How do I verify my domain?

Domain Verification will allow you to send from any email address on a particular domain. For example, once you have verified  mydomain.com, you can send emails using Prefinery with any @mydomain.com email address. 

Adding the DKIM record to the domain's DNS will not affect any other DNS records already in place, nor affect sending from the domain using a method other than Prefinery.

Once you have verified DKIM for the domain, you are all set to begin sending email. Optionally, you can also set up the Return-Path to help ensure effective delivery. Adding a Return-Path is not required for verifying the domain, however.

Adding and Verifying a New Domain

1

Follow steps 1-3 of our guide here on how to add a sender address: How do I customize the 'from' email address in Prefinery emails?

2

Once the email address is confirmed, the next step would be to validate your email address domain. To get started, click the actions menu (triple dot button) for your newly-added sender address then choose Verify Domain. Prefinery will then generate DKIM record that needs to be added to your DNS in order to verify the domain.

Verifying the domain ensures that your sent email arrives in your user's inbox. Additionally, emails signed by your own domain will look as if they've been sent directly from you, rather than delivered by prefinery.com. 

3

Still in the Sender Addresses page, in the Domain Verification section that appears, click the View Verification Instructions button to find more information about the changes you need to make on your domain's DNS settings. Verifying your domain will require you to add a DKIM record to the domain's DNS settings. You do not need to add a SPF record. 

Follow the provided instructions to add the necessary records via your DNS provider to verify your domain. 

If you're not sure of how to change your DNS settings, we highly recommend that you reach out to your website administrator or developer, or your DNS provider (which is either your domain registrar, website hosting provider, or both). Oftentimes they have a guide for adding DNS records ( like this one from GoDaddy as an example), and their support would be happy to make the change for you. 

Using Cloudflare? Besides adding these records to your main DNS settings, make sure to also add them in Cloudflare following their guide here: Manage DNS records

4

Once the DKIM ( required) and Return-Path (optional) records are added to your DNS, click Verify. 

Please note that it can take up to 48 hours for the DNS changes to propagate. For most DNS providers, it will only take minutes to less than an hour, for others a few hours. While waiting, we recommend that you try clicking on the  Verify button for the domain you are trying to get authenticated to instantly check and see if the required DNS changes for your domain have propagated.

After DKIM is verified, Prefinery will display a checkmark next to the domain in your list of Senders and you can immediately begin sending email from any email address on the domain.

Troubleshooting

If the record was incorrectly created/added, this may cause an issue with verifying your domain. Here's how you can check and verify if the record was correctly: 

1

Go to https://www.mail-tester.com/spf-dkim-check

2

Enter your Domain name (e.g. example.com) and DKIM Selector/Hostname (e.g. 20**********00pm._domainkey), then proceed with Checking SPF & DKIM keys. 

3

If you've added the record correctly, the DKIM check should return the value of the record as provided in the Prefinery verification instructions. 

If it was not added correctly, the check will return "No DNS record found" for the DKIM selector on this domain. 

Continue with the next steps if the result is "No DNS record found"

4

Edit your DNS settings and if possible reduce the record's TTL to the lowest setting (60 seconds or lower) so you don't have to wait hours for changes to propagate. You may also want to double-check and make sure that you're adding the record correctly. 

5

If the issue still persist, contact your hosting/DNS provider for assistance.