What is email list cleaning?
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Email list cleaning (also called email verification or list hygiene) is the process of checking every address on your mailing list to confirm it is valid, deliverable, and safe to send to. It removes invalid, disposable, role-based, and risky addresses that would otherwise cause hard bounces and damage your sender reputation.
How does ListSweep verify email addresses?
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ListSweep runs each address through a 10-step pipeline: syntax validation, typo detection, disposable domain detection, role-based detection, free provider detection, gibberish local-part detection, MX record lookup, per-domain rate limiting, catch-all detection, and live SMTP mailbox verification. No emails are ever delivered to your list.
Do you send emails to verify addresses?
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No. ListSweep never sends a single message to your list. Verification is performed by querying DNS records and talking to receiving mail servers at the SMTP protocol level - the handshake confirms whether a mailbox exists without ever delivering content.
How often should I clean my email list?
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Before every major campaign, and at minimum once per quarter. Email addresses decay at roughly 2 to 3 percent per month as people change jobs, abandon inboxes, or switch providers. Regular cleaning keeps bounce rates under the 2% threshold ISPs watch.
What is the difference between the web app and the desktop app?
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The ListSweep web dashboard runs in any browser with subscription plans, order history, and team features. SweepWin, the free desktop app for Windows, runs entirely on your machine with no upload limits - ideal for agencies and large batch jobs where data never leaves your PC.
Is my uploaded data secure?
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All traffic is encrypted in transit with TLS, and the integration credentials you connect are encrypted at rest. Generated export files are deleted 30 days after validation completes; the per-address results stay in your account until you delete the job or close the account. ListSweep never shares, sells, or repurposes your data, and we are GDPR compliant with SOC 2 Type II currently in progress.
What bounce rate is acceptable?
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Industry best practice is to keep hard bounces below 2 percent. Between 2 and 5 percent signals list quality problems. Above 5 percent risks throttling, spam folder placement, and outright blocklisting by major ISPs like Gmail, Outlook, and Yahoo.
How accurate is ListSweep email verification?
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ListSweep has not published an accuracy percentage yet: no benchmark run we would stand behind has been completed, and the Benchmark page explains the method and why no number is shown. Every address goes through DNS-level checks, a live SMTP handshake and catch-all detection. Results are labeled as valid, invalid, or risky so you can segment confidently and never guess about ambiguous addresses.
