For a business website most people will want an email address that is domain specific. So instead of using something like mybusiness@gmail.com, instead have an email such as contact@mybusiness.com. In the past this was commonly provided for by using the hosting accounts email server and then either routing the email to one’s Outlook mail application or viewing the email from a web-mail link directly on the hosting server.
Using the hosting account email server still works (most hosting companies provide this without additional cost), yet this is not the best option since email servers in hosting accounts are often exploited by hackers and once the email server is infected it is nearly impossible to clean since the malware will typically infect the protected mail server system files (which cannot be deleted). If you are set on using the hosting account server for email be very careful to never open an email file or click a link unless you are absolutely sure it is safe. Most hosting servers also provide email forwarding; in this case one simply routes a domain specific email address “contact@mybusiness.com” (not an actual web-mail account) to their personal email account “mybusiness@gmail.com”. The forwarding option is no longer a good idea since this is the most common way spammers seek to deceive (generally referred to as “spoofing”), so forwards are almost universally blocked by ISPs and mail servers now.
Note: Of the hosting options there is shared and dedicated IP hosting. With “shared” hosting there is a group IP range (individual IPs are assigned within that range), and all it takes is one person in this hosting block to get on a blacklist for spamming (or being hacked) and everyone may find their emails getting blocked. In many cases a web-mail account from the hosting server will work for a while, yet once your IP has made the blacklist you will no longer receive your own email; that being said, you can contact your ISP and ask them to whitelist your domain, which may solve the problem, and there are blacklist support sites which explain the steps needed to restore your domain’s reputation. In comparison, with “dedicated” IP hosting your website is the only one assigned to that IP so your site won’t be affected by other users. Of course shared hosting is much cheaper than the dedicated options, which is why there are other “authenticated” web-mail options commonly used now that do work with shared hosting.
Understanding Authentication
Authentication tells the mail server that the referrer domain is legitimate, and not a “spoofed” email address; authenticating legitimacy is why many SSL certificates used for shopping carts require a dedicated IP. To provide authentication the popular options are to setup web-mail through the domain provider (GoDaddy is a popular option), through Google Business Mail (GSuite), or through Microsoft’s Office 365 (Exchange or IMAP). The provider of each of these will provide the Pop3 or IMAP (incoming) and SMTP (outgoing) server settings for linking to Outlook, your phone, etc. The cost of each will of course vary based upon the amount of space provided and feature set.
Authenticated Email for Websites
Once you are able to send and receive from an authenticated email account you need to ensure that it will work with the website’s forms. It is important to understand that ISPs and Mail Servers will often block email that is routed through a website, which is what happens when a website form is submitted. The “blocking” is a result of the relatively recent DMARC policy (SPF and DKIM security protocols), which in short uses domain keys to verify the sender’s email address is legitimate. You can read more about this at: https://blog.endpoint.com/2014/04/spf-dkim-and-dmarc-brief-explanation.html As a result of DMARC settings most emails sent from website forms will be blocked unless … you guessed it … the email server has been authenticated. The way “authentication” happens is a bit different for each email provider.
Note: It is important to note that website forms on CMS websites now require that the “send to” and “from” address are domain specific. In the past one could use another address for these (such as a standard Gmail account), yet no longer “unless” an SMTP plugin is used. That being said, a standard email “mailto:” link has always worked on a web pages. And even if your domain is authenticated it still may be routed to your spam box. In this case just set up a filter within your web-mail settings that tells the mail server to send all email from your email address to your inbox.
A good article linked to by “Gravity Forms” (the popular commercial email plugin for WordPress) and written by “Yoast” (the author of the best SEO plugin for WordPress) provides some valuable information about email reliability. Before choosing an authenticated Email provider I would suggest reading this article https://yoast.com/dev-blog/email-reliability/ to start to help you better understand what is needed as well as troubleshooting options.
Authenticated Email Options
Firstly, it is important to know that by default the MX Record of one’s hosting account will point to one’s own domain and be set to use the local mail server. To have the domain specific address provided elsewhere (not using the hosting accounts web-mail) and work with the website forms “most” mail providers will require entries added within the hosting account’s MX Record, CName, or both. Some may even require a TXT entry. You may also need to set up the Email Routing to “Remote Mail Exchanger” so as not to conflict with the local mail server.
Google Business Email:
When you set up a Google Business Mail account you have to initially verify your domain. You can learn how to do this at https://support.google.com/a/answer/60216 I use Google Business mail for which I added the HTML file option, after which I added the MX enteries noted next.
Edit at: MX Entry
1 aspmx.l.google.com
5 alt1.aspmx.l.google.com
5 alt2.aspmx.l.google.com
10 alt3.aspmx.l.google.com
10 alt4.aspmx.l.google.com
Once this was done I received all emails from my web forms, though many of the forms submission made their way into my spam box. Again, just set up a filter so that your emails always arrive in the inbox.
GoDaddy Domain Email:
If you use GoDaddy for your domain you may wish to use one of their three email options. You can view them at https://www.godaddy.com/email/professional-email With the GoDaddy setup you need to add DNS Zone File Records as noted for your email type. For example:
MX Record:
Priority 10, Mailsore1.secureserver.net
Priority 0 SMTP.secureserver.net
If you use GoDaddy’s “Microsoft Office 365 Email” you will need to edit the Mx Entry to something like:
0 www-yourdomain-com.mail.protection.outlook.com
GoDaddy does have an “auto-setup” option that will automatically apply the DNS Zone Editor values, something like:
autodiscover.www.yourdomain.com. CNAME autodiscover.outlook.com
yourdomain.com. TXT v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com ~all
msoid.www.yourdomain.com. clientconfig.microsoftonline-p.net
Note: Microsoft Office 365 is also provided by Google and Microsoft directly.
Register.com Domain Provider Email:
With register.com you need to add a MX Entry similar to:
mx07.register.com and edit the DNS Zone Editor similar to Priority 0 mail.yourdomain.com; CNAME webmail04.register.com
Integra.com Domain Provider Email:
Integra does not use SPF or DKIM so there is no settings required for website forms to work.
Final Thoughts: Having a website form is not as easy as it once was, which of course we can thank the spammer and hackers for. While these different “authenticated” mail options may seem a bit confusing, most domain providers are able to help you get things set up quickly to work with your hosting account. There are many new email server options available, so my suggestion would be to contact your domain provider and see if they have an affordable web-mail option. Assuming they do buy one email account to start (typically around $5/mo); and be sure to let them know that you need to send email through a website form so need the CName and/or MX Record values for the hosting to work with the new “domain” email server.
