DKIM signing with regular free GMail and HostGator / cPanel
When I started researching how to use the regular free Gmail with an external email account on my own domain, I kept finding mostly articles that explained how to do DKIM with Google Workspaces.
I didn’t want to pay for every email address, so I kept looking.
After a lot more research I finally stumbled on some articles that explained how DKIM works with cPanel, which is what HostGator uses.
It’s actually quite simple, but for some reason it was very hard to find, so I figured I’d write a quick article, if only so I can more easily retrace my steps later.
Step 0: Set up your account in GMail
We don’t actually have to do anything special on the Gmail side. Just add your account as normal (Settings > Accounts and Import > Add email account) – if you’re here, you’ve probably done this already.
Step 1: Go to Email Deliverability within cPanel
In older versions of cPanel, this was called Authentication. The icon was the same, so you’ll know.
If you’re on a new enough version of cPanel, this will list all your domains.
This conveniently tells you if things are set up right or not. If you’re using cPanel to manage your DNS (i.e. your nameservers are pointing to your hosting provider where you access cPanel), you may be able to simply use the repair button. In my case, I manage DNS on a third-party provider, so I need to do some more manual work which is laid out in the Manage page.
Click Manage.
Step 2: Install DNS records
This page is thankfully very helpful and tells you exactly what you need to do. Again, if you’re not using external DNS, this should be just a click of the Install the suggested Record button (x2).
Step 3: Verify it’s working
Once you’ve installed these records, you can go back to the domain list and it should show valid next to that domain.
You can also test it with this handy free tool from MXToolbox.
And that’s all. If you’ve found this helpful, let me know with a clap or two – always nice to know when you’ve helped someone else!
