Namecheap Domain Authentication
Authenticating your domain is a trust mechanism, it tells the inboxes of your subscribers that Transpond is allowed to send as your domain and so they will let the emails through.
Authenticating your domain requires making some small changes to your DNS settings. Each DNS provider have slightly different options and this article will detail the specific steps and options you need if your domain is hosted with Namecheap.
There are a total of five DNS records that are important to ensure you get the best deliverability when using Transpond:
- SPF
- DKIM
- DMARC
- Tracking domain
- CDN domain
Most domains have an existing SPF record, and if that's the case you would edit the existing one rather than creating an extra one. You should only ever have one SPF record per domain.
To add and update your DNS records:
- Log in to your Namecheap account.
- Click on Domain List in the panel on the left-hand side
- Use the button to Manage next to your domain.
- Switch to the Advanced DNS tab
- To create a new record, click the button to Add new record. If you have an existing SPF record then make sure to edit it, and include just the
include:spf.ourmailsender.com
part of it in the Value/Target.
Set up the DKIM record
- Select CNAME Record record from the drop down.
- In the 'Host' field, enter
mp1._domainkey
- In the 'Target' field, enter
dkim.ourmailsender.com
- Click the green check mark to save the changes.
Set up the SPF record
- First, check if you have an existing SPF record. It will be a TXT record that starts with
v=spf1
. If you do, click to edit the Value for the existing one and move on to step 5. - If you don't have an existing one, click to Add new record
- Select TXT Record from the drop down
- In the 'Host' field, enter
@
- In the 'Value' field,
- if creating as new SPF record, enter
v=spf1 include:spf.ourmailsender.com ?all
. - If editing an existing SPF record, just add
include:spf.ourmailsender.com
at the end, before the part that says?all
.
- if creating as new SPF record, enter
- Click the green check mark to save the changes.
Set up the DMARC record
- Select TXT Record from the drop down.
- Enter
_dmarc
in the Host field - Add your DMARC record in the 'Target' field. It normally starts with
v=DMARC1; p=...
. If you haven't yet generated a DMARC record then you can use one of the free tools online to set one up, such as DMARC Generator: https://dmarcgenerator.com - Click the green check mark to save the changes.
Set up your Tracking domain record
- Select CNAME Record from the drop-down.
- Enter
mptrack.yourdomain.com
in the Host field. Replace yourdomain.com with your own domain. - Add
api.transpond.io
in the Target field - Click the green check mark to save the changes.
Set up your CDN domain record
- Select CNAME Record from the drop down.
- Enter
mpcdn.yourdomain.com
in the Host field. Replace yourdomain.com with your own domain. - Add
cdn1.ourmailsender.com
in the Target field - Click the green check mark to save the changes.
Record list for reference
Below is a list of the types of records you need to create or edit.
Type | Host | Value/Target |
CNAME | mp1._domainkey | dkim.ourmailsender.com |
TXT | @ | v=spf1 include:spf.ourmailsender.com ?all |
CNAME | mptrack.yourdomain.com | api.transpond.io |
CNAME | mpcdn.yourdomain.com | cdn1.ourmailsender.com |
TXT | _dmarc | v=DMARC1; p=... |
Make sure to replace yourdomain.com
with your own domain.