Why your business email lands in spam, and the five records that fix it
SPF, DKIM, DMARC, MX and PTR decide whether your invoice reaches the inbox. Here is what each one does, in plain language, and how to check yours in ten minutes.
The five records that matter
MX tells the internet where to deliver mail for your domain. Wrong or missing MX records are the number one cause of "my email stopped working".
SPF lists the servers allowed to send mail as you. If your marketing tool sends campaigns but is not in your SPF record, those messages get flagged.
DKIM signs your messages so receivers can prove they were not altered in transit.
DMARC tells receivers what to do when SPF or DKIM fails, and gives you a report of who is sending as your domain. Start at p=none, read the reports, then move to quarantine.
PTR (reverse DNS) matters if you send from your own server. Most shared and email hosting handles this for you.
Check yours in ten minutes
- Send a test message to a Gmail account and choose "Show original".
- Confirm spf=pass and dkim=pass.
- Look at the DMARC line — if it says none, you have no policy yet.
- Ask your host to publish DKIM if you do not see a signature.
- Repeat monthly, especially after adding a new sending tool.
Deliverability is boring infrastructure work that quietly decides whether customers ever read your invoices. It is worth an hour.