If you’re a small business owner running your own Google Workspace, you’ve probably felt the frustration of a client saying, “I never got your quote,” only to find it buried in their spam folder.

The good news is that the reason is almost always two missing technical settings: SPF and DKIM.

Why Is This Happening?

Think of your email like a physical parcel:

• SPF (Sender Policy Framework) is the return address: It tells the world exactly which mail servers are authorized to send email using your domain name.
  
• DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) is the wax seal: It proves your message hasn’t been tampered with while traveling across the internet.

Without these settings, receiving servers (like Outlook or other Gmail accounts) won’t trust your messages and will likely dump your mail straight into the spam folder.

The 2-Step Fix

You don’t need to be an IT expert to fix this. Here is the workflow from my latest guide:

Step 1: Set up SPF

Go to your DNS provider (GoDaddy, Namecheap, etc.) and add a TXT record.

If you only use Google, your value should be:
v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all.

If you use other tools like Shopify or Mailchimp, you must merge them into one single record.

Step 2: Set up DKIM

Head to your Google Admin Console > Apps > Google Workspace > Gmail > Authenticate Email.

Generate a new record, copy that long string, and add it as a TXT record in your DNS with the name google._domainkey.

Come back to your Google Admin Console and click on Start Authentication.

Quick Tip: If you just updated your records and get an error message, don’t panic. DNS changes can take anywhere from 15 minutes to a few hours to propagate. Grab a coffee and check back after lunch.

Verify It’s Working

Don’t just hope it worked. Go to mxtoolbox.com and run an SPF Record Lookup.

You’re looking for beautiful green ticks. Again, if you’ve just updated your records and don’t see all green, check again in a few hours.

See this in action

I’ve put together a full walk-through showing exactly where to click in the Admin Console and your DNS settings to get this done in under 5 minutes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fKTl5fe4CPE&t=18s

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