Email domain typos: suggest corrections without changing recipients
A small domain typo can send a message to the wrong place or make delivery fail. A good typo workflow offers a correction while preserving the user’s original input. It does not silently turn a plausible guess into a confirmed destination.
Open the relevant free tool →Suggest a correction, then ask
Inspect the part after @
Look for missing letters, transposed characters, accidental spaces and unexpected endings. Compare the domain with what the user intended, not just with the most popular provider. A rare domain can be legitimate. A familiar-looking domain can also belong to someone else, so popularity is not sufficient evidence for an automatic replacement.
Separate suggestions from validation
A syntax checker can tell you whether a domain-shaped string meets its supported rules. DNS can show whether the domain resolves. Neither establishes which domain the person meant. Show a suggestion like “Did you mean…?” and let the user accept it. Keep a way to continue with the original address when your suggestion is wrong.
Handle list imports with a review column
For a CSV, add suggested_domain and correction_reason fields instead of overwriting the address column. Review the source record or ask the contact through an established channel. Track who approved a correction and when. This is especially important when the list will receive account or transactional messages containing private information.
Use DNS as supporting evidence
A nonexistent domain supports investigating a typo, while an active domain does not prove the address is correct. A website-only domain can also exist without receiving mail. Inspect MX results and explicit no-mail declarations separately. If the lookup itself fails temporarily, do not use that outage as the basis for a permanent correction.
Test the corrected entry again
Once the user confirms a update, rerun the relevant technical checks and complete any ownership-confirmation flow required by your application. Do not carry a previous confirmation timestamp over to a different destination. Keep the old entry in an appropriate audit trail rather than using it for future sends. A correction is a useful data update, not just cosmetic cleanup.
Put it into practice
- Suggest, do not silently rewrite.
- Keep rare but legitimate domains possible.
- Record approved changes during imports.
- Reconfirm ownership after changing a destination.