How to Use Gmail With Your Own Domain Name
Do you want to use your domain name on your Gmail account? Although Gmail is one of the best (free) email service providers, it does not look professional to use @gmail.com for your business website email.
If you have a business website or an online store, a custom email address is essential for your brand. With it, your brand is presented in a professional light to your customers.
In this guide, we will show you how to use Gmail with your domain name to send and receive emails. But first, let’s learn about email domain names.
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What is Email Domain Name?
An email domain is the name/address that comes after the @ symbol in an email address. For instance, if your email address is david@example.com, then example.com is the domain of the email.
You need to have a domain name and email hosting before you can use a custom email address. Most WordPress Web Hosts provide email hosting to their users.
You can ask your hosting provider if email hosting is available for your website. With your domain name and Gmail account, you can set up a custom email address.
How to Use Gmail With Your Domain Name
You can use Gmail with your domain name in two ways. The first way is to connect your domain to your normal Gmail account. In the second method, you have to pay for Google workspace. We will explain how to configure both methods.
Setup Custom Domain With Gmail
With this method, you can link your personal Gmail account with your website domain. Although this method is free, you need to have email hosting for this to work.
The email hosting usually comes with your hosting package (if you have a website).
If you do not have a website, you need to purchase email hosting separately to get started. Providers such as Namecheap have an email hosting service that starts at $0.91/month.
With that in mind, here are 5 simple steps for setting up your Gmail domain name with your website.
Step 1 – Create your Gmail Account
Having a google account already means you have access to Gmail. If you do not have this already, you need to sign up for a free account. Your Gmail account will look like this, username@gmail.com.
Keep in mind that the custom domain name email will sync with your personal Gmail account. So if you are creating a custom email for your business website, it might be best to create a new Gmail account for this purpose.
Step 2 – Create your Custom Email Address from your Web Host
Now you need to create your custom email address (eg admin@mysite.com). We will use the mail client provided by cPanel for this guide. The process should be similar for your web hosting provider.
To start, log in to your cPanel dashboard, then scroll to the “Email” section and click on Email Accounts.
Here, you will see all the email accounts you have created. To create a new account, click on the Create button.
On the “Create an Email Account” page, choose the domain you wish to associate the email with. If you have just one domain on your website, it will automatically select it.
Next, enter the username and password for the email. You will use these details to access your email account. Finally, click on the Create button to complete the process.
Step 3 – Configure Gmail to Receive Emails via POP3
After creating the custom email address, you need to connect it to your Gmail account using a service called “POP3”. This configuration will essentially allow your Gmail account to receive incoming emails from the custom email account.
To get started, click on the Connect Device button to open the configuration page of your email account.
Here, you will see all the credentials for the custom email address. We will use the “Secure SSL” settings to configure POP3 on your Gmail account.
For this, log in to your Gmail account, then click on the Settings gear icon and select See all settings.
On the settings page, click on the Accounts and Import tab. Under “Check mail from other accounts”, select Add a mail account.
A new popup window will appear. Here, enter the custom email address you created in the previous step. After that click Next to continue.
Now, select the POP3 option and click Next to continue the settings.
Here you need to add your custom email credentials to complete the setup. First, enter the username and password for the email you created on your hosting account.
After that, enter your POP server address and Port number. The details are available in the Manage account section of your custom email.
Next, enable the “Leave a copy…” and “Always use a secure…” checkboxes.
Optionally, you can enable the option to label your inbox. This can be useful if you want to separate your personal and website emails. Finally, click on the Add Account button to complete the setup.
Step 4 – Allow Gmail to Send Email Using SMTP
Following the setup above will enable you to receive emails from your custom mail into your Gmail account. However, you won’t be able to send or reply to messages using the custom Gmail domain name.
You need to configure Gmail SMTP to enable sending emails from the custom email.
Here is how to do it:
First, you need the details for the custom domain email address. You can get this from the email hosting dashboard.
After getting the details, log in to your Gmail account and then click on the Settings gear icon. Next, select the Accounts and Import tab. Click on Add another email address on the “Send mail as” section.
On the popup window, enter your name and the custom email address in their respective boxes. If the email is for your business website, then you need to enter your business name in the “Name” textbox. Next, check the option to “Treat as an alias”. Then click on the Next Step button.
Now you need to configure the SMTP server with the details from your hosting account. First, enter your SMTP server address, then choose the 465 port number. This will ensure you are using a secure connection to route your emails.
