What this badge does not mean. It is not a rating of a business, a person, or the content of any individual message, and it is not an endorsement. It verifies one specific thing: that the domain’s email is configured to modern authentication and reputation standards — the same standards Gmail and Yahoo now require of senders. Always judge the actual message on its own merits.
A domain earns the badge only when all five of the checks below pass. We re-check every enrolled domain daily; if one starts failing, the badge visibly changes so it can never quietly overstate the truth.
1
SPF valid
Your domain publishes a clean SPF record (under the 10-lookup limit, no wildcard +all) so receivers know which servers may send as you.
2
DKIM proven
A real message from your domain passed a DKIM signature check at our analyzer within the last 12 months — proof your mail is cryptographically signed.
3
DMARC enforces
Your DMARC policy is set to quarantine or reject, telling inboxes to stop mail that fails authentication instead of just watching it.
4
Clean reputation
Your domain and its sending IP are not on the major spam blocklists we check, including Spamhaus.
5
TLS in transit
Your mail servers accept encrypted (STARTTLS/TLS) connections, so messages are protected in transit.
Curious how your own domain scores?
Run the free MailArrive checkup — it grades your SPF, DKIM, DMARC, reputation and more in plain English, no signup.