{"id":450,"date":"2024-03-22T00:25:06","date_gmt":"2024-03-22T00:25:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.greatmail.com\/blog\/?p=450"},"modified":"2025-08-26T02:21:19","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T02:21:19","slug":"full-alignment-of-dkim-spf-and-dmarc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.greatmail.com\/blog\/bulk-email-hosting\/full-alignment-of-dkim-spf-and-dmarc\/","title":{"rendered":"Full Alignment of DKIM, SPF and DMARC"},"content":{"rendered":"

Increasingly, bulk senders are finding that their emails are no longer accepted by email providers despite having SPF and DKIM policies in place. Even with a DMARC record, the emails are silently rejected, and the reason for this is misaligned SPF and DKIM records.<\/p>\n

Misalignment occurs when different domains are used in the message return-path and from headers.\u00a0 In the past, this was permissible\u00a0provided\u00a0the return-path domain was validated by SPF and the from domain was DKIM signed. However, DMARC with full alignment requires that the same domain is used in the SPF and DKIM authentications.<\/p>\n

Full\u00a0alignment of DKIM, SPF, and DMARC records is crucial for enhancing email security, preventing unauthorized use of your domain and email acceptance.<\/p>\n

What are DKIM, SPF, and DMARC?<\/h3>\n
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  1. DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail)<\/strong>: DKIM adds a digital signature to your outgoing emails based on the domain in the message from header. The recipient\u2019s mail server can verify this signature against the public key published in your DNS records. If the signature matches, it confirms that the email originated from your domain.<\/li>\n
  2. SPF (Sender Policy Framework)<\/strong>: SPF specifies which mail servers are authorized to send emails on behalf of your return-path domain. When an email arrives, the recipient\u2019s server checks if the sending server\u2019s IP address is listed in your SPF record. If it matches, the email passes SPF authentication.<\/li>\n
  3. DMARC (Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting, and Conformance)<\/strong>: DMARC builds upon DKIM and SPF. It allows you to set policies for handling emails that fail authentication. DMARC also provides reporting on email delivery and authentication results.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Why Alignment Matters?<\/h3>\n
      \n
    1. Preventing Spoofing and Phishing<\/strong>: Alignment ensures that the domains used in DKIM and SPF match the domain in the \u201cFrom\u201d header of the email. This consistency prevents malicious actors from impersonating your domain and sending fraudulent emails.<\/li>\n
    2. Enhancing Deliverability<\/strong>: Email providers increasingly rely on alignment to determine whether an email is legitimate. Proper alignment improves your email deliverability rates, as it signals to providers that your emails are authentic.<\/li>\n
    3. Compliance with Email Providers<\/strong>: Major email providers like Google and Yahoo now require alignment for bulk email senders. Without alignment, your marketing or transactional emails may end up in spam folders.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Achieving Alignment<\/h2>\n
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      1. DKIM Alignment<\/strong>:\n