Improve email deliverability with SPF and DKIM
To improve email deliverability and help avoid email being marked as spam or undeliverable to other email hosts, it is recommended that SPF and DKIM records are installed on your domain.
Email senders may receive more "undeliverable message" notifications if these are not present, and many email providers, such as Gmail, can insist on the presence of these records in order to deliver email to their users.
In most cases, these are installed by default when your hosting account is created.
How to install or repair SPF and DKIM on cPanel
However, in some instances the record may become corrupted, for example due to incorrect formatting when edited manually. The following steps allow SPF and DKIM records to be checked and repaired where necessary.
- Log into cPanel
- Navigate to Email > Email Deliverability
- To repair SPF or DKIM, click the Repair button next to the relevant domain
- To install SPF or DKIM, click the Manage button next to the relevant domain, and follow the on-screen instructions to firstly, generate and then install DKIM, and secondly, install SPF.
- To customise the SPF record beyond the default values (e.g. to allow other IPs or hosts), click the "customise" button in the SPF section, when navigated to as per step 4 above. Follow the steps on screen to customise the record. This is recommended to avoid errors which can prevent the entire SPF record being read.
What is DKIM?
From Wikipedia, "DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) is an email authentication method designed to detect forged sender addresses in email (email spoofing), a technique often used in phishing and email spam."
What is SPF?
From Google Help: "An SPF record identifies the mail servers and domains that are allowed to send email on behalf of your domain. Receiving servers check your SPF record to verify that incoming messages that appear to be from your organization are sent from servers allowed by you."
