After 12 years of experience in managing websites, I have written for you this “almost complete” guide about managing email addresses created on a private web domain, documenting all the technical aspects that must be taken into account to avoid marking yours emails as SPAM and guarantee the satisfaction of your customers.
Guide about managing email addresses
Brief introduction
Email addresses are the most important communication channel with customers or potential customers. Even if we have various chats available in social networks, email remains the best and safest way to communicate.
After purchasing the domain names and hosting package we can create email addresses attached to the domain.
General configuration
We recommend purchasing hosting packages that have cPanel storage space management software as a solution. This is a stable software that offers all the necessary functions for a good management of both the storage space (where you will upload the site) and the web domain or mailboxes related to the addresses created. Also, cPanel is the most popular software and has the option to generate a complete backup of the server data and import it to another server easily.
Recommendations
Default address ( Default address ) – Gets any email that is sent to an invalid or nonexistent email address. This function is very important for scenarios in which a customer types your email address incorrectly or habitually writes contact@numefirma.ro (because most companies have such an email) but you consider such an address unnecessary, you have created personalized addresses or we are even talking about a deleted address. The default address option redirects all emails to an address defined by you, so you don’t miss any orders. Consider that you put in the effort to get a visitor to your site, your site content to convince them to order, and you lose them at the last stage when they place a firm order.
Track Delivery – Review the delivery route of an email. This can be useful if you need to find problems with email delivery. Here you can consult the reports from the last 7 days related to each email reception status and SPAM score. This is necessary to block email addresses.
SPAM Filtering ( Global Email Filters and Spam Filters ) – Create and manage email filters for your primary email account. Rules will be processed in the order shown below, from top to bottom. You can add more rules to match subjects, addresses, or other parts of the message. You can then add more actions for it to perform on a message, such as delivering the message to another address and then archiving it.
All functionality related to email addresses is documented on the cPanel website.
Specific anti-SPAM settings
As a rule, the servers have a minimum of configurations necessary to avoid SPAM, but these configurations must be checked. Configurations are made in cPanel, DNS Zone Editor section:
DMARC protocol – helps prevent domain spoofing and generates email reports if suspicious activity is detected. This means Domain Based Authentication, Reporting and Compliance. ( tutorial )
SPF protocol – the name stands for Sender Policy Framework and is responsible for checking whether an IP address is authorized to send emails from the sender domain. It works a bit like a return address on a letter. ( tutorial )
DKIM protocol – is responsible for verifying your domain using a key. This stands for DomainKeys Identified Mail. This public key authenticates the email address. ( tutorial )
PTR Protocol – Some email spam filters use reverse DNS to check the domain names of email addresses and see if the associated IP addresses are likely to be used by legitimate email servers. ( tutorial )
Additional information about these protocols can be found in the module’s configuration tutorial .
If the emails still end up in SPAM and after configuring these protocols, you need a dedicated IP address that you can purchase from the hosting company. As a rule, hosting companies use shared servers (shared resources), that is, multiple sites on the same server/IP, so if a client of the hosting company has addresses marked as SPAM, it can also affect you in the absence of a dedicated IP.
Methods of use
Once email addresses are created you can use them in any of the methods below:
WebMail
The WebMail web interface is accessed directly from the Internet browser to use mailboxes created on the hosting server. As a rule, the access link is https://numefirma.ro/webmail/ or https://numefirma.ro:2096/
Email client
You have the option to set up an email client on your local computer such as Outlook, Thunderbird, iOS Mail, etc. (we recommend that when adding the address in the e-mail client, you check the option to keep the e-mails on the server, and then practically in the download client only a copy of the e-mails and the e-mails in the server represent their backup solution).
Attaching to an existing address
You can attach the email address in a free email service (Yahoo, Gmail, etc.) with the mention that you have limitations here, for example Gmail checks once an hour for new emails, so you will receive up to an hour late. If you want to have a conversation with a customer it will probably be difficult for you.
