DOMAIN VERIFICATION

Domain Verification is a recommended step when sending email with Sendif because it ensures the deliverability of your email. Domain Verification signals trustworthiness to email inbox providers and your recipients.

This page discusses Sendif’s Domain Verification process specifically; however, all reputable email delivery services have similar requirements. The need to verify a sending email server’s legitimacy through DNS entries is not Sendif-specific and applies to the way email is evaluated across the internet.

This page guides you through Domain Verification setup. If you’re already familiar with Domain Name System (DNS) records, you may want to skip to the setup instructions.

If you’re less familiar with DNS or email-specific DNS records, the following sections will help you understand why Domain Verification is necessary and how it helps protect the reputation of your domain when sending email.

What is Domain Verification?

When sending email, you must set Domain Name System (DNS) records on the domain to:

  1. Communicate to receiving email servers that you own the domain the email was sent from.
  2. Verify that you have given the sending email server permission to send email on behalf of the domain.

Domain Verification is Sendif’s process for setting the DNS entries that grant us permission to send email on your behalf. Once you have completed Domain Verification by following the instructions on this page:

  • Your recipients will no longer see “via sendiff.com” beside the from address of your messages.
  • Both receiving email servers and human recipients will be more likely to trust the legitimacy of your messages, which means you’re more likely to reach an inbox than a spam folder.

Key terminology

Having a high level understanding of the following terms will help as you learn more about email deliverability. However, you do not need to become an email deliverability expert to send email with Sendif. If you wish to continue with Domain Verification setup, skip ahead to the setup instructions.

DNS

As mentioned earlier, Domain Name System (DNS) records are essential to verifying which email servers are allowed to send email on behalf of your domain. DNS is a naming system for domains on the internet. It resolves domains humans can remember, like sendif.co, to IP addresses that belong to specific computers.

There are several types of DNS records. An A record points a domain directly to an IP address where requested resources can be found. However, some records, such as CNAME records, link a domain to another domain or “host.” Other records, such as TXT records, allow a domain owner to store text information about the domain. A single domain may have many records of varying types. For example, your domain may have an A record pointing to the IP address of your web server and CNAME records pointing to the cloud service that handles your email.

DNS records are managed using your DNS provider or host. Popular DNS providers include DNSimple, GoDaddy, Rackspace, and Cloudflare, but there are many others. These providers allow you to set and remove DNS entries for your domain.

DNS records and email Verification

When working with an email provider such as Sendif, you should be aware of two types of email Verification: DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) and Sender Policy Framework (SPF). DKIM and SPF are both implemented in part by setting TXT records on your domain.

DKIM

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is an Verification method that uses asymmetric encryption to sign and verify your email. With DKIM implemented, the sending email server adds a cryptographic signature to your emails’ headers. The DKIM record is a TXT record that stores the DKIM public key. For more information about how DKIM works, see DKIM Records Explained.

SPF

Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is an email Verification standard developed by AOL that allows you to list all the IP addresses that are authorized to send email on behalf of your domain. The SPF record is a TXT record that lists the IP addresses approved by the domain owner. The receiving server can compare the email sender’s actual IP address to the list in the SPF record. For more information about how SPF works, see SPF Records Explained.

Sendif’s DNS records

CNAME

As mentioned earlier, CNAME records link one domain to another domain. When Sendif gives you CNAME records during Domain Verification, they point to a domain Sendif controls. This means that Sendif can create and update your SPF and DKIM records for you.

The CNAME records also allows Sendif to route our click and open tracking statistics back to your Sendif account.

Set up Domain Verification

Before you begin

To set up Domain Verification, you must submit the DNS records provided by Sendif to your DNS or hosting provider. Popular DNS providers include DNSimple, GoDaddy, Rackspace, and Cloudflare, but there are many others.

  1. Determine who your hosting provider is and make sure you have the access required to change your records.
  2. If you don’t have access to your DNS or hosting provider, determine who in your company is able to make DNS modifications for your domain.

Setup steps

  1. In the Sendif App, select Settings.
  2. In the Domain Verification section, click + Add A Domain. The Enter Domain modal will load.
  3. Enter your domain name and click ADD
  4. Your domain will be added with Failed next to 3 CNAME records. These will remain in the Failed state until you successfully verify your domain.
  5. Next, you will add the records displayed using your DNS provider. This process varies depending on your DNS host. For videos on how to add records with some popular DNS service providers, see these videos.
  6. Once you add the DNS records to your domain, return to the Sendif App and click Verify.
  7. You should now see the records verified successfully. Please see Common Errors to ensure you entered the record correctly.
  8. Normally DNS records update quickly, but it can take up to 48 hours for the records to verify after you upload them into your DNS host.
  9. If only half of your records are verified, you likely need to wait a bit longer. It’s also possible that you entered one of your records incorrectly. See Common Errors for how to troubleshoot.
  10. Any time that you send an email with a from address where the domain matches your authenticated domain, Sendif applies that domain to your email. You only need to update your Domain Verification if you want to update the domain you are emailing from.

Common errors

GoDaddy, Amazon Route 53, and Namecheap, among other providers, automatically append your domain to your new DNS record values, resulting in a CNAME entry that fails verification. For example, if your domain is example.com, and Sendif’s CNAME host value is em123.example.com, the incorrect record will become em123.example.com.example.com.

You can remedy this by pasting only the subdomain section of the host value, em123, into your DNS provider’s host field. You do not need to modify the value of the record. Be sure to check your CNAME for this behaviour if your domain doesn’t validate initially.