After that, enter your custom email address and password in the box as seen above. Finally, click on the Add Account button to complete the setup. Gmail will send a confirmation email to your custom email address to verify this configuration.
Because we have already configured Gmail to receive incoming messages from the custom mail, you should see the email in your Gmail inbox.
This will also help you confirm if the POP3 configuration was successful. When you receive the mail, you can either click the confirmation link or copy the code and paste it on the popup screen.
Finally, click on Verify to set up Gmail SMTP with your professional address.
Step 5 – Test the Setup
Now you can test the email by sending a test email to another address. When composing the email, you can either choose your primary Gmail account or the custom email domain name as the sender.
The recipient will receive an email from your custom Gmail domain name.
The custom email you created can now be added to your website so that users can contact your brand when they need help.
Google Workspace (G Suite)
Google also has a paid option for using a custom domain name on your email account. This service is made possible with the Google Workspace platform. So if you do not have a website or email hosting, you can opt for this option.
The platform gives you professional business tools to manage the wide range of google services such as Google Calendar, Sheets, and Gmail among other google apps. Below we will walk you through the steps to set up your domain on Google Workspace.
Create a Gmail for Business Account
To get started, you need to sign up for a business account on the Google Workspace platform. Go to the link and click the Get Started button to sign up for a G suite account.
On the next page, enter your company name and select the number of users you wish to add to your account. After that, choose your country and click Next to continue.
Now you need to enter your contact details such as name and email address. Click on Next after inputting your details.
Google Workspace provides two options for setting up a custom email. You can either use an existing domain or buy a new one from Google domains.
If you choose the “I have a domain” option, enter the domain name in the box and select Next to continue with the setup.
The next step involves entering your username and password. This is the name and password you will use to access your custom email. After entering the details, click on Agree and Continue.
Checkout Page
Now you need to select a plan for your Workspace account. The pricing starts at $6/month per user. So if you have more users, the pricing will increase. If you are buying a new domain from Google domains, the price for the domain and cloud hosting will also reflect on your checkout.
On the checkout page, enter your name and contact information. You also need to enter your card details on the checkout page. Then click on Agree and Continue.
Google offers a 14 day free trial period to users. This means you won’t be debited for the 14-day trial period. You can cancel the subscription at any time.
Once you are done with the checkout, your new Google workspace account is ready.
Note: If you bought a domain from Google domains, then your account is fully set up and does not need further configuration. However, if you entered your existing domain name, you need to verify ownership of the domain. After that, add the MX records to configure your email account. Here is how to do it.
Verify Domain Name
After setting up your Gmail account, you must verify ownership of the domain name you entered during the signup process.
To start, log in to your Google Workspace account using your custom email and password.
Upon login, there are settings you need to configure before your custom email will work. First, click on Protect to verify your domain name.
Next, click on I’m Ready To Protect My Domain.
Google will automatically detect the domain registrar and provide steps on how to verify it. For this, you need to add a TXT record to your DNS settings.
Copy the Host Record and TXT value and add them to your DNS records.
If you are using cPanel, the DNS setting is available on the Zone Editor menu. You can contact your domain registrar if you can’t find your DNS records.
Clicking on it will take you to the zone editor page. You can click on the Manage button next to your domain name to view all the records on your domain.
To add a new record, click on Add Record, then click on the “Type” dropdown menu and select TXT.
After that, enter the values you copied from the Google Workspace dashboard. Finally, select Save Record to add your record.
Now head back to Google workspace and click on Protect Domain.
The DNS verification will take a while to complete. Once the verification is complete, you can add the MX record to configure your email account.
Add MX Record
To activate your custom Gmail domain name, click on the Activate button to add the MX records.
Next, click on I’m Ready to Activate Gmail. Similarly, Google will detect your domain registrar and prompt you to add MX records to your DNS records.
The process is similar to the one we completed above. The difference is in the Record Type. Here we are using an “MX record”.
After adding the records, head back to your Workspace dashboard and click on Activate Gmail. The DNS record will take a while to propagate. Your custom email will be usable when the records are propagated.
You can now send and receive emails from your professional email address.
Conclusion
A professional email address helps build trust between you and your users. When users trust you, they are more likely to patronize your brand.
In this guide, we showed you two ways to set up a custom domain with your Gmail account. If you already have a website and email hosting for your domain name, you can set up your custom email for free using your personal Gmail account. On the other hand, Google Workspace lets you get a custom domain name even if you don’t have a website.
If you are having trouble receiving emails on your WordPress website, you check this guide to learn how to set up Gmail SMTP in WordPress.
