Make Sure Your Contact Forms and Domain Emails Actually Reach their Inbox
You’ve got a domain. You’ve got hosting. You’ve installed WordPress. Now comes a step most beginners skip — and then pay the price later.
If you plan to use a contact form, send emails from you@yourdomain.com, or reply to customers from your website’s address, you need to set up email deliverability.
Otherwise, the emails you send WILL land in spam — or never arrive at all.
The good news is HostGator gives you everything you need to fix this. But you’ll need to make a few quick changes to help Gmail, Yahoo, and Outlook trust your site (takes less than 15 minutes to walk through).
Don’t get hung up on the abbreviations or weird names. Techs seem to love convoluted wording. Makes things sound harder than they are.
What We’re Fixing Here
- Emails from your site not getting delivered
- Contact form submissions never reaching your inbox
- Your emails getting flagged as spam or “suspicious”
- Gmail showing a warning that the message could not be verified
Step 1: Set Up Domain Email
Before doing anything else, make sure you’ve created an email address like info@yourdomain.com inside your HostGator control panel. If not, go to your cPanel > Email Accounts > Create.
You can use this email as your sender address for WordPress notifications, contact forms, and customer replies.
Step 2: Add SPF and DKIM Records
These are security settings that prove to other email providers that your website has permission to send email on behalf of your domain.
- Log in to cPanel via HostGator.
- Look for the section called Email Deliverability or Authentication.
- You’ll see SPF and DKIM listed there. If they’re not enabled, click “Enable” or “Repair.”
- If HostGator prompts you to update DNS records, accept the suggested changes. These will be automatically added to your DNS zone.
This alone solves most email issues.
Step 3: Make Sure Your MX Records Are Set Correctly
MX records are what route email to your domain’s mail servers.
- In cPanel, search for Zone Editor or DNS Zone Manager
- Find your domain and click “Manage”
- Look for any MX records
- If you’re using HostGator for email, your MX record should point to:
mail.yourdomain.com
or sometimes
yourdomain.com
If anything else is listed (like a third-party service you’re not using), update it
Step 4: Optional — Set a PTR Record (Reverse DNS)
Most small sites don’t need this, but if you’re sending a high volume of email (like marketing campaigns), ask HostGator support about setting up a PTR record (reverse DNS). It improves trust with Gmail and other major providers.
Step 5: Test Your Email Deliverability
Use a free tool like Mail Tester (mail-tester.com) to send a sample email from your site and see if anything still needs to be fixed. Use your hostgator cpanel to access email or setup an email client on your computer or smart device. Using cpanel for now is easiest for setup testing but NOT recommended for ongoing use while traveling as your site can get hacked if you are using insecure roaming connection.
What’s Next?
Now that your email deliverability is set up correctly, you’re ready to move on and start designing your site — starting with the look and feel.