Improvements to Domain Scanner: Streamlining Your DMARC Journey

In today’s digital world, protecting your domain from spoofing, phishing, and misuse isn’t just a best practice — it’s essential. As email continues to be one of the primary channels for business communication, ensuring that your domain adheres to robust email authentication standards is crucial to maintaining deliverability, protecting brand reputation, and safeguarding your customers.

At DMARCReport, we’re continually focused on helping organizations of all sizes understand and strengthen their email security posture. That’s why we’re excited to share a detailed overview of recent improvements to the Domain Scanner tool — an essential first step in any DMARC implementation journey. These changes aren’t just incremental enhancements; they’re designed to deliver deeper insights, smoother workflows, and improved clarity for both security professionals and non-technical stakeholders alike.

What Is a Domain Scanner and Why It Matters

Before we dive into the updates, let’s set the stage: what does a domain scanner actually do?

A domain scanner is an online diagnostic solution that evaluates the current state of your domain’s email authentication records — primarily SPF (Sender Policy Framework), DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail), and DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting & Conformance). In some tools, this also includes BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification).

These records work together to:

• Verify that email messages are authorized by the domain owner.
• Reduce spam and phishing attacks that impersonate your domain.
• Give you control over how receivers treat unauthorized mail.
• Improve inbox placement and deliverability.

Simply put: if your domain doesn’t have strong email authentication, bad actors can easily send fraudulent emails that appear to come from you. For organizations that rely on email to communicate with customers and partners, that’s a risk no one can afford.

With that context, a domain scanner gives you a snapshot of your current security posture — highlighting potential vulnerabilities and providing guidance on how to remediate them.

A New and Improved Domain Scanner Experience

In mid-2024, updates were introduced to the Domain Scanner to help users get even more accurate insights, clearer reporting, and actionable steps — all with a more streamlined experience. Below, we break down the most significant improvements and why they matter.

1. Risk Assessment Level — Know Your Exposure at a Glance

One of the biggest usability improvements is the addition of an explicit Risk Assessment Level in the domain scan results.

Previously, users might see raw outputs for their SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records, but lacked a unified sense of how all those pieces combined into a coherent security posture. With the Risk Assessment Level, you now get a clear and immediate indicator of how vulnerable your domain is — whether your authentication records are strong or whether there are gaps that could be exploited.

This feature benefits organizations in several ways:

• Immediate clarity: You don’t need deep technical expertise to interpret the results — the scanner tells you what your risk level is.
  Actionable guidance: Based on your risk score, you get targeted recommendations on what to fix first.
• Prioritization: When managing multiple domains, teams can focus on the most urgent security gaps.

By summarizing complex authentication data into a single, digestible metric, this improvement brings domain security insights closer to users of all experience levels.

2. Refined BIMI Reporting — Stay Focused on Core Security First

BIMI (Brand Indicators for Message Identification) is a relatively new addition to the family of email authentication standards — and it’s exciting because it allows you to display your brand logo directly in inboxes when your domain is fully authenticated.

However, including BIMI in your security evaluation before you’ve achieved core email authentication compliance (SPF, DKIM, and DMARC) can create confusion. That’s why the updated scanner design removes BIMI from the Domain Score calculation by default — so you can focus first on establishing fundamental authentication before worrying about logo display.

• What this means: You get a purer view of your domain’s email security based on the most critical protocols.
• Optional inclusion: If you’re already DMARC compliant, you can choose to include BIMI in your analysis and track readiness toward that next level of email branding.

This change ensures that the score you’re looking at reflects your true security posture without being skewed by secondary factors.

3. A Clear Path to Optimization — From Insight to Action

Understanding your domain’s security state is one thing — but knowing what to do next is another. That’s why the Domain Scanner now provides a clear optimization path. Once a scan is complete, the system guides you step-by-step through actions that:

• Help you fix configuration issues.
• Walk you through DMARC policy progression — from monitoring (“none”) toward enforcement (“quarantine” or “reject”).
• Point you toward onboarding or setup tools to implement changes.

This guidance reduces the guesswork that often plagues email authentication projects and gives teams a structured workflow for addressing weaknesses.

4. Exportable Scan Reports — Tailored to Your Audience

Another standout update is the ability to export both technical and non-technical reports from the scanner results. These aren’t just dumps of raw data — they are structured documents tailored to the needs of different stakeholders.

Here’s how these help:

• Technical Reports:
  
  • Designed for security teams or administrators
  • Includes detailed record analysis, error specifics, and configuration guidance
  • Useful for audit trails and compliance documentation
    
• Non-Technical Reports:
  
  • Written in plain language
  • Ideal for executives, clients, or teams without deep email security expertise
  • Explains issues and corrective steps without jargon

By enabling both views, the scanner empowers teams to communicate findings across the organization — simplifying collaboration between IT, security, MSPs, and business units.

Special Features for MSPs — Reporting That Works for Your Clients

Managed Service Providers (MSPs) are among the most frequent users of domain security tools — and their needs differ from a single organization’s internal team. That’s why the improved Domain Scanner includes customizable reporting features specifically for MSP use cases.

These enhancements help MSPs:

• White-label reports: Add your own branding, logos, and color schemes to reports.
• Deliver client-ready insights: Generate reports that customers can understand without translation.
• Strengthen client relationships: Provide clear deliverables that prove value and expertise.
• Stand out from competitors: Offer polished, branded security insights that unmanaged solutions don’t provide.

This level of customization isn’t typical in domain scanning tools, and it gives MSPs a compelling reason to enhance their service offerings with professional, tailored output.

Why These Improvements Matter for Your DMARC Journey

All of these updates — from the Risk Assessment metric to exportable reports — are more than just feature additions. They represent a shift toward better guidance, better clarity, and better outcomes for domain owners. Here’s why that matters:

1. You Get Actionable Insight, Not Just Data

A raw scan is useful, but what professionals and business owners often need most is interpretation — guidance on what to fix and how to fix it.

2. You Can Communicate Across Teams

Not everyone thinking about email security lives in DNS records and TXT values. Being able to communicate results clearly to different audiences ensures buy-in and faster resolution.

3. You’re Better Equipped to Scale

As organizations grow and add more domains, consistent scanning, reporting, and remediation becomes increasingly important — especially for MSPs managing dozens or hundreds of client domains.

4. You Build Trust

Email authentication isn’t just about security — it’s about building trust with customers, partners, and the broader digital ecosystem. The clearer your domain posture, the more confidence recipients have in your messages.

Looking Ahead: What’s Next for Domain Scanning Tools

Domain scanning and email authentication continue to evolve — and we expect further enhancements across several fronts:

• Deeper integrations with enforcement workflows
• Real-time monitoring and automated alerts
• Multi-domain dashboards for enterprise environments
• Better alignment with DMARC reporting platforms

These future additions will continue to help organizations refine their security posture and improve deliverability. Innovations in email authentication standards like BIMI, MTA-STS, and TLS-RPT will also play increasingly prominent roles in how domain scanners evaluate readiness.

Conclusion: A Better Starting Point for Strong Email Security

Protecting your domain is an ongoing journey — and every step forward matters. The improvements to the Domain Scanner set a new standard for clarity, usability, and impact, whether you’re just getting started with DMARC or managing a complex portfolio of domains.

At DMARCReport, we believe that security should be accessible and actionable. These enhancements reflect that philosophy, making it easier than ever to understand your domain’s email authentication posture and take confident steps toward stronger protection.

Whether you’re a small business securing your first domain, an enterprise refining your policies, or an MSP delivering value to your clients, these updates bring domain scanning — and your DMARC journey — into sharper focus.