Email deliverability, explained

Short, practical guides on cleaning email lists and keeping them deliverable. Every claim is sourced from primary documentation (SMTP RFCs, mailbox-provider guidelines) and written by the people who build ListGuard.

• How to Clean an Email List: A Complete Pre-Send Workflow

  A step-by-step pre-send workflow for cleaning an email list: dedupe, syntax, domains, disposable and role addresses, suppression and bounce history, plus what cleaning cannot do.

  Eric Dieperink · September 18, 2026

• Email Verification vs Validation vs List Cleaning

  Email validation, verification and cleaning are often used interchangeably, but they check different things. What each term actually means, what each can promise, and when you need which.

  Eric Dieperink · September 18, 2026

• Hard Bounce vs Soft Bounce: Codes, Causes and What to Do

  Hard bounces (5xx) and soft bounces (4xx) are SMTP status codes, not marketing terms. What the common codes mean, what causes each type, and what to do with the addresses.

  Eric Dieperink · September 18, 2026

• What Is an Email Suppression List?

  A suppression list stops you from emailing people who opted out, bounced hard or complained. What belongs on it, how it differs from a blacklist, and how to keep it current.

  Eric Dieperink · September 18, 2026

• Disposable, Role-Based and Catch-All Emails: Keep, Remove or Review?

  Disposable, role-based and catch-all addresses are three different risk levels, not three spellings of the same problem. What each is, and a keep/remove/review decision matrix.

  Eric Dieperink · September 18, 2026

• SPF, DKIM and DMARC Explained: A Pre-Send Authentication Checklist

  SPF, DKIM and DMARC each cover a different part of email authentication. What each mechanism actually checks, how they interact, and a practical pre-send checklist.

  Eric Dieperink · September 18, 2026