How to Remove Your IP from Secureserver.net (GoDaddy) Blacklist

Who is Secureserver.net?

Godaddy.com.

So if you get an email bounce from secureserver.net, then your server’s IP address may be on the GoDaddy blacklist.

Getting off of the blacklist is pretty easy, but first you want to check a few things so that you don’t get blocked again.

Are You Really on Goaddy’s Blacklist?

If you are getting bounces from secureserver.net, then you have likely hit one of GoDaddy’s Blacklist filters.

Like most major ISPs, GoDaddy does not provide a blacklist lookup form.  Instead, you learn that you have been blacklisted by seeing an email bounce.  Typically you will see something like this in your mail server logs.

SMTP error from remote mail server after initial connection:
host smtp.secureserver.net [72.167.238.201]:
554-p3pismtp01-010.prod.phx3.secureserver.net
554 Your access to this mail system has been rejected due to the
sending MTA's poor reputation. If you believe that this failure is in
error, please contact the intended recipient via alternate means.

 

Fix the Problem First!

Most ISPs will Ignore Repeated Blacklist Removal Requests

 

Why Was I Blacklisted?

GoDaddy does not disclose how they choose to blacklist servers, but most current systems use some sort of sender reputation.  Historically, I know that GoDaddy uses Senderbase.org in their filtering but I am not sure if that is still true.  Your server’s sending reputation depends on:

All of these factors go into determining your sender score. I recommend you always check your sender score before doing any blacklist removal requests. Many ISPs rely on sender score from ReturnPath, so I always check it there as well as at SenderBase.org Even if Google does not use this directly, a low score there likely signals broader email delivery issues.

 

Fix the Problem First

Do not just rush to fill out the removal request.

Most blacklists operations can easily tell if you have fixed the problem or not.  If you submit a request and your server is still spamming, your request will likely be ignored.

Just because you don’t send a lot of email does not mean your server is not.   Security compromises and bad email practices are common.

In our server management work, the most common reasons why GoDaddy blacklists your server are:

• Compromised user account used to send spam.
• Web application exploit used to send spam.
• Bulk emailing from mailing lists, newsletters, forums & blogs (even if they are opt-in).
• Bulk forwarding of email to GoDaddy hosted at secureservers.net.

The four items account for about 95% of all spam cases we investigate

The remaining 5% is often incorrect DNS.  Make sure you have correct DNS records and check out the 3 DNS Records Every Email Marketer Must Know — even if you are not doing email marketing.

 

Filtering Clues

GoDaddy’s unblock request form includes some clues about filtering.  On the left hand side, the include links to:

• Spamhaus.org
• Spamcop.net
• Senderbase.org
• Openrbl.org

These are all public blacklisting and sender reputation services.  With the exception of Senderbase, I have no proof that they actually use this but in my experience if you are in Spamhaus or Spamcop’s blacklist, you likely have significant spam issues.

 

Blacklist Removal

You can request that your IP be removed from GoDaddy’s secureserver.net blacklist by filling out this form http://unblock.secureserver.net.

If your IP was not actually blocked by the secureserver.net list, then you may get this response:

 

If your IP was actually blocked, then you will get a response that looks like this:

 

Now all you have to do is wait.

Due to how blacklists work, you may have to wait 24-72 hours to see the results.  If you are still blocked after a 5 days, you may want to call in an expert (like us) to help.

Get Help!

If all of this seems too much, then we can help.

We provide blacklist removal services for people using CentOS, Red Hat, Plesk and cPanel and other servers.

While we cannot guarantee results, we are successful in more than 99% of cases (100% successful so far in 2017).

We just know how to fix email problems correctly.