methodology / Email & Communications / #76
Email provider class (Workspace / 365 / Zoho / self-hosted / shared)
#76 · Recommended · Web Quality · weighted · Email & Communications · weight 0.7% · impl implemented · method v1.2.0
Web Quality factor
This factor is part of Web Quality — the weighted 0..100 score that sits above Web Standards. Its weight depends on what kind of site is being measured. Web Standards items take priority; this factor only enters the score once Web Standards passes.
- Base weight
- 0.6 applied to every site type unless overridden below
- Why this weight
- Email provider class — Workspace/365 is a citizenship signal, free providers less so.
Per-site-type overrides
| Site type | Weight | Δ vs base |
|---|---|---|
| E-commerce | 0.9 | +0.3 |
| News / Publisher | 0.8 | +0.2 |
| Personal site | 0.3 | -0.3 |
| SaaS / Product | 0.8 | +0.2 |
Site types not listed inherit the base weight.
What this means for your business
We can usually tell whether your email is on Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, your web host, or something custom. The platform behind your email shapes how reliable it is, how well it filters spam, and how easy it is for a new employee to get an inbox.
Plain title: What's actually running your email
What we measure
We classify your email provider into a quality tier. Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 are professional grade. Bargain-host shared mail is a deliverability and security risk.
How to improve your score
Migrate to Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, Fastmail, or Zoho. Avoid running mail through your hosting provider's built-in mail unless it's a managed-WP host with explicit mail support.
Facts
Implementation notes
Already collected. Could expand to detect Brevo, Mailgun, etc. as transactional senders separately from primary mailbox provider.
Scoring
Scoring formulas are versioned with the methodology. The current method (v1.2.0) maps raw measurements to pass, warn, fail. Factor weights determine how much each contributes to the composite — see the methodology index for the full table.
Cited by these standards
Standards in the Standards Library whose satisfiedBy requirement tree references this factor. Each link goes to the standard's full entry — methodology, scope, and the other factors it relies on.
Version history
| Version | Change | Date |
|---|---|---|
| v1.2.0 | Factor introduced. Status: live. Scoring impl: implemented. | 2026-04-25 |