Email domain verification - SPF & DKIMUpdated 2 months ago
Intro
Domain verification is a way for you to claim ownership over your email domain, when using third-party services to send and receive emails using your domain. The ownership verification allows you to ensure maximum deliverability over your emails, as well as prevent misuse of your email domain.
The main reason to set up domain verification is to have improved email deliverability. If you are experiencing a problem where outbound messages sent via email forwarding are not being received in your customers' main inbox, for example they are being sent to spam/trash, the first course of action would be to set up your SPF and DKIM.
SPF and DKIM are the main sources used for setting up domain verification for email forwarding integrations.
In order to provide more stability, Gorgias uses two third-party services for forwarding email integrations: Sendgrid and Mailgun. Each Gorgias account will be randomly assigned to one of them. The setup will slightly differ based on that, but the final outcome will be the same - improved deliverability of your sent emails.
The simplest way to know which one to do is to check in your Settings→ Email integration you are looking to verify → Outbound Verification / Domain Verification. You can see how both look like in the images below.
Sendgrid
Mailgun
Sendgrid
To proceed with setting up SPF and DKIM with Sendgrid you will need to have admin access to both your Gorgias account and your domain registrar.
Steps
- Go to Settings > Channels > Email integrations
- Select the integration you wish to configure
- Go to Outbound verification tab
If you are using and email address with email domain that you own, proceed with Domain Verification. This will verify all email integrations with the same domain.
If you are using a free email domain (e.g. gmail.com, outlook.com, freemail.com), proceed with Single Sender Verification. You can also use Single Sender Verification if you are getting an error when trying the Domain verification. In that case, you will have to verify each email address individually.
Sendgrid Domain Verification
- Click Verify domain
If successful this will create a key, displaying the 3 values you need to add to your DNS records - Open your domain registrar and create a new entry.
- Enter the details from step 2.
Type TXT
Host gorgias.gorgias.io (as seen above)
MX value mx.sendgrid.net. TXT value v=spf1 include:mailgun.org ~all (as seen above)
Here you can find the video of the process and some additional docs that might be helpful.
Once completed the screen will display a green verified status. Until the records are verified, you will not be able to use your email integration for replies from Gorgias.
Sendgrid Single Sender Verification
- Click Verify single sender
- Enter your company details. This will trigger a verification email to your address
Once complete the screen will display a green verified status. Until the records are verified, you will not be able to use your email integration for replies from Gorgias.
Mailgun
To proceed with setting up your SPF and DKIM you will need to have admin access to both your Gorgias account and your domain registrar.
Steps
- Go to Settings > Channels > Email integrations
- Select the integration you wish to configure
- Go to Domain verification. If successful this will create a key, displaying the 2 values you need to add to your DNS records
- Open your domain registrar and create a new entry
- Enter the details from step 4. However, if you already have some other SPF entries in your domain registrar, please mind these instructions before proceeding to the next step.
Type TXT
Host gorgias.gorgias.io (as seen above)
TXT value v=spf1 include:mailgun.org ~all (as seen above)
Here is an example of this from GoDaddy
Below you can find the video of the process and some additional docs that might be helpful.
Once both of these options are added to your domain registrar, you can proceed to wait for up to 72 hours for the domain verification to be completed. It is highly advised not to change anything if all the entries have been entered correctly and just wait for the 72-hour mark to pass. You will be able to use your email integration in Gorgias even before the values are verified, but the deliverability might be compromised, which is why we advise that this is done as soon as you create the email integration.
Adding values to a domain registrar
In the above example we used GoDaddy as the domain registrar, but rest assured that all other domain registrars are very similar, but the steps might slightly differ in the domain registrar that you are using.
Here are the instructions for several major ones:
If you're not using one of the listed below, it might be best to reach out to their support team.
Here, you will also find a video guide to help you go through the process yourself. As noted, the options in your domain registrar might appear different, but the values should be added in the same way.
More than one SPF value
Please follow the instructions below if you already have some other entries in your domain registrar. If not set properly, issues may occur on sending and delivery of your outbound emails.
If your account is hosted on Sendgrid (your tab in email integration is called Outbound Verification and you have a total of 3 values), then you can just copy the values from your helpdesk and paste them the same way in your domain registrar. For more instructions, please check out this section.
If your account is hosted on Mailgun (your tab in email integration is called Domain Verification and you have a total of 2 values), then you will need to merge your entries into one using the inline method. You can follow these instructions on how to merge records or reach out to your email provider and ask that your entries are all merged into one.
Here is an example:
- Record that you already have:
v=spf1 include:shops.shopify.com include:outlook.com ~all - Record that is in your helpdesk:
v=spf1 include:mailgun.org ~all - How it should be added to your domain registrar:
v=spf1 include:mailgun.org include:shops.shopify.com include:outlook.com ~all
Any further questions or troubles concerning SPF or DKIM? Feel free to reach out to our Support Team anytime via our live chat or email at [email protected]. Happy to help!