Getting Started

By Maildesk Team ·

Connect and Verify Your Sending Domain

Add your domain, publish the DNS records, and verify everything so your emails land in inboxes — not spam folders.

Before Maildesk can send email on your behalf, you need to prove you own your domain by adding a few DNS records. This guide walks through the whole process: adding the domain, publishing the records, setting up tracking, and adding sending addresses.

Note: Each Maildesk business can connect one sending domain.

Step 1: Add your domain

  1. Log in and go to Settings > Domain.
  2. Click Add domain.
  3. Enter your domain name (e.g. yourdomain.com) and submit.

Maildesk generates the DNS records you need and takes you to the domain detail page.

Step 2: Add the DNS records

Scroll to the DNS Configuration section. You’ll see a table of records — each row has a Type (TXT, MX, CNAME, or CAA), a Name/Host, a Value, and for MX records a Priority (10). Every value has a copy button, so you never have to type these by hand.

The records fall into two groups:

GroupRecordsWhat they unlock
SendingDKIM (TXT), SPF (MX + TXT)Required before you can send any email
TrackingCNAME + CAA on your tracking subdomainRequired for open and click analytics

Add each record at your DNS provider. If you’re not sure how, the domain page links to step-by-step articles for Namecheap, GoDaddy, and Cloudflare under “Need help configuring DNS records?”.

A few tips that prevent the most common mistakes:

  • Copy values exactly — a trailing space or missing character will fail verification.
  • Some DNS providers automatically append your domain to the Name/Host field. If the name already contains yourdomain.com and your provider adds it again, the record won’t match — enter just the subdomain part in that case.
  • Set the MX record’s priority to 10 as shown.

Step 3: Wait for verification

The Verification Status table on the domain page shows each record as Pending, Verified, or Failed. The page checks automatically every 20 seconds — you can leave it open, or come back later.

DNS changes can take up to 24–48 hours to propagate, though most providers are much faster. Pending for an hour is normal; pending for two days usually means a record was entered incorrectly.

Once the sending records (DKIM and SPF) are verified, you can start sending — even if the tracking records are still pending.

If a record shows Failed

  1. Compare the record at your DNS provider against the value in Maildesk, character by character.
  2. Check for the duplicated-domain issue described above.
  3. Delete and re-add the record at your provider, then wait for the next automatic check.

Step 4: Set up click & open tracking

If you skipped the tracking subdomain during onboarding, the domain page shows a warning: “Open and click analytics won’t work until you configure a tracking subdomain.”

  1. In the Click & Open Tracking section, enter a subdomain — links is a good default. This becomes links.yourdomain.com.
  2. Save, then add the CNAME and CAA records that appear in the DNS Configuration table.

Warning: The tracking subdomain is permanent — once configured it can’t be changed or removed, so pick something you’re happy with.

Without tracking configured, your campaigns will still send, but the Opened and Clicked numbers in your analytics will stay at zero.

Step 5: Add your sending email addresses

The Email Addresses section lists the addresses you can send from.

  1. Click Add email.
  2. Enter a display name (what recipients see, e.g. Chidubem Nriagu) and the local part of the address (e.g. reginald for reginald@yourdomain.com).
  3. Optionally tick Set as default to make this the pre-selected From address in new campaigns.

You’re done

When every sending record shows Verified, the amber “verify your domain” banners disappear from the Campaigns and Automations pages and you’re ready to send.

Next: Import your subscribers, then send your first campaign.

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