Glossary

Common technical terms in email

Stay current and expand your email knowledge with our list of common technical terms.

Email validation

Email validation, or email verification, is the process of checking that the email addresses on an email list are valid and not spam traps to maintain email list hygiene. Brands perform email validation when new subscribers sign up to be on their email lists. Companies periodically clean email lists through email validation, identifying invalid email addresses, possible bad actors like spam traps, or low-quality emails like info@ or admin@ types of email addresses to keep deliverability high.

Email validation is important because undelivered emails can bounce back. Too many soft bounces result in a hard bounce, causing inbox service providers (ISPs) to be suspicious of  a brand’s authenticity. If ISPs perceive a brand as spammy, they could potentially put the brand’s domain on an IP blocklist, preventing any emails from reaching subscribers’ inboxes.

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Email worm