Email addresses are a common element in many online services, and it’s easy for these to get corrupted or go out of use. This can lead to a broken email server or an invalid mailbox, resulting in bounces and low engagement. To prevent these problems, it’s important to test an email address before sending to ensure that the email will be deliverable.

In addition to using bulk verification tools, you can also verify emails by manually checking them. While this method may be time-consuming, it can help you detect syntax errors and other common issues, such as missing a period or hyphen between the local part (before the “@”) and the domain. This method can be especially useful for catching spam traps, which are real-looking but invalid addresses used by email providers and anti-spam groups to catch malicious senders.

How to Test an Email Address for Accuracy and Deliverability

Another way to test an email address is to search for the username part of the address on Google or a similar search engine. This will help you find any public social media profiles associated with the user, which can be an indication of whether they are a valid person. This method won’t work for every address, as some people choose not to share their names publicly or don’t use social media.

Another method is to use an SMTP ping tool, which will connect to the mail server and check whether it’s accepting messages. This can be an effective way to confirm that an address is valid, as it will show that the server exists and is able to accept new emails. However, this can take some time and is not suitable for large lists.