How Does the Email Verification Process Work?
This article explains how email verification works.
Step 1: Syntax Check and Verification
After you upload a list via the Email Lists page or the API, a preliminary check begins.
The preliminary check verifies the syntax of the addresses in your list, including that they have the correct structure (username followed by email domain) and allowed characters (since certain special characters are not permitted in some parts of the email address).
It also identifies typos or misspellings and attempts to correct them to get a valid format.
Duplicate entries will be removed from the list at this stage as well.
Step 2: DNS Record Check
To receive incoming email messages, an email domain needs to be configured with the proper DNS records (MX and A-type).
What are MX and A-type DNS records?
- An MX record–short for “Mail exchange” record–identifies the server that accepts incoming messages for the email domain.
- An A-type record– or “Address” record–identifies the IP address to which incoming messages should be routed.
This second step verifies that the domain of each address in your list has these records, so that VerfiedEmail can perform a real-time SMTP check.
An email address without DNS records will be marked as “Ghost” and will not be verified further.
Step 3: Qualifying Your Emails
Any email addresses that have passed all prior checks will undergo further investigation. Many different processes take place that allow us to further qualify the email address into one of the following categories when applicable:
- Disposable – if an address is registered at one of the known “disposable” email services.
- Free – if an address is registered at one of the known “free” email services.
- Office 365 and Google Workspace – if an email domain uses one of those services for email management.
- Government, Educational, and Military institutions.
Such classifications will help you make informed and precise decisions when choosing whether to send or not send an email.
Step 4: SMTP Check
An SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol) check is a test that attempts to connect to the email server and verify that it exists. If an SMTP check fails, this can indicate issues with the email server, such as improper configuration or a configuration that does not allow incoming email, which will cause incoming messages to bounce.
Step 5: Proprietary Technology Check
At this step, VerifiedEmail applies its proprietary technologies to continue testing the validity of the email addresses in your list. This step allows us to deliver our 99% accuracy guarantee and lets us identify eight types of email statuses.
Step 6: Validity Check
If an email address has failed any checks at this step of the process, we mark the address invalid and move on to the subsequent addresses in your list.
Step 7: Investigate “Unknowns”
At this late stage, VerifiedEmail knows whether most of your email addresses are valid or invalid, along with the address types. However, there may still be some unknowns based on the success rate of previous checks.
The email verification process allows VerifiedEmail to retest these “unknown” results using new IP addresses from different geographical locations.
In most cases, this process is successful and provides you with the greatest percentage of known results.