How to stop Amazon SES emails going to junk

Last modified on Wednesday, May 8, 2024

2 minute read

Authenticating Amazon SES Emails with DKIM

Why are my Amazon SES emails going to Spam?

If you have a problem with Amazon SES emails going to spam, that is, going to the junk folder of your recipients, then it is very likely an issue with your email authentication. Emails failing authentication, be they failing SPF, failing DKIM, or failing DMARC is common, as SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are often not properly implemented by domain administrators. Often, the main cause of Amazon SES emails being blocked is due to the Amazon SES emails failing DMARC, which in the case of Amazon SES, is usually due to a misconfiguration of DKIM.

How to stop Amazon SES emails going to Junk.

The first step to preventing Amazon SES email going to spam is to retrieve a failed message and access its header information. This will allow you to quickly diagnose whether any authentication issues such as DKIM or DMARC are flagging your email as spam, instructing the recipient sender to move it to junk. Simply paste the email headers into our free Stellastra Deliverability Tool, which you can use freely with no log in required. Our deliverability tool should allow you to avoid Amazon SES emails from going to spam, or at least rule out authentication as the issue.

How to remove 'via aws.amazon.com' or 'on behalf of aws.amazon.com'

Another example of where a Amazon SES DKIM misconfiguration is to blame, is if your recipients report seeing the message as 'via aws.amazon.com' or 'on behalf of aws.amazon.com' and that the emails typically end up in spam or junk. The Stellastra Email Deliverability tool above will confirm this prognosis, however, you may also wish to configure DKIM for Amazon SES by logging in to your Amazon SES account to check to see if you have followed the following article to configure your Amazon SES dkim setup to authenticate your domain.

How to stop Amazon SES Failing DMARC

To ensure that your Amazon SES campaigns pass DMARC and get delivered to your prospects, it is important to ensure that DKIM passes authentication for your domain. A common mistake is to sign an email with Amazon SES DKIM keys. However, in order for Amazon SES email to pass authentication for your own domain, it is necessary to use your own DKIM keys as per Amazon SES's own guide. If you wish to verify the above, paste the message headers for a failed Amazon SES message into our Amazon SES email testing tool