Hi there,
Happy New Year!
There are two types of people in January. The first group wakes up on January 1st ready to conquer the world. They've got the new planner, the meal prep containers are coming out of the cupboard, and they're actually going to stick to that exercise routine this year. They really are.
Then there's the rest of us who spent the holidays doing absolutely nothing productive (as intended) and are now finding it incredibly difficult to remember how to function like a normal working adult.
I'm not saying which category I fall into, but I did just find a piece of leftover Christmas chocolate under my keyboard.
Anyway, regardless of whether you're Team Fresh Start or Team What Day Is It, January is actually a good time to check in on your WordPress email setup.
Your site is probably sending emails you forgot about
I wrote a guide on auditing your WordPress emails a while back, and I was positively surprised at the number of people who told me it was really helpful.
WordPress is chatty. Password resets, comment notifications, user registrations, WooCommerce orders, form submissions, plugin updates…
And some of those emails probably need updating.
See what's being sent: If you have Pro, Go to WP Mail SMTP » Settings Email Log and scroll through some recently sent emails. If a plugin you thought you deactivated months ago is still sending emails, you probably want to check that.
Click the links in your automated emails: Pull up a recent order confirmation or welcome email and actually click through. Do the links work? Are they going to the right pages?
Turn off emails you don't need: WordPress will notify you about every comment and password change if you let it. Go to WP Mail SMTP » Settings » Email Controls and disable the ones you don't actually need.
This isn't exciting work. But discovering broken links in your password reset email after customers can't log in is significantly less exciting.
In 2026, AI is now managing your inbox for you
I've also been spending this week catching up on my inbox and I think we're going to be in for an interesting year in the world of email.
Google just announced that they're rolling out a major AI overhaul in Gmail.
Gmail's new features include automatic conversation summaries, AI-generated replies that match your writing style, and an "AI Inbox" that prioritizes messages based on who you email frequently and what it thinks is urgent.
Microsoft's doing similar things with Outlook Copilot. And there's a whole category of AI email assistants popping up - tools like Shortwave, Superhuman, Cora (which I tried recently), Inbox Zero, and SaneBox. They all do variations of the same thing: use AI to filter, summarize, and prioritize your inbox so you spend less time managing email.
Ultimately AI is now deciding whether your emails are worth showing to people. And this isn't just an advanced spam filter. The AI learns from behavior. If people consistently ignore certain emails from your domain, these AI systems will start hiding them.
The emails that should be fine: password resets, order confirmations, critical account notifications, and other messages people actually need. In other words, most of the emails you send from your WordPress site. But it's always a good idea to make sure your domain is properly authenticated and you're following up-to-date deliverability advice.
Now if you'll excuse me, I have a new year to wade into very slowly.
Catch you next time,
Rachel
Product Educator, WP Mail SMTP
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