Fixing Gmail's "couldn't verify that this domain sent this message" warning

If people who use Gmail see “Gmail couldn’t verify that yourdomain.com actually sent this message”, a grey question mark instead of your picture, or find your messages in spam, Gmail can’t confirm the email really came from you. That’s done with three DNS records: SPF, DKIM and DMARC.

Gmail and Yahoo require these records for anyone sending email to their users, so they matter even for small senders.

Email with hosting (cPanel)

cPanel can check and fix SPF and DKIM for you:

1. Log in to cPanel and open Email Deliverability under Email.
2. Find your domain. If it shows Problems Exist, click Repair and confirm.
3. Add a DMARC record. See Setting up DMARC.

This works automatically when your domain uses Ruachost’s nameservers. If your DNS is somewhere else, such as Cloudflare, click Manage in Email Deliverability and copy the suggested records to your DNS provider. See Managing email deliverability settings.

Ruachost Business Email

Add these records in your DNS:

• SPF record settings
• DKIM signature settings
• DMARC policy settings

Sending from other services too?

If your domain also sends email through another service, such as a newsletter tool, Google Workspace or a website contact form service, add that service to your single SPF record and set up its DKIM as well. A domain must have only one SPF record. Two SPF records break both.

Check the result

Send a message to a Gmail address, open it, click the three dots and choose Show original. SPF, DKIM and DMARC should each say PASS. See Reading email headers.

DNS changes can take a few hours to take effect.