Adding DNS Records to Verify Your Domain

Leaving comments on pages means nothing if your messages don't reach the people you're trying to reach. Authenticating your domain is what lets Atarim send email as you instead of from a generic address, and it's one of the biggest factors in whether those emails land in an inbox or a spam folder. Four DNS records are what make this work: two MX records so Atarim can receive, and an SPF and a DKIM record so it can send as you. They all sit on a dedicated subdomain, so your existing email keeps working exactly as it does now, whether that's Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or anything else.

Step-by-Step Guide

What Domain Authentication Actually Does

Setting up the Atarim Inbox has two halves, and they’re easy to confuse:

1. Forwarding verification lets Atarim receive the mail you forward to it. This is what activates the Inbox.
2. DNS record verification lets Atarim send as you. Until it passes, your replies go out from Atarim’s default sender address rather than your own.

You can use the Inbox with only the first half complete. The second half is what protects your deliverability and makes replies look like they came from your agency.

Each domain you authenticate must first be used as the Inbox Email Address on your account. Once added, your domain is assigned its own set of DNS record values — which is why the email address has to be saved before there’s anything to copy.

Why this won’t disturb your existing email

Every record Atarim gives you belongs to a dedicated subdomain, atarimio5125.yourdomain.com, which is a separate namespace from your domain itself:

• Your root MX records still route @yourdomain.com mail to Google Workspace, Microsoft 365, or wherever it goes today. The new MX records only apply to the subdomain.
• Your existing SPF record at the root is untouched. The new one is a separate record on the subdomain, not an edit to yours.
• Your existing DKIM keys live at selector._domainkey.yourdomain.com. The new one sits under the subdomain and never collides with them.

The safety of this depends entirely on the records landing on the subdomain. Every record you save should have atarimio5125 somewhere in its name. If one doesn’t, delete it and add it again — see the hostname section below.

What Each Record Does

Four records in total:

Step 1: Set Your Inbox Email Address

1. From the main dashboard, select Settings.
2. Under Communication, select Inbox Setup.
3. The setup wizard opens on Step 1 — Email Setup.
4. Enter a From Name. This is the name your email will appear to be from. It must be at least two characters.
5. Enter your Email address. This is the address you’ll forward your emails from.
6. Select Next.

What happens: Atarim creates a dedicated mail subdomain from your address’s domain and generates the DNS records you’ll add in the following steps. If your address is hello@youragency.com, the subdomain is atarimio5125.youragency.com.

You can also reach the same wizard from the sidebar. Before setup, the Email Inbox appears in your project list as Activate Inbox with a warning icon and the subtitle Connect Your Email Inbox.

Step 2: Set Up Forwarding and Verify It

The wizard moves to Step 2 — Domain Verification. This step holds both verifications.

1. Copy the Forwarding Email Address shown at the top of the step.
2. In your own email provider, create a rule forwarding your inbox address to that address.
   • Google Workspace: Settings > See all settings > Forwarding and POP/IMAP
   • Microsoft 365: Settings > Mail > Forwarding, with “Keep a copy of forwarded messages” ticked
   • cPanel: Email > Forwarders > Add Forwarder
3. Return to Atarim and select Verify Forwarding.

The button shows a loading state, then changes to Verified with a check icon and becomes inactive.

If it fails: after roughly 20 seconds you’ll see an error asking you to confirm forwarding is set up correctly. A Cancel button is available while it’s checking. Re-check the rule and select Verify Forwarding again.

Step 3: Locate Your DNS Records

1. Still on Step 2, expand DNS Records. The panel notes you’ll need to copy these to your hosting provider’s DNS settings.
2. The table lists four records across six columns: Record Type, Host, Value, Priority, TTL, and Verified.
3. Use the copy button on each Host and Value cell rather than retyping.

Rows 3 and 4 are both listed as TXT. Row 3 is your SPF record — its value starts v=spf1. Row 4 is your DKIM record — its value starts k=rsa, and its host contains _domainkey.

The Host and Value cells are truncated on screen. Always use the copy button on each cell rather than reading the visible text — what you can see is not the whole value.

Your DKIM host begins with a selector that is generated for your domain, so it will not match anyone else’s. Copy it exactly as shown rather than typing what you expect it to be.

The MX rows and the TXT rows are built differently behind the scenes. The two MX hosts are a short prefix with no domain on the end. The two TXT hosts are complete hostnames with your domain already included. Paste each one, check what your provider saved, and adjust — see the next section.

Step 4: Add the Records at Your DNS Provider

The wording differs by provider, but the shape is the same: find the DNS management screen, add each record, save. The steps below use GoDaddy.

Adding the MX records

1. Log in to your GoDaddy Domain Control Center.
2. Select your domain and go to Manage DNS.
3. Select Add under the records table.
4. Select MX as the record type.
5. Enter Host: atarimio5125, Points to: mxa.mailgun.org, Priority: 10, and the lowest TTL your provider allows.
6. Select Save.
7. Repeat for the second record, using mxb.mailgun.org as the Points to value. Everything else is identical.

