How to Set Up Your MX Records on Namecheap - Step-by-Step Guide

What good would your email outreach be if you never received the replies that prospects send you?

Without MX records, this is precisely what could happen!

Email providers use MX records to route emails to the correct servers.

In the absence of MX records, the servers wouldn’t know where to send the replies.

Missing or misconfigured MX records also prevent the correct implementation of domain authentication records like DKIM, SPF, and DMARC.

Without these records, your open rates will most likely tank.

In short, it’s essential to set up your MX records.

Here’s how to set up an MX record on Namecheap. ⬇️

Setting Up Your MX Records on Namecheap 📝

*If your domain's name servers point to a different provider than your domain provider (e.g., your hosting company), you need to add your MX record there.

1. ➡️ Get the required MX record from your email service provider
2. ➡️ Log in to Namecheap
3. ➡️ Click on Domain List in the left sidebar
4. ➡️ Click on the Manage button next to your domain
5. ➡️ Go to Advanced DNS
6. ➡️ Check that there’s no CNAME record for your root domain in the Host records section (yourdomain.com). CNAME has the highest priority and will override MX records.
7. ➡️ Click on Mail Settings
8. ➡️ From the dropdown menu, select Custom MX
9. ➡️ Enter the MX record of your ESP. Here’s what each field means:
   1. 👉 The Name field is where incoming mail should go. By just adding an @ email will go to your root domain. It’s possible to add a specific email address too.
   2. 👉 Priority determines which MX record to use first in case multiple MX records are set up
   3. 👉 Value holds the mail server, e.g.: mailhost3.emailserviceprovider.com
   4. 👉 TTL determines the server caching time. The default is one hour, i.e.: the server refreshes information after one hour.
10. ➡️ Click save

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DNS changes can take up to 72 hours to activate.

Congrats on Setting up Your MX Record! 🥳

Don’t forget to take care of the rest of your technical setup.

Your technical setup includes your SPF, DKIM and DMARC records, and custom tracking domain.

Additionally, it’s important to warm up your email. Without warm-up, your emails are more likely to land in spam.

lemwarm is an email warm-up service that won a Reddit poll for best email warm-up service.

Its features are designed to keep you out of the spam folder.