A Guide to SPF and DKIM Verification

If you're using an email marketing platform like the ZyraTalk Engagement Engine, verifying your Sender Policy Framework (SPF) and DomainKeys Identified Mail is an important part of the onboarding process. Do those terms sound Greek to you? This guide will walk you through what SPF and DKIM are and why they're necessary for email marketing.

What is the Sender Policy Framework (SPF)?

The Sender Policy Framework (SPF) authenticates the servers used to send emails from your domain. SPF verification involves two key components: preventing other people or sites from sending fake emails from your domain and ensuring your emails make it to your recipients.

Basically, when your SPF is verified, email providers are able to confirm that your email is sent from an authorized server associated with your domain. It also helps email providers flag spoofed or malicious emails sent from your domain but not from the authorized server.

What is DKIM?

DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) works hand-in-hand with SPF, giving each email a "signature" that confirms the message was sent from an authorized server.

When you send an email, the server adds a DKIM key into the header of your email. This is all done on the backend — your recipients won't see it.

When that email lands in your contacts' inbox, the server reads the DKIM key and compares it to your public key. If they match, the server verifies the email isn't a forgery or phishing attempt.

How do you verify your SPF and DKIM?

We get this question all the time from new clients during the Engagement Engine onboarding process.

We recommend asking your website provider or development team to do this for you. But if you're taking a DIY approach, you'll first need to use a record checker like DMARC Analyzer to create, test, and validate your SPF and DKIM records.

Once you've got your SPF and DKIM records in TXT format, you'll need to add them to your website hosting platform. This process varies depending on which hosting provider you're using.

Here's a quick list of specific instructions for some of the most popular hosting platforms:

• How to add an SPF record to Bluehost
• How to add an SPF record to GoDaddy
• How to add SPF and DKIM records to Siteground
• How to add SPF and DKIM records to NameCheap
• How to add SPF and DKIM records to HostGator

Once you've added your SPF and DKIM records to your hosting provider, we can proceed with onboarding!

We know this is pretty technical stuff. That's why we're here to help you every step of the way. Feel free to ask questions during the onboarding process. We'll work directly with your web development team to verify your records so you don't even have to lift a finger.

Got other questions about getting set up with the ZyraTalk Engagement Engine? Get in touch! Our dedicated support team will be more than happy to help.