Domain Authentication
1. In a nutshell
Domain authentication is a process where the recipient's email provider verifies that an email is sent from a trusted source. An authenticated domain ensures that the email is safe and not a spam.
2. Feature availability
- Roles
- Super admin can add custom emails and validate those domains.
- Admins can add custom emails but cannot validate those domains.
- Staff will not have access to view or manage the domain.
3. Overview
Domain authentication is a sender identification process that verifies your email domain to improve delivery and protect against spam, forgery, and phishing. It provides a trackable identifier, showing the recipient’s email provider that you are a trusted sender, ensuring your emails reach their inbox.
A custom domain is a email domain you own (e.g., zylker.com), while a public domain is a commonly used free email domain (e.g., gmail.com, yahoo.com). In Bookings, a custom domain can be validated by adding DKIM records to its DNS settings, improving email delivery and preventing emails from landing in the spam folder. For unvalidated or public domains, emails will be sent from the default Bookings email address "notification@zohobookings.com," since public domains cannot be validated.
4. Usecase
Imagine you are managing a private organization, called Zylker Pvt. Ltd., and your admin team adds a sender email address like 'example@zylker.com' to your Bookings account to send emails to employees. If zylker.com is a custom domain but the DKIM records are not added to its DNS settings, emails sent from 'example@zylker.com' will land in the spam folder. To prevent this, it is essential to authenticate the domain.
5. Understanding the domain authentication process
Every time you add a new sender email address to your Zoho Bookings account, its domain is automatically listed in the Domain Authentication section with a 'Not Validated' status by default. This newly added domain needs to be authenticated using the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and Domain Keys Identified Mail (DKIM) records.
SPF record: Validating a domain using the SPF record enables the receiver's email server to verify whether the email has come from a trusted email server and that the email sender's details have not been modified.
DKIM record: Validating a domain using the DKIM record enables the receiver's email server to validate whether the emails are generated from authorised servers that are configured by the administrators of the sender's domain.
The SPF and DKIM records must be added to the DNS settings of the domain for authentication. Once the process is complete, the domain authentication status will automatically update to 'Validated'.
6. Steps to validate a domain
Note : Public domains are not shown since they cannot be validated.
Click the Settings
icon in the top-right corner of the Bookings menu bar, then select General.
From the left pane, click Domain Authentication to view the list of added custom domains.
Click the Validate button next to the domain you want to authenticate. A Domain Authentication slider will open.
Hover over the SPF and DKIM records each and click Copy. Paste these records into your domain provider's DNS settings.
Once the records are added, return to Bookings and click Validate Now at the bottom. The DNS changes will be applied immediately, and the domain's authentication status will update to Validated.
The authentication process is now complete.