On the same principle, you can attach an email address to another email address created on the web domain if you want to use them from the same mailbox.
Email service outsourcing
If none of the above solutions meet the needs of your business, you can opt for outsourced email services (dedicated email servers) such as: Google Business Gmail, Microsoft 365 / Outlook, Twilio SendGrid, MailGun, Zoho, etc.
In order to facilitate the addition of email addresses in these services, it is necessary that in the hosting server you edit in the DNS Zone Editor section the MX name entries with the content recommended by each service.
For example, for Google follow the setup tutorial .
MX record
Mail Exchange (MX) records direct a domain’s mail to the servers that host the domain’s user accounts. To set up Gmail, if you have Google Workspace, you need to point your MX records to Google’s mail servers. Multiple MX records can be defined for a domain, each with a different priority. If the mail cannot be delivered using the highest priority registration, the second priority registration is used and so on.
Configuring email as a sender of messages from the site
Your WordPress site has by default included the function of sending notification emails regarding site activities, including filling out web forms. It is very important that the email defined as the sender is a valid email created on the domain name and is authenticated to avoid marking it as SPAM. We recommend the WP Mail SMTP module to configure the email address for sending emails from the site.
You can create a generic address for example no-reply@numefirma.ro and define it in the From Email field, then choose the email service (Mailer) Other SMTP to define the authentication data of the email address created no-reply@numefirma .ro.
In the cPanel account you will find the configuration data (SMTP) and you can go through the tutorial on the developer’s website beforehand . After configuring them, you have in the tabular menu the option to test email sending, where you fill in the recipient and then check the receipt of the email, if the configurations were done correctly, the email arrives in the inbox.
If you use an external email service, you need to purchase the PRO version of the module.
Within the module, in the Debug Events section, you can consult the list of emails that were not sent and the cause of the related errors.
Good to know
For security reasons (exposing the password in the website dashboard), but to avoid SPAM, do not use the same email address that you use when communicating with customers. For example, if you created the contact@numefirma.ro address, do not use it as the sender of the automatic messages from the site and create a distinct one such as no-reply@numefirma.ro
Google’s reCaptcha service
Google reCAPTCHA (anti-SPAM) service protects your site from fraud and abuse without creating friction. Adding the service to the site is done by creating an account and registering your site in the reCaptcha console . After registration you will receive 2 keys (1 public key (site key) and 1 private key (private key)) that must be added to your website.
Each module that has the functionality of sending emails using web forms has a section in the admin panel for integration with this service.
For default WordPress web forms such as comment posting, login, registration, password reminder, we recommend using the SolidWP security mode and integration with the Google reCaptcha service.
Good to know
Many customers have come to us with the complaint that they receive spam emails from the site even though they have configured the reCaptcha service from Google. Well, this service restricts bot access to web forms (login, register, comment, contact form, etc.) only from the graphical interface, but it’s good to know that all of these have API routes available that must be disabled or secured. Most attacks and SPAM emails are sent programmatically from the API.
Conclusions
If you analyze your online activity for the last 20 years, you will find that you have changed several social networks or free email addresses, and if you think applied, you will find that these changes lead to the loss of communication with your customers, which generates a commercial loss. If you think in the future that you will continue to change social networks for various reasons such as their terms and conditions of use, or the introduction of additional fees, etc. which leads to the exit from these networks and implicitly the loss of the page created for your business.
The scenarios can continue ( you need a risk management plan ), for example over time you may change the physical location of your business, businesses with similar names may appear in search engines or you may even change your name but you will want to continue to be contacted by old customers and direct them to the correct address.
With a minimal investment in the purchase of the domain name and a hosting package you can have a secure channel of communication with your customers. From a legal point of view, the email address created on your web domain name is the most secure communication channel.
This article was written in Romanian and automatically translated into English with Google Translate, we apologize for any translation errors.
If you have any doubts or questions related to this topic, please fill out the form on the Ask us anything page and we will answer you as soon as possible.
