Understanding how to set up MX records is crucial for email deliverability and overall functioning of your outreach campaigns.
In this article, you'll find out how to configure MX records for different domain and email providers, as well as see a real life domain's MX records example.
Let's crack on!
A DNS MX record helps tell providers which mail servers accept incoming mail for your domain and where should they be routed to. Without MX records, you won't receive emails as they have no way in.
A dns MX record consist of priority/preference, hostname, and IP address.
The priority or preference indicate which mail server is going to be used if multiple MX records exist. As you can see, we have three here. A mail server trying to send an email to you will always try the lowest number priority first!
If two or more MX records tie for lowest Preference value, then the sending mail server randomly picks one for the first delivery attempt.
A hostname and IP simply indicate to what domain emails will be sent to.
To understand what is a DNS MX record and its purpose, think about it as an address to your place. In order for your guests to come, they first need to know where are they going.
In a similar fashion, MX records allow other emails to know your "inbox address" and they continue to pass that information to all incoming messages.
Here's an existing MX records example from lemlist:
To find out your MX records and whether or not you have it set up, you can use this tool.
Guide: Check if you have MX records up and running
If you see this, everything is ok with your MX set up:
But if you see this, you need to set up your MX record:
We've organized all tutorials in two groups: Google and Microsoft Office. No matter which email service provider you use, we got you covered.
Google setup
Microsoft Office setup
If you're using Google... Gmail and GSuite/Google Workspace to be exact, you have an abundance of tutorials at your disposal.
We have a few of the most requested below.
There are different settings for different hostings. For some you need to create MX records manually, in some cases you can do it much easier.
In order to find a better set up for your host - pick your host here and follow the steps there.
Now we come to MX record. In most cases you'd need to delete and create MX record manually, but if you use Namecheap, you can do it with just a few clicks:
We'll need to create MX records manually:
You should also create 4 more MX records with "@" in Name but different Mail Servers and Priorities :
ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM priority = 5
ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM priority = 5
ALT3.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM priority = 10
ALT4.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM priority = 10
Save it!
We'll need to create MX records manually:
You should also create 4 more MX records with "@" in Name but different Mail Servers and Priorities :
ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM priority = 5
ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM priority = 5
ALT3.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM priority = 10
ALT4.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM priority = 10
Save it!
If Microsoft Office 365 is your email provider choice, we got your back.
During the initial set up, you'll be able to add DNS records. Just create records that Microsoft suggested
Don't do that if:
Now we come to MX record. In most cases you'd need to delete and create MX record manually, but if you use Namecheap, you can do it with just a few clicks:
You can take this MX record from Microsoft during your initial set up:
Now we come to MX record. In most cases you'd need to delete and create MX record manually, but if you use Namecheap, you can do it with just a few clicks:
You can take this MX record from Microsoft during your initial set up:
Now we come to MX record. In most cases you'd need to delete and create MX record manually, but if you use Namecheap, you can do it with just a few clicks:
You can take this MX record from Microsoft during your initial set up:
☝️ Once you configure your MX records, job is not done. We have to set up DKIM next.
How-to: DKIM setup tutorials
Complete guide: How to audit of your email sending reputation
Video tutorial: MX Record setup video tutorial
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