Email Verification Explained: How to Check If an Email Is Valid

Imagine sending a package to an incorrect address. The recipient will keep waiting, expecting a delivery that never arrives. You waste your resources, including time and money, on shipping costs and handling.

In email marketing, this is similar to sending emails to invalid addresses - which happens too frequently if you are not aware of what is email verification and how it works.

Sending emails to invalid addresses results in bounce-backs, harming your deliverability. It can also result in your emails landing in spam, thus harming your sender reputation.

Simply having an email list isn't enough if you want to succeed in email marketing; you need to verify those email addresses to keep your list clean, reduce bounce rates, and improve deliverability. But how do you verify email addresses, or how can you check if an email is valid?

Email verification helps you achieve this. It's a crucial step after building your lead list for cold emailing. Let's dive into what email verification is, how it works, and how to verify email addresses.

What is Email Verification, and How It Is Different From Email Validation

If you're anything like me, you might think that email verification and email validation are the same. 

Well, you're not alone. For a while, I thought these two terms were identical, too – but they're not. 

Let's break down the difference with an example and clear up the confusion.

Imagine you receive an email address like "john.doe@example.com." Email validation is like giving this address a quick once-over to ensure it looks right: it checks for the "@" symbol, a valid domain name, and the overall format. If everything looks good, it passes the validation test. It's similar to verifying that a phone number has the correct number of digits and follows the proper format.

However, just because the email address looks correct doesn't mean it exists or can receive emails. This is where email verification comes in. Verification goes further by checking if the email address is active and can receive messages. It involves pinging the email server to confirm its existence and checking if the domain is valid and operational.

To sum it up:

• Email Validation: Ensures the email address is formatted correctly and looks valid.
• Email Verification: Confirms that the email address exists and can receive emails.

Both email validation and verification work together to ensure your email list is clean and accurate.

Why Is Email Verification Important?

Email verification is like the holy grail of email marketing—essential for maintaining a healthy, responsive email list and ensuring your campaigns succeed. 

Skipping this step is a risk that is not worth taking.

Here are a few key reasons why you should always verify your email addresses:

1. Reduce Bounce Rates

Sending emails to invalid addresses leads to high bounce rates, damaging your sender reputation. 

Email providers may start marking your emails as spam, reducing the chances of your emails reaching the intended recipients.

2. Improve Deliverability

Verifying your email addresses ensures that your messages are sent to real, active email accounts. 

This increases the likelihood that your emails will land in the inbox rather than the spam folder, improving your email deliverability.

3. Protect Your Sender Reputation

A poor sender reputation can affect your entire email marketing strategy. 

Verified email addresses help maintain a good sender reputation, ensuring that your emails continue to reach your audience effectively.

4. Save Time and Resources

Sending emails to invalid addresses wastes time and resources. 

By verifying your email list, you focus your efforts on genuine leads and contacts, maximizing the return on your email marketing investment.

How To Verify Emails In a Few Simple Steps?

There are multiple ways to verify email addresses. Let’s talk about each one of these below:

1. Send a Test Email 

One of the simplest ways to verify an email address is by sending a test email. This method involves sending a single email to the address in question to check whether it is valid and capable of receiving messages.

You must wait to see if the email bounces back. If it does, you’ll receive a bounce-back notification indicating that the email address is invalid.

Most bounce-back messages contain error codes and reasons why the email could not be delivered. 

The good thing about this email verification method is that you get instant results on whether an email address is valid. However, this method is not scalable.

Sending emails to invalid addresses can further negatively impact your sender reputation. 

2. Pinging the Server

You can ping the email server to check if the email address exists without sending an actual email. 

While effective, this method requires technical knowledge and can be complex for those unfamiliar with server commands.

How It Works:

• Identify the Mail Server: First, determine the mail server associated with the email address’s domain. This is done by looking up the domain’s Mail Exchange (MX) records, which specify the mail servers responsible for receiving emails for that domain.
• Connect to the Mail Server: You establish a connection to the mail server using the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP), which is the standard for sending and receiving email messages over the Internet, using a command-line interface (CLI) or a similar tool.
• Initiate the SMTP Session: Once connected, you initiate a session with commands. This typically starts with the "HELO" or "EHLO" command to identify yourself to the server.
• Verify the Email Address: You then use the "MAIL FROM" and "RCPT TO" commands to check if the email address exists. The server’s response to the "RCPT TO" command will indicate whether the email address is valid. A positive reaction means the address exists and can receive emails, while a negative response indicates it does not.
• Close the Connection: You close the SMTP session with the "QUIT" command.

This method checks the existence of an email address without sending an actual email, avoiding unnecessary messages in the recipient’s inbox.

