Sender Policy Framework (SPF) is an email authentication method that ensures the sending mail server is authorized to originate mail from the email senders domain. SPF helps protect your domain against spoofing and helps prevent your outgoing messages from being marked as spam by receiving servers. SPF specifies the mail servers that are allowed to send email for your domain, and receiving mail servers use SPF to verify that incoming messages that appear to come from your domain were sent by servers authorized by you. Without SPF, messages sent from your organization or domain are more likely to be marked as spam by receiving mail servers.
An SPF record is a DNS TXT record containing a list of the IP addresses that are allowed to send email on behalf of your domain. SPF has become exceedingly vital to help verify which sending infrastructure can relay email on behalf of your domain. Implementing SPF for email provides major benefits such as improving deliverability, combating email spoofing, and improving domain reputation. SPF helps prevent messages from your domain from being delivered to spam. If your domain doesn’t use SPF, receiving servers may reject your messages or mark them as spam.
To set up SPF, you need to publish an SPF record in the DNS. The record is a list of all the IP addresses that are allowed to send email on behalf of the domain. An SPF record gives spam filters on the receiving end a list of IP addresses that can send emails for your domain. If you don’t have an SPF email record set up, you can easily create one. However, there are some steps to take before creating your SPF email record, such as knowing the hostname and/or IP.
In summary, SPF is an email authentication method that helps protect your domain against spoofing and prevents your outgoing messages from being marked as spam by receiving servers. SPF specifies the mail servers that are allowed to send email for your domain, and receiving mail servers use SPF to verify that incoming messages that appear to come from your domain were sent by servers authorized by you. SPF records are a public list that lets everyone know where you send your mail from, and they can be easily created to improve your domain reputation and email deliverability.
