What does each record do?
Each of the four records has one job:
- MX names the servers that receive your mail.
- SPF lists the servers allowed to send as your domain. It’s a TXT record on the domain.
- DKIM publishes the key that checks each message’s signature. It’s a TXT record under a name called a selector.
- DMARC sets a policy for messages that fail the checks, and says where reports go. It’s a TXT record at
_dmarc.
Why do they matter?
Mail providers check SPF, DKIM and DMARC before they deliver a message. Google’s email sender guidelines require every sender to set up SPF or DKIM, and bulk senders to set up all three. Without them, invoices, quotes and replies from your domain are more likely to land in spam or be rejected. Mail sent as your domain by a booking tool or an invoicing app counts too.
What breaks them?
- Moving a domain to a new DNS host without copying every record
- Trusting a DNS host’s automatic import, which can miss DKIM records
- Adding a sending service, like an invoicing tool, without adding it to SPF
- Two SPF records on one domain, which receivers treat as an error
- Deleting records nobody recognizes
- A DMARC policy set to reject before SPF and DKIM pass
A DNS lookup tool lists a domain’s records by type, so you can save a copy before anything changes.
How does reddysite handle email records?
When reddysite moves a domain, it carries the mail records across and checks that mail still flows after the switch. Inquiries from your site’s forms arrive in your inbox, so working MX records matter there too. Every inquiry in one dashboard explains where leads go, moving off WordPress covers a domain move, and what a 301 redirect is covers the website half of one.