However, performing this check manually for each email address is time-consuming and impractical for large lists.

3. Searching For The Address on Google

Searching for an email address on Google involves looking up the address to see if it appears in legitimate contexts. 

You can generate search results related to the email address by simply typing it into Google's search bar and hitting enter.

Examine the search results to see if the email address appears in professional or legitimate contexts, such as company websites, social media profiles, or forums. This can help determine if the email address is associated with a natural person or organization.

Look for signs that the email address is used credibly. For example, finding the address in a business directory or a professional profile can indicate its validity.

However, manually searching for each email address on Google can be very time-consuming, especially if you have an extensive list.

Additionally, this method is not foolproof. Even if an email address is valid, it might not appear in search results, or it might appear in contexts that do not guarantee its validity.

4. Manual Inspection

Manual inspection involves reviewing email addresses to identify signs of validity or invalidity. Here’s a closer look at how this method works and its limitations.

Look for common typographical errors or formatting issues. Addresses with extra dots, missing "@" symbols, or invalid domain names can be flagged as suspicious.

Email addresses with random strings of characters or nonsensical combinations might be fake. For example, addresses like "a7sj9d@domain.com" could be flagged as invalid. 

Verify that the domain part of the email address (e.g., "example.com") appears legitimate and is not associated with spam or temporary email services. You can also cross-reference the domain with lists of known spam or disposable email domains to identify potentially invalid addresses.

However, manual inspection is subject to human error, and it’s easy to overlook subtle issues or make mistakes in judgment.

For large email lists, manual inspection is impractical and inefficient. It’s not a scalable solution for bulk verification.

5. Using an Email Verifier 

Like Smartlead’s Email Verification Tool, an email verifier is a specialized system designed to automate and streamline verifying email addresses. It provides a comprehensive approach to ensure that email addresses are valid and capable of receiving messages. 

Using an email verifier can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts by ensuring that your email list is clean, valid, and ready for successful campaigns.

In the next section, we’ll dive deeper into how Smartlead’s email verification tool works and the various checks it performs to validate email addresses.

How Email Verifier Works?

Smartlead’s email verification tool utilizes a series of sophisticated checks to ensure that your email addresses are valid and capable of receiving messages. 

Here’s a breakdown of the critical verification processes it performs:

1. Syntax Check

A syntax check is an initial step in the email verification process that focuses on validating the format and structure of an email address to ensure it adheres to established standards.

It involves several aspects like format verification, character validation, etc. 

Format verification ensures that the email address follows the correct format. It typically includes: 

• Local Part: The section before the "@" symbol (e.g., "username").
• Domain Part: The section after the "@" symbol (e.g., "example.com").
• Top-Level Domain: Ensures that the domain part ends with a valid top-level domain (TLD) like ".com," ".org," or ".net."

Character validation checks that the email address contains only valid characters. For example:

• The local part can include letters, numbers, dots, hyphens, and underscores.
• The domain part should include letters, numbers, and hyphens, with no spaces or special characters.

Apart from these, the syntax check verifies that the email address does not exceed the maximum length limit (no longer than 254 characters). 

Syntax check reduces the risk of bounce-backs and delivery failures by processing only correctly formatted email addresses.

2. Gibberish Check

The tool identifies and flags email addresses that appear random or nonsensical. This check helps filter out addresses that are unlikely to be valid or legitimate.

For example, addresses like "a8b9d2@domain.com" might be flagged as gibberish. Why? Because it has sequences of random letters and numbers that do not form recognizable or meaningful words. 

It also checks for email addresses that do not follow standard naming conventions or typical patterns, such as those that use many special characters or unconventional symbols. 

Gibberish check helps to identify and eliminate fake or spam-related email addresses created using random characters or patterns. This, in turn, can reduce bounce-backs or delivery failures. 

3. Domain Existence Check

The domain existence check determines whether the domain part of an email address is valid and operational.

It involves querying the Domain Name System (DNS) to verify that the domain name (e.g., "example.com") has valid DNS records. If the DNS lookup returns a valid response, it indicates that the domain is registered and exists. It checks for an "A" record in the DNS, which maps the domain name to an IP address.

This check helps identify and filter out email addresses with domains that are not correctly registered or could be used for fraud.

4. MX Record Check

The email verifier looks for valid Mail Exchange (MX) records associated with the domain. 

MX records are DNS entries that specify the mail servers responsible for receiving emails for that domain. 

A valid MX record confirms that the domain can receive emails.

The tool verifies that the mail servers listed in the MX records respond to DNS queries. If the mail servers respond and are reachable, it confirms that the domain can handle email communication.

