I've been using Gmail for a decade and a half. Over the years, I've watched the service evolve from a fairly basic email option to a much more expansive offering. At the same time, I've seen the continual rise of spam. We all know what spam is and nobody enjoys having to constantly sift through those unwanted emails to get to those we want (or need) to read.

And yet so many simply delete spam from the inbox and think nothing of it. 

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Deleting spam doesn't help lower the surplus population of offending emails. Instead, what you need to do is report those emails as spam to Google. It only takes a second or two to do so and it has the added benefit of sending a copy of the offending email to Google, which can analyze it to protect you and other users from similar spam and even abuse.

Even better, the more emails you report as spam, the better Gmail learns your preferences and will be more capable of blocking spam from even reaching your inbox. 

In other words, you do benefit from reporting emails as spam. So, why don't more people do it? Well, first off, some might not even know about the feature. Second, some people might find themselves too busy to take the extra steps for reporting emails.

Believe me when I tell you that it's worth the extra few seconds. Since I started reporting emails as spam, the amount of junk and abusive emails I receive has dramatically declined in my Gmail account. 

So, yeah, it's worth it.

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Let me show you how it's done.

How to report emails as spam in Gmail

What you'll need:The only things you'll need are a valid Gmail account and either a browser (for the web app) or the Gmail mobile app. The process is the same for both browsers and apps, so I'll demonstrate this on the browser version. It doesn't matter what browser you use (so long as it supports Gmail - which most do).

There are two methods of reporting spam with Gmail. The first is on a per-email basis (which is what I use). The reason I use this particular method is that I've mistakenly labeled email as spam when using the toolbar/multi-select method. Because of that, I always like to ensure the email I'm reporting is, in fact, spam. However, some prefer the faster, spam button method because it's more efficient (allowing you to report multiple emails at once), and it doesn't require you to open the email in question. 

With that being said, let me demonstrate the method I use first.

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The faster method

And that's all there is to reporting emails as spam in Gmail. Don't think of this as just doing yourself a favor -- you're also helping anyone who might be a target for such emails. The more you report, the better Gmail is at blocking spam. So start reporting and don't stop. Let's finally put those undesirable emails to rest.

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