Setting up DKIM and SPF TXT records for your domain

Setting up DKIM and SPF TXT records for your domain

To ensure seamless email delivery, it is recommended that you configure DKIM and SPF for your domains. Issues pertaining to non-delivery of emails and emails getting delivered in SPAM folders can be regulated by adding DKIM and SPF configurations as TXT records in your DNS Manager.
Note: Only domain owners can add DKIM and SPF records for the domain. To configure DKIM and SPF records for your domain, please reach out to support@zohobookings.com.

We will describe both the configurations in the sections below:
  1. Setting up DKIM TXT records
  2. Setting up SPF TXT records

Setting up DKIM TXT records

What is DKIM?

DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) is a technique which validates whether an email is sent by an authorized server on which the sender domain is configured. DKIM helps prevent email spam, spoofing, and phishing. A digital signature is attached to an outgoing email. This is then used by the receiver for email authentication and subsequent reception.

Steps to add DKIM TXT record in DNS Manager

  1. Login to your Domain's DNS Manager.
    2. 

  2. Choose options to add a TXT record for DKIM (navigation and options will vary for different providers).

  3. Paste the DKIM record (received from the Zoho Bookings team) as the value for the TXT record.

    The below image is from Wix's DNS manager which adds DKIM records for the  zylker.com domain.



  4. Save configuration.

Setting up SPF TXT Records

What is SPF?

SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is an email validation system, to find out spoofed/ forged emails using a specific SPF record published for the domain with the details of hosts, that are permitted by the domain's administrators. This prevents spammers from using the sender's domain for forging emails. An SPF record helps maintain a good domain reputation because authenticated emails are more likely to be delivered to a user's inbox instead of being marked as spam. 

Steps to add SPF TXT record in DNS Manager

An SPF record is added to the DNS records so that mail-receiving servers can verify if the sending server's IP address is authorized to send emails on behalf of the domain.
  1. Login to your Domain's DNS Manager.

  2. Choose options to add a TXT record for SPF (navigations and options will vary for different providers).

  3. Paste the SPF record (received from the Zoho Bookings team) as the value for the TXT record.

    The below image is from Wix's DNS manager which adds SPF records for the  zylker.com domain.



    If the value is already there, edit the existing entry and add an additional value.



  4. Save configuration.
Note :       
      1. The DKIM and SPF records generated for each Data Center (AU, IN, COM, CN, EU, US) will be different. Please reach out to support@zohobookings.com for assistance.
      2. It takes between 12-48 hours for the DNS changes to take effect (for both DKIM and SPF). Longer the TTL, longer the verification time.
      3. Make sure TXT records do not contain errors. This would fail the verification process.
      4. Make sure to have a single SPF record for one domain. Multiple SPF records for a single domain are considered invalid.

For further reading