Domain Verification in Zoho Mail

Zoho Mail is a business email platform where you can generate domain-based custom email addresses, like yourname@yourdomain.com. And when you add your domain to create your custom email address, you need to verify that you own the domain before proceeding further. Zoho Mail can verify the ownership of your domain in different ways—One-click Verification, TXT, CNAME, or HTML. And to verify your domain using one of these methods, you will need access and permission to modify your Domain's DNS page.

In case you do not have the required privileges to edit the DNS, you need to get the assistance of someone who has access to those details. This is essential to complete the email hosting setup of your domain with Zoho Mail.

Why is domain verification required?

Zoho Mail strictly follows domain verification as an essential step to ensure that:

• The domain provided is valid and has not expired
• The domain was provided by its legitimate owner or a user with permission to access its DNS page.
• The domain is NOT a spoofed address to prevent any misuse or loss of service.

Domain Connect Verification

Zoho Mail supports Domain Connect or One-click verification for selected domain providers such as:

• IONOS by 1&1
• GoDaddy

With the Domain Connect verification method, you can verify your domain by simply logging in to your domain provider's page and authenticating Zoho Mail to access your domain's DNS page. This way, we will automatically verify your account without the help of manual verification techniques.

TXT Method

Verifying your domain using the TXT method involves three major steps:

1. Copying the unique TXT value from Zoho Mail Admin Console.
2. Adding the value as a TXT record to your domain's DNS Manager.
3. Verifying the added TXT record from the Zoho Mail Admin Console.

Copy your unique TXT code

1. Log in to your Zoho Mail Admin Console and navigate to the Domains page via the left pane.
2. Click the domain you want to verify from the list of added domains. If you want to add a new domain, you can do that by clicking the + Add button at the top.
3. At the prove ownership section of your domain, choose the Add a TXT record in the DNS option from the drop-down list.
4. You can either write down or copy the text hash generated to easily add it to your domain's DNS page.
5. After copying the values, proceed to your domain provider's page and log in to your account.
   

Adding TXT record to your DNS: Generic instructions

You can configure domains from any provider and successfully host your emails in Zoho Mail. The only prerequisite is that you should have access and permission to edit the DNS page of your domain.

1. Log in to the domain provider's account (For example, GoDaddy, namecheap, among others) where your domain's name server is pointed.
2. Access your domain and navigate to it's DNS page (DNS Manager or DNS Control Panel or Advanced DNS editor).
3. Locate the option to add TXT records (generally found under DNS Records).
4. In the Name/ Host/ Alias/ TXT, enter @ or leave it blank.
5. In the Value/ Points To/ Destination field, add the Zoho Mail verification hash—zoho-verification=zb********.zmverify.zoho.***.

   Name/ Host/ Alias/ TXT	Value/ Points To/ Destination/TXT
   @ or leave it blank	zoho-verification=zb2****183.zmverify.zoho.***

6. If the TTL is editable, set it to the minimum possible value recommended by your Registrar.
7. Save the TXT Record added and give it an hour to two to propagate.

Verify your TXT record

To verify the added TXT record, follow these instructions:

1. Log in to your Zoho Mail Admin Console and navigate to the Domains page via the left pane.
2. Click the domain you want to verify from the list of added domains.
3. At the prove ownership section of your domain, choose the Add a TXT record in the DNS option from the drop-down list.
4. Click the Verify TXT record button.

Your domain will get successfully verified if the values you added were right. In case of errors during the process, you can troubleshoot for domain verification failure.

CNAME verification

Verifying your domain using the CNAME method involves three major steps:

1. Copying the unique CNAME value from Zoho Mail Admin Console.
2. Adding the value as a CNAME record to your domain's DNS Manager.
3. Verifying the added CNAME record from the Zoho Mail Admin Console.

