Have you ever sent an important email to a client, only to find out days later it went straight to their junk folder? It happens more than you would think, and often the reason has nothing to do with what you wrote. It comes down to a few technical settings behind the scenes called SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
These sound complicated, but the idea behind them is simple. They are ways of proving to other email providers, like Gmail or Outlook, that an email genuinely came from you and not from someone pretending to be you. Without them set up properly, your emails are far more likely to be flagged as suspicious.
What these three things actually do
SPF is a list of which servers are allowed to send email on behalf of your domain. Think of it like a guest list, if an email claims to be from you but comes from a server that is not on the list, it looks suspicious.
DKIM adds a kind of digital signature to your emails. It proves the email hasn’t been tampered with on its way to the inbox.
DMARC tells receiving mail servers what to do if an email fails the SPF or DKIM checks, and can also send you reports so you know if anyone is trying to send fake emails using your domain.
You don’t need to understand the technical detail to benefit from having them set up correctly. You just need to know they exist and that they are worth checking.
How to check your own records
The easiest way is to use a free online checker. Tools like MXToolbox or DMARC Analyzer let you type in your domain name and will tell you straight away whether SPF, DKIM and DMARC are set up, and flag any problems.
Here is what to do:
- Go to a free checker tool such as mxtoolbox.com
- Find the SPF, DKIM and DMARC lookup tools on the site
- Type in your website domain, for example yourcompany.co.uk
- Read the results, they will usually say pass, fail, or not found
If everything comes back green or shows as passing, great, you don’t need to do anything. If something shows as missing or failing, that is worth sorting out.
What to do if something is missing
This is where it gets a little more technical, because these settings live in your domain’s DNS records, which is the same place your website address is managed. If you are not sure where that is or how to access it, this is a good one to hand over to whoever manages your website or domain, since getting it wrong can accidentally stop your email working altogether.
Why it is worth doing
Beyond the annoyance of emails not arriving, having these records set up properly also protects your reputation. It makes it much harder for scammers to send fake emails that look like they are from your company, which is a common trick used in phishing attempts against your own clients and suppliers.
It only takes a few minutes to check, and it is one of those things that is easy to ignore until it causes a problem.
If you run the check and something doesn’t look right, or you are not sure what the results mean, we are happy to take a look. Get in touch and we can help. We can assist with all types of digital support – find out more here
