If your emails are constantly landing in your clients' Spam or Junk folders (especially Gmail or Office365), you are likely missing essential email reputation records: SPF, DKIM, and DMARC.
What are they?
- SPF (Sender Policy Framework): A DNS record that lists exactly which servers IP addresses are authorized to send email on behalf of your domain.
- DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail): Adds a cryptographic signature to every email that proves the email was genuinely sent by your domain and hasn't been altered in transit.
- DMARC: Tells the receiving server what to do if an email fails the SPF or DKIM checks (e.g., "Reject it" or "Mark as Spam").
How to Enable Them in Plesk
- Go to Mail and click the Mail Settings tab.
- Select your domain name and click Enable/Disable Services to ensure DKIM spam protection is activated.
- Next, go to Hosting & DNS > DNS Settings for your domain.
- Plesk usually generates the SPF record automatically as a TXT record. Look for a record resembling:
v=spf1 +a +mx +a:yourserver.com -all - Plesk also generates the DKIM key automatically. Look for a TXT record starting with
default._domainkey. - To add DMARC, click Add Record, choose TXT, put
_dmarcas the domain prefix, and paste this safe starting policy in the text field:v=DMARC1; p=none;
Testing Your Configuration: Once you've added or verified these records, we highly recommend sending a test email to a free service like Mail-Tester.com to receive a full score and analysis of your email deliverability setup!
