, advanced cybersecurity, and cloud expertise into a single, proactive service. DMARC and email authentication sit right at the intersection of those capabilities.
We help businesses to:
- Design and implement SPF, DKIM, and DMARC correctly
- Monitor DMARC reports and tune policies over time
- Integrate email security with wider cyber resilience (phishing protection, dark web monitoring, incident response)
- Align with frameworks like Cyber Essentials and support compliance journeys
We don’t just “set and forget” a DNS record – we treat email authentication as part of a broader, security‑first strategy to keep your organisation safe and your communications reliable.
Next Steps: Don’t Wait for Google to Start Rejecting Your Emails
If you’re not 100% sure about your current DMARC status, now is the time to act – before Google silently cuts off your messages.
Here’s a simple way to start:
- Identify your primary sending domains (e.g. yourcompany.com, yourcompany.co.uk).
- Check whether SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are present and valid.
- Decide whether you have the in‑house expertise to interpret DMARC reports and move towards enforcement.
If you’d like support, White Arrow Technology can provide:
- A DMARC health check on your domain
- A clear action plan to reach p=reject safely
- Ongoing monitoring and management as part of a broader managed IT and security service
You don’t have to navigate Google’s stricter DMARC enforcement alone – and you definitely don’t want to discover the problem only after your customers stop receiving your emails.
Sources:
- Google Email Sender Guidelines
https://support.google.com/a/answer/81126 - Google/Yahoo bulk sender & DMARC requirements (good explainer)
https://dmarcian.com/yahoo-and-google-dmarc-required/ - Google DMARC requirements for Gmail bulk senders (Sendmarc)
https://sendmarc.com/dmarc/google-dmarc-requirements/ - Overview of stricter enforcement timelines (Proofpoint analysis)
https://www.proofpoint.com/us/blog/email-and-cloud-threats/clock-ticking-stricter-email-authentication-enforcements-google-start
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