Adding the SPF record

1. In Manage DNS, select Add.
2. Select TXT as the record type.
3. Copy the host from row 3 in Atarim. It is displayed as a complete hostname ending in your domain. GoDaddy appends your domain automatically, so enter Host: atarimio5125 — the displayed value with .yourdomain.com removed.
4. Enter TXT Value: v=spf1 include:mailgun.org ~all.
5. Select Save.

Adding the DKIM record

1. In Manage DNS, select Add.
2. Select TXT as the record type.
3. Copy the host from row 4 in Atarim — the one containing _domainkey. It is displayed as a complete hostname ending in your domain. GoDaddy appends your domain automatically, so remove .yourdomain.com from the end before entering it.
4. Paste the full DKIM string copied from Atarim into TXT Value.
5. Select Save.

A note on the Priority column

Atarim shows a Priority value on all four rows. Priority only applies to MX records — enter 10 on the two MX records and ignore it on the SPF and DKIM records. Most DNS providers don’t offer a priority field for TXT records at all.

Other providers

Cloudflare — Select your domain, open DNS > Records, then Add record. Enter the Host in Name and paste the Value into Mail server for MX or Content for TXT. Set Priority to 10 on the MX records. TTL can stay on Auto. MX and TXT records can’t be proxied, so there’s no orange cloud to disable.

Namecheap — Go to Domain List > Manage > Advanced DNS, then Add New Record. Choose MX Record or TXT Record, enter the Host, paste the Value, set Priority to 10 on the MX rows, leave TTL on Automatic, and save each row with the green tick.

cPanel — Open Zone Editor, select Manage next to your domain, then Add Record. Fill in Name, TTL, Priority, and Record/Value for each.

Check the Hostname Before Saving

This is the single most common reason verification fails, and it catches people specifically because Atarim displays the four hosts in two different formats.

Many DNS providers automatically add your domain name to the end of any hostname you enter. Since the SPF and DKIM hosts are already displayed with your domain included, pasting them as-is at one of those providers duplicates the domain and the record will never verify.

Example. Your domain is yourdomain.com and Atarim displays the SPF host as atarimio5125.yourdomain.com. If your provider auto-appends and you paste that in whole, it saves as:

atarimio5125.yourdomain.com.yourdomain.com

What to do:

1. Before saving anything, add one record and check what your provider displays back as the saved name.
2. If it appended your domain, go back and remove .yourdomain.com from the end of the two TXT hosts before saving them.
3. If it expects the complete name, enter the SPF and DKIM hosts exactly as displayed, and add your domain to the two MX hosts — atarimio5125.yourdomain.com.

Whichever way your provider works, every saved record should end in your domain exactly once. If you can see yourdomain.com.yourdomain.com anywhere, that record will not verify.

Equally, don’t strip too far. Every saved record must still contain atarimio5125. A record saved with an empty host, or a host of @, lands on your root domain instead of the subdomain.

Step 5: Verify Your Domain in Atarim

1. Return to Settings > Communication > Inbox Setup.
2. Expand DNS Records.
3. Select Verify DNS Records.

The Verified column shows a green check on all four rows, and the button changes to Verified and becomes inactive.

4. Select Next to continue through Step 3 — Email Signature and Step 4 — Notifications, then Finish.

DNS Propagation

DNS changes take time to apply. If your domain doesn’t verify immediately, wait and select Verify DNS Records again later. Propagation time depends on your provider and on the TTL of any record you’re replacing, and can take up to 72 hours.

If it still doesn’t verify after 72 hours:

1. Check that all four records were added correctly.
2. Confirm the hostname hasn’t duplicated your domain name.
3. Confirm the DKIM host includes the smtp._domainkey. prefix.
4. Make sure the record type, host, value, and priority match the values shown in Atarim.
5. Contact your domain provider if the saved records look correct but verification still fails.

What Changes Once Verification Passes

Once forwarding verifies, the sidebar item changes from Activate Inbox to your Inbox project, and a gear icon appears next to it for Email Settings.

Once all four DNS records verify, outgoing email sends from your own address with proper authentication, rather than from Atarim’s default sender.

To change anything later, select the gear icon to open Email Settings. It has four tabs — Account, Domain, Signature, and Notifications — and you can re-run either verification from the Domain tab without going through the wizard again. To start over completely, use Reset Wizard on the wizard’s completion screen.

Resources

For your convenience, here is a list of links to the instructions for adding DNS records at commonly used hosts:

• 123 Reg – MX | TXT | CNAME
• bluehost – MX | TXT and CNAME
• DNS Made Easy – MX | TXT | CNAME
• DNSimple – TXT | CNAME
• Dreamhost – MX | TXT | CNAME
• DYN – MX, TXT, and CNAME
• GoDaddy* – MX | TXT | CNAME
• Hostgator – MX | TXT and CNAME
• Hover – MX, TXT, and CNAME
• Media Temple – MX, TXT, and CNAME
• Namecheap – MX | TXT and CNAME
• Network Solutions – MX | TXT and CNAME
• Register.com – MX | TXT | CNAME

FAQs

Conclusion

By following these steps, you can successfully authenticate your domain, ensuring improved email deliverability and security when sending messages via app.atarim.io.