Confirming that a domain has valid MX records improves email deliverability and ensures that emails reach their intended recipients.

5. Catch-All Domain Check

The tool identifies if the domain is a catch-all domain. 

A catch-all domain is configured to receive emails sent to any address that ends with that domain, even if the address is not explicitly defined in the domain’s email system. For example, if "example.com" is a catch-all domain, it will accept emails sent to "anything@example.com," regardless of whether "anything" is a valid email address.

During the check, the email verifier will attempt to send a test email or perform a lookup to determine if the domain is set up as a catch-all. If the domain accepts all incoming emails, it is a catch-all domain.

Recognizing catch-all domains helps assess the reliability and validity of individual email addresses.

Businesses or organizations often use catch-all domains to ensure they don’t miss any emails, but they can also be a sign of lower-quality email lists. They may be more prone to receiving spam or invalid addresses.

6. SMTP Authentication (Email Address Ping)

This advanced check involves interacting directly with the email server using Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) commands. 

It pings the server to confirm if the email address exists and if messages can be received. 

A positive response from the server indicates that the email address is valid. We already covered this step in detail in the previous section.

Importantly, SMTP authentication does not involve sending an email to the address. Instead, it uses a protocol to communicate with the server and verify the address without delivering content.

The response from the server can provide various results, such as:

• Valid Address: The server confirms that the address exists and can receive emails.
• Invalid Address: The server indicates that the address does not exist.
• Temporary Issues: The server may return messages indicating temporary issues or delays, which may require further investigation.

7. Freemail Check

The verifier checks if the email address belongs to a free email provider (e.g., Gmail, Yahoo). While free email addresses are standard, they may sometimes be associated with higher rates of invalid or temporary addresses. 

The check examines the domain part of the email address to see if it matches known freemail domains. For example, addresses ending in "@gmail.com" or "@yahoo.com" are flagged as freemail addresses.

This check helps assess the quality and reliability of the email address. 

An email verification tool is best when you have an extensive email list and want a scalable solution.

How To Use Smartlead Email Verification Tool

Smartlead offers two ways to verify email addresses: a free version for individual checks and a paid version for bulk verification. Here’s how to effectively use these options and verify emails in your lead list.

Free Version

Manual Check: To check the validity of a single email address, enter it into the free version of Smartlead’s email verification tool. 

This is ideal for verifying individual addresses but unsuitable for large lists. 

Paid Version

The paid version of Smartlead’s email verification tool costs $15 USD for 6,000 credits. You can buy additional credits based on your needs.

Follow these steps to verify emails in your lead list:

1. Add a New Campaign: Log in to your Smartlead account and navigate to the campaign section. Click on “Add a New Campaign.”
2. Import Your CSV File: Select and upload your CSV file containing your lead list. Map the necessary fields to ensure proper data handling and click on “Save & Next.”

1. Launch Verification: Click “Launch Verification & Proceed” in the popup window to start the email verification process.

1. Wait for Verification to Complete: The time required for verification depends on the size of your CSV file. During this time, you can continue creating and setting up your campaign. You will receive a notification once the verification is completed.

1. Review the Report: After the verification process is complete, check the full report provided by Smartlead. This report will detail the status of each email address.

1. Launch or Save Your Campaign: You can now launch your campaign or save it as a draft. When you launch the campaign after verification, Smartlead will ensure that emails are only sent to valid addresses and catch-all leads.
2. Download Verified Leads: The verified lead list can be downloaded as a separate CSV file from the “Import Lead” tab.

Please note that once a campaign is live, you cannot verify leads within that campaign. If you need to verify leads, it’s best to set up a new campaign and use the email verification tool before launching it.

Using Smartlead’s email verification tool helps ensure that your email list is clean and that your campaigns reach valid recipients, maximizing the effectiveness of your email marketing efforts.

Winding-up 

Utilizing an email verification tool like Smartlead’s is more than just a step in email marketing—it’s a game-changer for higher engagement and better deliverability. 

Every email counts, so you must ensure that your list is filled with valid, responsive addresses. This isn’t just a nice-to-have; it’s essential for maintaining a strong sender reputation and maximizing your campaign’s impact. 

If you’re already a Smartlead customer, you can start verifying your leads immediately by purchasing credits today. If you want to learn more about email deliverability and ways to improve it, check out the resources available at Smartlead University today.

To access it, simply log into your Smartlead account and click on the ‘Smartlead University’ tab at the bottom left corner.

If you’re new to Smartlead, you can use our 14-day free trial to explore the tool and its benefits.

FAQs Email Verification

Originally published at Smartlead Blog