What are SPF, DKIM, and DMARC in plain English?

They are three DNS records that prove your email really came from you. SPF lists which servers are allowed to send as your domain, DKIM adds a cryptographic signature showing the message was not altered in transit, and DMARC tells receiving servers what to do when a message fails the first two and where to send the reports.

Without all three, Gmail and Yahoo now push bulk mail from your domain to spam or reject it outright. Your web host or CRM gives you the records to paste into DNS, it takes a few minutes, and you should start DMARC at p=none, read the reports for a couple of weeks, then tighten to quarantine.

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