Email deliverability
Many websites and email newsletters send out emails (e.g. contact forms, order confirmations or abandoned cart emails)
These can be caught in the spam or junk folders and blocked.
In effect, the emails have not been delivered.
There are options to improve email deliverability and one of these is the use of SPF records.
SPF Records
A sender policy framework (SPF) record is a type of DNS TXT record that lists all the servers authorised to send emails from a particular domain.
A DNS TXT (“text”) record lets a domain administrator enter arbitrary text into the Domain Name System (DNS).
TXT records were initially created for the purpose of including important notices regarding the domain but have since evolved to serve other purposes.
Why SPF records?
SPF records were originally created because the standard protocol used for email — the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) — does not inherently authenticate the “from” address in an email.
This means that without SPF or other authentication records, an attacker can easily impersonate a sender and trick the recipient into taking action or sharing information they otherwise would not.
Think of SPF records like a guest list that is managed by a doorman. If someone is not on the list, the door attendant will not let them in. Similarly, if an SPF record does not have a sender’s IP address or domain on its list, the receiving server (doorman) will either not deliver those emails or mark them as spam.
SPF records are just one of many DNS-based mechanisms that can help email servers confirm whether an email comes from a trusted source. Domain-based Message Authentication Reporting and Conformance (DMARC) and DomainKeys Identified Mail (DKIM) are two other mechanisms used for email authentication.
If you are having issues with email being received from your website then please get in touch with Scoosh.