[FAQ]

I’m a small business owner in Chicago and I’m trying to improve my email deliverability. I was in my email provider’s settings, and it’s showing a warning that my domain isn’t authenticated. It’s telling me I need to set up SPF, DKIM, and DMARC records.

To be honest, these terms are like a foreign language to me. I’m trying to understand what they are and why they’re important before I go and mess around with my website’s DNS settings.

Can anyone explain what these three things are in plain English and what they actually do for my emails?

Any help explaining this would be amazing. Thanks!

[Jeff Bullas]

An excellent and very important technical question. Understanding these is crucial for deliverability in the modern email landscape.

Short Answer: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC are text-based email authentication methods. In simple terms, they are records you add to your domain to prove to receiving email servers that the emails you send are genuinely from you and not from a malicious spoofer.

Think of them as three layers of security that act like a digital passport for your emails, helping them get through customs (spam filters) and safely into the inbox.

First, you have SPF, which stands for Sender Policy Framework. Think of this as a public guest list for your domain. You create a text record in your domain’s DNS that lists all the servers that are officially allowed to send email on your behalf, like the servers for Google Workspace or your email marketing platform. When an email arrives at its destination, the receiving server checks the sender’s IP address against your guest list. If it’s on the list, the email passes the first check.

Next is DKIM, or DomainKeys Identified Mail. Think of this as a tamper-proof seal on a letter. DKIM adds a unique digital signature to every email you send. Receiving servers can check this signature against a public key that you publish on your domain. If the signature is valid, it proves two things: that the email really came from your domain and that its content, including the text and any images, has not been altered along the way.

Finally, you have DMARC. Think of this as the security policy that tells servers what to do if an email fails the SPF or DKIM checks. Your DMARC text record can instruct them to let the email through, send it to the spam folder, or reject it completely. It enforces the rules you’ve set with SPF and DKIM and provides you with reports on who is sending email from your domain. Having all three in place is the gold standard for proving your legitimacy and is critical for good email deliverability.

Cheers,
Jeff

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