Copy your unique CNAME code

1. Log in to your Zoho Mail Admin Console and navigate to the Domains page via the left pane.
2. Click the domain you want to verify from the list of added domains. If you want to add a new domain, you can do that by clicking the + Add button at the top.
3. At the prove ownership section of your domain, choose the Add a CNAME record in the DNS option from the drop-down list.
4. You can either write down or copy the values generated to easily add them to your domain's DNS page.
5. After copying the values, proceed to your domain provider's page and log in to your account.
   

Adding CNAME record to your DNS: Generic instructions

You can configure domains from any provider and successfully host your emails in Zoho Mail. The only prerequisite is that you should have access and permission to edit the DNS page of your domain. Zoho Mail provides provider-specific instructions for most of the well-known domain providers. If you can't spot your provider in our list, find the generic instructions given below.

1. Log in to the domain provider's account (For example, GoDaddy, namecheap, among others) where your domain's name server is pointed.
2. Access your domain and navigate to it's DNS page (DNS Manager or DNS Control Panel or Advanced DNS editor).
3. Locate the option to add CNAME records (generally found under DNS Records).
4. In the Name/ Host/ Alias/ CNAME, add the code generated in your Zoho Mail Admin Console—zb********.
5. In the Value/ Points To/ Destination field, add zmverify.zoho.***.

   Name/ Host/ Alias/ CNAME	Value/ Points To/ Destination/CNAME
   zb********	zmverify.zoho.com

6. If the TTL is editable, set it to the minimum possible value recommended by your Registrar.
7. Save the CNAME Record added and give it an hour to two to propagate.

Verify your CNAME record

You can check if the CNAME value has propagated by using the Zoho Toolkit. You can perform a CNAME lookup in Toolkit by Zoho Mail and check the CNAME values. Once the values get updated which might take an hour or two depending on your domain provider, you can go to the Zoho Mail Admin Console and proceed with the verification.

To verify the added CNAME record, follow these steps:

1. Log in to your Zoho Mail Admin Console and navigate to the Domains page via the left pane.
2. Click the domain you want to verify from the list of added domains.
3. At the prove ownership section of your domain, choose the Add a CNAME record in the DNS option from the drop-down list.
4. Click the Verify CNAME record button.

Your domain will get successfully verified if the values you added were right. In case of errors during the process, you can troubleshoot for domain verification failure.

HTML Method

Although we don't recommend it (because of its extensive steps), you can also verify your domain using the HTML method. Verifying your account using the HTML method involves four major steps:

1. Downloading the unique HTML file from the Zoho Mail Admin Console.
2. Accessing the root of your WebHost and creating a folder named zohoverify.
3. Uploading the file you downloaded from the Zoho Mail Admin Console to the zohoverify folder.
4. Verifying the added HTML file from the Zoho Mail Admin Console.

Adding HTML file to your WebHost: Generic instructions

1. Log in to your Zoho Mail Admin Console and navigate to the Domains page via the left pane.
2. Click the domain you want to verify from the list of added domains. If you want to add a new domain, you can do that by clicking the + Add button at the top.
3. At the prove ownership section of your domain, choose the Add a HTML file in the website option from the drop-down list.
   
4. Click the verifyforzoho.html to download the required HTML file.
   
5. After downloading the file, proceed to your domain provider's page and log in to your account.
6. Access your root directory and create a folder named zohoverify.
7. Inside the zohoverify folder, add the HTML file that you downloaded from Zoho Mail Admin Console— ./zohoverify/verifyforzoho.html should be the designated path.
8. After successfully adding the HTML file to your WebHost as instructed, you should be able to view a 13 digits numeric code by accessing the link available in the Zoho Mail Admin Console. If not, you can also check the code by manually going to yourdomain.com/zohoverify/verifyforzoho.html (replace yourdomain.com with your actual domain name).
   
9. If you see the code, click Verify HTML file.

After successfully verifying your domain, you can proceed to add MX records to configure your email delivery. Adding MX records is mandatory to get your emails rightly delivered to your inbox. Once you add the MX records, you can check the status of the propagation using the MX lookup tool.