If you are using Google Workspace for your email accounts and Namecheap as your domain host, you will need to manually set up some DNS records before using your email accounts for sending.
Watch the detailed video through this link.
Adding Namecheap domains to Google Workspace
This is considered the first step before setting up your SPF, DMARC, and DKIM on Namecheap and Google Workspace.
Here are the steps to guide you through this process:
Log in to your Google Workspace Admin Console.
On your Accounts tab, select the Domains tab.
Click Manage Domains and select Add a domain.
Enter your domain name and select Secondary domain.
Click on Add domain & Start verification.
Manually add the TXT record to your Namecheap domain DNS to verify your domain.
Log in to your Namecheap account and find the DNS settings for your domain. You may use this to check the domain list in Namecheap.
Click Manage.
Click Advanced DNS on the domain page.
Paste the TXT record provided by Google and click Save.
Return to the Google Workspace guide and click Protect Domain.
You can check the verification status in 5 minutes.
Setting MX
Once your domain is verified, you can proceed to add the MX record.
Log in to your Google Workspace Admin Console.
Click on the Accounts tab, and select the Domains tab.
Click Manage Domains.
Find the domain that you are going to connect to and click Activate Gmail.
A dialog box will pop up and choose Set up MX Record, and click Next.
Log in to your Namecheap DNS
Click Manage and then Advanced DNS on the domain page.
Come back to Google and click Next: Go to Step 2
Go to your Namecheap DNS, scroll down to Mail Settings.
Choose Gmail and then click Save changes. The MX record will then be created for your domain.
Next, go back to Google and click Activate your Gmail.
Setting SPF
After adding the domain, you may proceed to set up SPF by following these steps:
In your Namecheap DNS, click Add New Record.
Copy the following if your email provider is Google.
Type: TXT Record
Host: @
Value: If you only send email from Google Workspace, enter this SPF record:
v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all
Click Save Changes. For other email providers, please contact Namecheap support to obtain the SPF value.
Setting DKIM
After setting up your SPF, you can easily generate the DKIM record by following these steps:
Log in to your Google Workspace.
Go to Settings for Gmail and click Authenticate email
Select your domain and click on Generate New Record.
Keep the default settings to generate the record. For DKIM key bit length 2048, and prefix selector "google."
Go to your Namecheap Advanced DNS page and click Add new record.
Go to your Google Workspace, copy the generated TXT value, and paste it into Namecheap DNS.
Click Save all changes. For other email providers, please contact Namecheap support to obtain the DKIM value.
Go back to your Google Workspace authentication page and click Start Authentication.
It may take up to 48 hours for DKIM to fully propagate. If you get this error message when authenticating the DKIM record, please make sure you save your record in the Namecheap DNS and try to authenticate it again in a few hours.
Setting DMARC
DMARC Record is a TXT record that you'll need to input into Namecheap DNS. This is considered the last important action. Here are the steps on how to add the DMARC record for your Namecheap domains:
Go to the Namecheap DNS
Locate the domain you want to set up the records for and select Manage.
Click the 'Advanced DNS' tab and select 'Add new record.'
Copy the following details:
Type: TXT
Host: _dmarc
Value: v=DMARC1;p=none;sp=none;pct=100;rua=mailto:[email protected];ruf=mailto:[email protected];ri=86400;aspf=s;adkim=s;fo=1
Set the TTL to the lowest value.
The rug tag is optional for any domain/email provider, so if you don't want to receive DMARC reports, you can remove the rug tag from the DMARC value.
If you are using the rua tag in the DMARC value, please make sure to replace [email protected] with your email address.
Click Save to save the record in your Namecheap DNS and wait for the confirmation.
For other email providers, please contact Namecheap support to obtain the DMARC value.
