Domains - Add Domain | Admin Guide - Zoho Directory

Add and verify domain

Prerequisites

Roles required to perform this action:
  1. Organization Owner
  2. Organization Admin

You can add a domain to Zoho Directory in any of the two ways:
  1. Directly through your Zoho Directory organization's admin panel (or)
  2. From any of the services associated with your Zoho Directory organization

Steps to add and verify a domain in Zoho Directory:

This is the recommended and primary way of managing domains in Zoho Directory.
  1. Sign in to Zoho Directory.
  2. Go to Domains, then click Add Domain.
  3. Enter your domain name, then click Next to begin the SENDER EMAIL setup.
  4. Enter a username for the sender email address using which you want to send emails from your services to your org users. Know more about the sender email in the article linked here.
  5. Click Send OTP. Enter the OTP sent to the email address and click Verify. You can skip the Sender Email setup if it's not applicable in your scenario.
  6. On the DOMAIN SETUP screen, log in to your DNS. Zoho Directory supports a One-Click Domain Setup flow for certain DNS providers like GoDaddy, and Ionos that support the DomainConnect protocol. (If you want to Set Up Manually instead, skip to step 11.)
  7. On the DNS page, follow the on-screen prompts to allow Zoho Directory to apply the necessary DNS settings.
  8. Once you're through with the DNS setup, you'll be redirected to a summary screen in Zoho Directory.
  9. If you face any issue performing the steps in your domain host, consult their help documents or their support team.
  10. If you chose manual setup, follow the set-up instructions displayed at this step to finish setting up your domain using TXT records in your domain host (Example: Zoho Domains, GoDaddy, Cloudflare, Namecheap, Google Domains, etc.,).

    Steps for TXT records verification in your DNS:

    1. Sign in to your domain hosting site and open the Domain Management page to update the DNS records.
    2. Locate the option to add a new record. To add a TXT record:
      1. In the Type field, select TXT.
      2. In the Hostname field, enter the value displayed in the Zoho Directory setup screen.
      3. In the Value field, copy the TXT record value from Zoho Directory and paste it here.
      4. In the TTL field, set the minimum possible value recommended by your domain host.
    3. Repeat the above steps to add more records and wait until the values propagate.
    4. Return to the Domain Setup screen in Zoho Directory, then click Validate Records.
      NotesDKIM keys namely DKIM 1 (for transactional emails), and DKIM 2 (for marketing emails, e.g., Zoho Campaigns or Zoho Marketing Automation) will be listed by default, regardless of whether the associated apps are added to your Zoho One bundle. These keys are specific to the types of emails sent and will be used as and when needed once the relevant services are configured.
  11. You can take a look at the summary of the individual statuses of the TXT records you attempted to validate. Then click Done.
Now, your domain should be verified. If you face any difficulty, refer to this troubleshooting guide, or write to support@zohodirectory.com.

Domain statuses

Zoho Directory unifies domain and email authentication across its services. Here’s what the domain status tags mean:

Status tag
Meaning
NOT VERIFIED
Domain is added, but its ownership records are not verified.
VERIFIED
Domain ownership is fully verified.
UNAUTHENTICATED
None of the email authentication records (DKIM & SPF) are not configured.
AUTHENTICATED
All the necessary email authentication records (DKIM & SPF) are configured.
PARTIALLY AUTHENTICATED
Any one or more of the email authentication records may either be improperly configured or left unconfigured.

Make sure the domains are completely verified and authenticated so as to have successful email delivery and domain reputation.