This is a question that we are asked many times and what with the big email providers such as Google, Yahoo and Microsoft becoming ever aggressive of spam filtering. Unfortunately, for a domain owner this can result in legitimate emails sent from your domain being marked as SPAM – even if they aren’t.
This is where the use of SPF, DKIM and DMARC authentication records come to their own for your domain that work together to prevent spam, email spoofing, and malicious activity for your domain email.
Most of these popular email providers have a policy in place by marking of all unauthenticated emails as SPAM regardless of message content.
Without email authentication records in place, anyone can send email on behalf of your domain pretending to be you. This is why most receiving email servers will mark a message as spam or even discard messages from a domain that does not have these records in place.
What is SPF?
SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is an email authentication protocol that helps prevent email forgery and spoofing. It allows the email recipient to verify whether the sender’s IP address is authorised to send emails on behalf of a particular domain, enhancing email security and reducing spam and phishing risks.
A simple way to generate your own SPF record is to use this easy online tool and add the DNS record to your domain.
What is DKIM?
DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) is an email authentication method that adds a digital signature to outgoing emails. It verifies the integrity and authenticity of the message, allowing the recipient to confirm that the email was indeed sent by the claimed sender and that it hasn’t been tampered with during transit.
You can usually find a link to add this in your web hosting panel.
What is DMARC?
DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance) is an email authentication protocol that builds upon SPF and DKIM. It enables domain owners to specify policies for handling emails that fail authentication checks, such as marking them as spam or rejecting them outright. DMARC also provides reporting mechanisms to monitor and analyse email authentication activities.
