How to Authenticate Your Newsletter and Contact Form Domain for Tithely Sites

Authenticating your domain enhances email deliverability, ensuring your newsletters, contact form and communications reach you and your audience effectively. This process typically involves complex steps, but Tithely has simplified it for you! This guide provides step-by-step instructions on how to authenticate your domain through Tithe.ly Sites with SendGrid authentication, improving email deliverability and removing the "sendgrid.net" domain from your newsletter emails.
Please note, to complete this process, you must activate your Newsletter feature. If you are only using contact forms, you can turn off the newsletter feature once the domain authentication process is completed.

Benefits of Domain Authentication with SendGrid

• Improved Deliverability: Authentication helps verify your identity as the sender, reducing the likelihood of your emails being marked as spam.
• Increased Trust: Recipients are more likely to trust and open correctly authenticated emails, enhancing engagement.
• Better Email Performance Tracking: With authenticated emails, you gain better insights into email performance through accurate reporting on opens, clicks, and delivery rates.

Need to activate the Newsletter feature on your site? 

1. Log into your Tithely account and navigate to your Tithely Site.
2. Navigate to Admin, and select Settings. 
3. Click on the Features tab.
4. Toggle the Newsletter option to "On" and wait for the page to update.

Step 1: Accessing the Domain Authentication Screen

1. Log into your Tithely account and navigate to your Tithely Site.
2. Go to the Admin menu and select Newsletter.
3. Click on the Domain Authentication tab.
4. Click Start the Process.
   

Step 2: Copy and Paste Data to Your DNS Provider

On the Domain Authentication screen, you will see data and copy buttons.

1. Copy each piece of data and paste it into the appropriate fields in your DNS provider (e.g., GoDaddy, Google Domains).
   Each piece of data's status will change from "Waiting for Copy & Paste" to "Successful Copy & Paste" once correctly entered.

Important Note: Some DNS providers may not automatically reformat pasted information. If this happens, the record may not function properly. Double-check each record after pasting to ensure it matches the required format.

• Example: When pasting web._domainkey.tithelysetup.com into SquareSpace domains, you'll need to manually add web._domainkey before the pasted value to ensure the final record is web._domainkey.tithelysetup.com.

Step 3: Verifying the Connection

1. After all data is entered, refresh the page. Verification can take up to 48 hours.
   During this time, the status may still show "Waiting for Copy & Paste." The status will change to "Verified" once the process is complete.

By following these steps, you can easily authenticate your Tithely newsletter domain, ensuring better deliverability and a professional appearance for your emails. Again, if you are only using contact forms, you can turn off the newsletter feature once the domain authentication process is completed.