SPF, DMARC and DKIM: GoDaddy & Zoho sending accounts

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Learn how to create SPF and DKIM records in GoDaddy to validate the emails that are sent from Zoho Workspace accounts

If you plan on using Zoho Workspace for your email sending, you can buy the Mail Lite plan. Once you have signed up for a plan, you can continue and add your GoDaddy domain to Zoho Workspace.

Adding the GoDaddy domain to your Zoho Workspace

Here is the video that explains how to connect your GoDaddy domain to Zoho and set up DNS records, step-by-step:

You can also follow the steps explained below that will help you set up your DNS records.

After you have logged in to Zoho Admin console (if you had issues logging in, try logging in from the incognito window), you can add your Godaddy domain.

Go to your Domains list by clicking the “Domains” tab (or follow this link) and then click on “Add”

Enter your domain name and click “Add” to confirm.

Next, for security reasons, you must verify your domain ownership by logging into your GoDaddy DNS.

Another window will open and here you need to click on “Connect” to connect your GoDaddy account with Zoho:

Once this is done, Zoho will inform you that the authentication has been successful and that you can proceed to create DNS records.

To make the process easier for you, Zoho offers to configure the DNS records. Click on “Configure now” if you want to follow this flow.

After clicking “Configure now” you will be taken to the “General” tab of your domains in Zoho Workspace. You need to click on “Email Configuration” tab where you will be able to get the data needed for setting up the DNS records for your GoDaddy domain.

MX Records Setup

If you have previously automatically connected your GoDaddy domain to Zoho as shown above, Zoho has created MX records in your GoDaddy DNS, you only need to click “Verify” in Zoho.

If you haven’t automatically connected your domain, follow the steps below.

Important note: ensure that you have deleted all the MX records related to your previous email provider in your GoDaddy DNS. Any other existing MX record will conflict with Zoho Mail, affect email delivery, and result in permanent loss of emails delivered.

Once you are in “Email Configuration” tab, start with configuring MX records.

You will need to log in to your GoDaddy account.

Go to your Domains list in GoDaddy and locate the domain that you are connecting to Zoho. Click on the three dots next to the domain and select “Manage”

If you have previously automatically connected your GoDaddy to Zoho, Zoho will create MX records, you you only need to click “Verify”

In the DNS records for your domain, click “Add” to create a new record.

When the form opens, go back to your Zoho workspace to copy the data that you will enter here:

You will need to copy all the MX data from Zoho and paste the to GoDaddy.

In the Type field, enter MX. In the Name section, add @, Value is mx.zoho.eu, with Priority 10. TTL can stay Default.

Once done, click “Add record”.

You should get a confirmation message that the DNS record has been added.

Continue adding the rest of the MX records the same way (your records might be different, so add the records that have been created for your domain only).

Now that all MX records have been copied from Zoho to Godaddy and saved, you can proceed to verify them. Click on “Verify” button to continue.

You should see this message if everything is set up correctly:

If you see an exclamation mark instead of the green tick mark, try reloading the page and wait a few minutes for MX Records to be verified.

SPF Records Setup

Next step is setting up SPF in GoDaddy. Click on SPF under the “Email Configuration” tab.

Zoho provided SPF value on this page, so don’t close it because you will need to copy it into your Goddaddy DNS record:

Go to your GoDaddy account, and in the DNS records for your domain, click “Add” to create a new record.

Go back to Zoho and click on View SPF value to generate the data.

After you click on “View SPF value”, Zoho will check if there are any SPF records already existent in your DNS. Having more than one SPF record is invalid, based on the Sender Policy Framework.

If you are using a fresh domain, most likely you don’t have any old SPF records, so you can proceed and add one as shown below:

*Continue to DKIM set up if you have successfully created the SPF record.

If Zoho found that you already have an existing SPF, it might suggest deleting an old SPF record or merging it with the new Zoho record.

For both options, first, you need to go ahead and delete any of the old SPF records by clicking on the trash can next to the domain name in your GoDaddy domain DNS.

Then, you can do only one of the following:

OR

Paste the SPF value in a new TXT record and hit “Save”

Now, you can verify it in Zoho.

In your Zoho Workspace, the SPF should be confirmed.

DKIM Setup

Zoho will automatically create your DKIM record in GoDaddy DNS if you were following this flow from the beginning.

To confirm this, click on DKIM under the “Email Configuration” tab. You will see the DKIM record that has been generated for your domain.

If the Status has a green tick icon, your DKIM has been verified.

To double-check, go to your GoDaddy DNS and see if this record has been already added by Zoho automatically.

You can append the number of records shown on your GoDaddy DNS page by scrolling down and selecting “50” from the drop-down list, so all records will be shown on the first page.

if your DKIM record has not been created – it has not been verified in Zoho with a “green tick icon”, you will have to add it manually to your GoDaddy DNS by copying the records from Zoho.

First, create a new DKIM in Zoho by clicking on “ADD” button.

Then, enter these values:

Selector name: zoho

Select key length: 1024

You will generate a new DKIM record which now needs to be copied into your GoDaddy DNS.

In your GoDaddy DNS, click on “ADD”. Then, copy the data from Zoho generated DKIM and enter it as shown on the image below. Click on “Add record” to confirm the changes.

After a few minutes (sometimes it takes a few hours, too) you can go back to Zoho and verify the DKIM. Click on the “Verify”:,

Verified DKIM in your Zoho Workspace should appear.

DMARC Setup

DMARC record is a TXT record that you’ll need to input into GoDaddy DNS.

Important: Configure DKIM and SPF before configuring DMARC. DKIM and SPF should be authenticating messages for at least 48 hours before turning on DMARC.

  1. Sign in to your GoDaddy account and locate the domain where you want to set up the records, click on three dots next to the domain and select “Manage DNS”.
  2. Scroll down and click on “Add new record”. You will come back to this page once you generate the DMARC from Zoho.

Go to your Zoho Workspace and from the “Email Configuration” tab click on “DMARC”.

Zoho will generate a DMARC record based on your preferences:

Enter the following in the form:

Click on “Generate”.

Next, you need to copy the generated DMARC from Zoho to your GoDaddy DNS.

Paste the given data to your GoDaddy DNS new TXT record:

After you receive the “Success” message on GoDaddy, you can go back to Zoho and verify the DMARC record.

If everything is set up correctly, you will get this message which concludes this process.

If you go back to your Domains tab in Zoho: https://mailadmin.zoho.eu/cpanel/home.do#domains/list

you should be able to see the “completed” mark next to your new domain

Your GoDaddy domain is now connected to Zoho workspace and you can start creating accounts (users) for your domain, to start sending emails.

August 16, 2023
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