Introduction
The business has a website, a contact form, and a custom email address. The owner sees clicks and sometimes sees form submissions, but some emails don't arrive. Employees can send emails to customers, but the replies end up in spam or don't arrive at all.
The problem is particularly frustrating because it often seems “erratic.” One customer receives the email, while another doesn’t. In one email service, everything works fine, while in another, the domain is flagged as suspicious. That’s why it’s important to check not just the inbox, but the entire delivery process.
What is being checked
- MX: Which service actually receives incoming email;
- SPF: Which servers are authorized to send emails on behalf of the domain;
- DKIM: Are outgoing emails signed?;
- DMARC: How Recipients Should Respond to Suspicious Emails;
- SMTP: the protocol the website uses to send requests;
- Web forms: whether the message is sent, and what response the server returns;
- Delivery logs: exactly where the letter goes missing;
- Service conflict: when a domain is configured in “pieces” in different places at the same time.
Progress of the Work
First, the DNS is checked: which records are published and whether they match the actual email service. A common scenario is when a domain has been transferred, the website has been updated, the form has been set up separately, but the old records remain. As a result, some emails are sent on behalf of the domain without proper authorization.
Next, incoming and outgoing mail are checked separately. The incoming portion determines where emails are received. The outgoing portion determines whether the server is authorized to send emails on behalf of the domain and whether they are signed correctly.
Website forms are checked separately. A form may display “successfully submitted,” even though the email was not accepted by the SMTP server or was rejected by the recipient. Therefore, it is important to check not only the website interface but also whether the email was actually delivered.
What is considered a normal result?
After the corrections, the diagram should be clear:
- Which service receives incoming emails;
- Which service sends emails on behalf of employees;
- how the website submits requests;
- Which SPF/DKIM/DMARC records are responsible for this;
- where to check for delivery errors;
- which cannot be changed without being rechecked.
Conclusion
Email is part of sales—it’s not just a minor technical detail. If inquiries get lost, the business may not even know how many customers never reached a sales representative. A standard email task doesn’t end with just a single DNS record, but with a clear and verifiable delivery scheme.