Mail providers such as Gmail and Outlook.com check three DNS records before they trust mail from your domain. If they are missing or wrong, your messages land in spam folders or are refused. The Deliverability tile in the Control Panel checks all three for each of your mail domains and tells you what to fix.
The three records
| Record | Where | What it says |
|---|---|---|
| SPF | a TXT record on the domain itself (@) |
which servers may send mail for your domain |
| DKIM | a TXT record on default._domainkey |
the key our mail servers sign your messages with |
| DMARC | a TXT record on _dmarc |
what receivers should do with mail that fails the checks |
The SPF record for mail sent through our servers lists both data centres, so it keeps working after a failover:
v=spf1 ip4:173.72.255.2 ip4:72.88.107.10 mx -all
If you also send mail through another service (a newsletter tool, an online shop), its servers must be added to the
same record, usually as include:... as that service describes. A domain has one SPF record only.
A good DMARC record to start with:
v=DMARC1; p=quarantine
Where to change them
- If we host your domain's DNS: in the Control Panel under DNS records. See Manage your DNS records.
- If your DNS is elsewhere (at your registrar, for example): there. The Deliverability check shows which name servers your domain uses.
The DKIM record has to contain our mail servers' key for your domain. If the check reports DKIM as missing, open a ticket and we will send you the exact record, or add it for you if we host your DNS.
After a change
DNS changes take effect within minutes on our name servers, but can take up to a day to reach every provider. The Deliverability check keeps its result for 10 minutes; check again after that.