Hover DKIM Setup Guide for Email Authentication

DKIM (DomainKeys Identified Mail) is an email authentication method that adds a digital signature to your outgoing messages, letting receiving mail servers verify a message really did come from your domain and wasn't altered along the way. It's one of the three pillars of email authentication, working together with SPF and DMARC to protect your domain from spoofing. Major mailbox providers — including Gmail, Yahoo, and Microsoft — now expect DKIM to be in place for anyone sending a meaningful volume of email, and having it configured correctly improves the odds that your legitimate messages land in the inbox instead of spam. This article explains what DKIM does and how to get it set up for your Hover email domain.

How DKIM Fits With SPF and DMARC

SPF, DKIM, and DMARC each check a different part of an incoming message, and receiving mail servers look at all three together to decide whether to trust it:

• SPF lists which mail servers are allowed to send email for your domain. You add this yourself as a DNS TXT record — see Creating an SPF Record.
• DKIM signs each outgoing message with a private key, so the receiving server can confirm the message wasn't forged or tampered with in transit.
• DMARC tells receiving servers what to do when a message fails SPF or DKIM, and reports those failures back to you — see Understanding Gmail, Microsoft, and Yahoo DMARC Requirements for Hover Email.

Note: DMARC checks depend on SPF and DKIM already being in place, so DKIM is a required building block before your domain can pass DMARC and meet the major mailbox providers' requirements.

Before you begin

• An active Hover email mailbox on the domain. DKIM is enabled at the domain level for Hover-hosted email, so you'll need a mailbox already set up on the domain you want to authenticate.
• Access to contact Hover Support. DKIM isn't something you configure yourself in your Hover control panel — a Hover support advisor enables it on the backend for you, so you'll need to reach out to get it turned on.

How to Request DKIM for Your Domain

Unlike SPF, which you add yourself as a DNS TXT record, DKIM on Hover is enabled by a Hover support advisor on the backend — there's no self-serve DNS record to add or control panel toggle to switch on. To get DKIM set up for your domain:

• Contact Hover Support and ask to have DKIM enabled for your domain. You can reach the team by phone at 1-866-731-6556 (or internationally, toll-free, at +800-371-69922), by live chat using the chat icon on the main Hover page, or by email at help@hover.com.
• Confirm your domain name when you reach out, so we can enable DKIM on the correct domain and mailbox.

Note: Once our support advisor enables DKIM on your domain, it typically takes 24–48 hours to fully propagate. Your outgoing mail may not show the full authentication benefit until propagation completes.

Next steps

• Make sure SPF is also set up. See Creating an SPF Record.
• Add a DMARC record once SPF and DKIM are both in place. See Understanding Gmail, Microsoft, and Yahoo DMARC Requirements for Hover Email.
• Having trouble with outgoing mail bouncing or being rejected? See Troubleshooting Outbound Email Delivery Issues (Bounces & Blacklists).

Questions? Contact Hover Support.