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Setting up SPF and DKIM with WooCommerce

WooCommerce Follow-ups is a premium extension.

Why use SPF and DKIM?

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Improve email deliverability with SPF and DKIM. You can help reduce spam even further with just two records in your domain name system (DNS) settings: an SPF record and a DKIM record. These records improve email deliverability and reduce spam in slightly different ways. Please note, using these tools is not a guarantee of delivery. It merely helps authenticate you, the sender.

What are DKIM and SPF?

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A DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) record adds a digital signature to emails your organization sends. Email recipient servers perform a check: “Does the signature match?” If so, then the email hasn’t been modified and is from a legitimate sender. Your DKIM DNS record lets the recipient server perform this verification. The DKIM check verifies that the message is signed and associated with the correct domain. A Sender Policy Framework (SPF) record indicates which mail servers are authorized to send mail for a domain. Email recipient servers perform a check: “Is this email coming from an authorized mail server?” If not, then the email in question is more likely to be spam. Your SPF DNS record lets the recipient server perform this verification. The SPF check verifies that an email comes from authorized servers. You’ll reduce the potential for spam email appearing to be sent from your account if you have both an SPF and DKIM record in place. Many of the major email providers use these technologies to help reduce spam.

General DKIM and SPF setup

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Here’s how to set up DKIM and SPF records for Follow-up Emails. You can find the settings via Follow Up Emails > Settings > DKIM & SPF. DKIM
  • Select the “Enable DKIM” checkbox
  • Input your “DKIM Domain”. For example, if your domain is https://www.WooCommerce.com, your “DKIM Domain” would be WooCommerce.com
  • Input the “DKIM Selector Prefix”. Use can use anything for this field. For example, Google recommends simply using a shortname for your site. In their case for Google Apps, they recommend using “google”.
  • Once you’ve filled these forms in, choose your “Key Size” and click “Generate Keys”. These keys are the items that you’ll need to input or provide to your host to finish your set up.
  • Select “Save” at the bottom of the window to save your settings. The keys will not be saved but can be generated again.
We recommend checking with your host to ensure you are setting up DKIM correctly as this can differ from host to host. In addition, SendGrid and Elastic Email customers should not activate DKIM because these providers already implement it. See SendGrid’s doc and Elastic Email’s instructions. SPF
  • Select the “Enable SPF” checkbox
  • Enter “Your Domain”. Be sure to use your fully qualified domain without the “http://” or “https://”
  • Click “Generate SPF Record” and you’ll be presented with the DNS entry you’ll need to input or provide to/with your host
  • Select “Save” at the bottom of the window to save your settings. The keys will not be saved but can be generated again.