Email DNS: MX, SPF, DKIM and DMARC

Getting email to work — and not land in spam — is mostly a DNS job. Four record types do the heavy lifting:

• MX records tell the world which servers accept mail for your domain, each with a priority (lower = tried first). Without correct MX records, inbound email fails.
• SPF (a TXT record) lists which servers are allowed to send mail as your domain, e.g. v=spf1 include:_spf.provider.com -all. Only one SPF record per domain.
• DKIM (a TXT record, at a provider-specified selector) publishes a public key so receivers can verify your mail was signed and not tampered with.
• DMARC (a TXT record at _dmarc) tells receivers what to do with mail that fails SPF/DKIM, and where to send reports, e.g. v=DMARC1; p=quarantine; rua=mailto:....

If you use Transcom email we set these for you. If you use a third-party provider (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, etc.), copy their exact records into your zone. Getting all four right is the difference between reliable delivery and mail vanishing into junk folders.