This is a guest post by Syed Faizan Ali
After purchasing a domain name, the first thing any webmaster would like to do is to setup a branded email address ending with the custom domain name. At WPBeginner, people over and over again ask for email hosting recommendations. Gmail has managed everything very well so it appears pretty illogical to look for any other email provider, particularly when Gmail is free. This tutorial will help you in connecting your custom domain name with Gmail so you can setup a professional email address and enjoy the irresistible features of Google Apps.
Update: Google Apps is no longer free. If you still want a branded email, then we recommend that you use the outlook.com service.
What is a Professional Email?
A professional email is the one that has your business name in it. For example support@yourdomain.com is a professional email rather having yourdomain@gmail.com. There are many ways you can setup a professional email. You can use the built-in mail server that comes with most WordPress web hosting providers. But that does not nearly match up to the features you get with Gmail.
Why To Choose Gmail To Organize Your Emails:
Every organization needs to maintain their email records usually they recommend reliable paid email brands but using Gmail has many advantages. Not only it is free but it has some splendid features which are as follows.
- Lots of Space: Gmail provides 10+ GB free disk storage so you can easily receive as many attachments as you like but if your disk space is full, then without any hesitations you can ask for more disk space from Gmail support.
- More fun, less spam: Gmail has made the world of email spam free so you don’t need to worry about spammed emails because it automatically deletes unwanted emails, before it reaches your inbox.
- Email Search: Gmail allows you to search emails like Google search engine and with instant search technology you can find the exact message by entering a few keywords.
- Call phones: With Gmail phone service, you can easily call to USA and Canada phones free of cost and get low rates to other countries.
- Security at its best: Gmail has always tried to fulfill the basic needs of its users and in order to provide full proof security Gmail has utilized HTTPS encryption to keep your mail secure.
- All This For Free: You will get all these spectacular features for free.
Step 1: Setting Up The Google App
- First go to Google Apps for Domains
- Now once the page gets done loading carefully insert your WordPress domain without typing the “http://www” i.e. wpbeginner.com.
- Then fill the vacant text boxes with your personal information i.e. username, password.
- Fill in the information about your organization i.e. contact name, phone number, address and etc. but keep your alternate email address the same as your personal Gmail ID or any other email address ID.
- Now, after agreeing to the Google Apps terms and conditions, just press “create the account” button and proceed to the next step.
- After successfully completing the registration, you will be redirected to the setup page where you have to verify that you own the domain name. You have two options for the verification: express (ideal for individuals) or custom (you can test apps with few different users). I recommend express install because it will take less than 10 minutes for completion.
Step 2: Verifying Your WordPress Domain:
This is the most vital phase of the whole process where you have to verify your WordPress Domain name, if you wish to access the Google Apps. There are quite a few methods for domain verification, which include:
- Recommended: Upload HTML File (Here you have to use FTP software)
- HTML Tag (Second Best Option)
- Google Analytics (Alternate Method)
- Domain Name provider (Alternate Method)
If you have full command over your FTP then you could just upload an HTML file for verification, but if you don’t want to get your hands too dirty then inserting an HTML tag is a good alternative. To do this:
- From the verification menu select Alternative Method >> HTML Tag.
- Now you will see a one line HTML code, just paste it in your header or footer with the help of Insert Headers and Footers Plugin for WordPress.
- After pasting the verification tag come back to the Google App verification menu and press “Verify”.
Step 3: Connecting Gmail with Your WordPress Domain:
- To enable Gmail services you first have to login to your Google App account, so go to https://www.google.com/a/your-domain-name.com (Note:Don’t forget to replace your-domain-name with your WordPress custom domain that you have connected to the Google App)
- Sign in to your account with your username and password.
- From the navigation menu select Organization & Users » Services. Now look for Gmail App and then press the “on” button.
Step 4: Setting up Your WordPress Gmail Account
Now in order to send and receive emails from your custom WordPress domain, you have to make some changes in the DNS settings of your domain.
Congratulations! You have successfully created a Custom Gmail address for your WordPress Domain. Note: It may take 24 hours to complete the MX records integration as it depends on your hosting and ISP. For most modern countries, it should only take a few hours though.
Head on over to Gmail and login with your new branded email. That’s all there is to it.
Customer has an existing company website / email accounts that they have now handed to me due to a bad relationship that developed between themselves and the previous web company. I’ve ended up developing a new website, however their exisiting email accounts where setup through gmail (utilizing their existing domain) but I am unable to access them since the previous web company will not supply the necessary ‘google control panel login’ info. Is there a way to acquire this info., or do I just setup the same accounts (same domain) elsewhere with another webhost?
You would have to setup a new Google Apps account or use another mailing service. For a new google account, delete the verification files that exist on your server that verifies the old account.
I have my domain registered and laid for 3 years. Can I have few (say 2-3)mails through google and don’t mind paying 5 for each mail configured through google but my rest of mail ids for my staff work normal on my registered domain or I will have to migrate all mail ids on google application.
You would have to move everything to Google. You can’t use your in house mailing server because that will cause conflicts.
Editor, I think Google apps is paid application. Just the first month is free. Moreover I think outlookcom is more easier interms of customizing. Kindly let me know if we can have it on Gmail for Free or not?
No you can’t. Google is now requiring you to pay for this.
I think now google charge it, its not FREE
Yes, it is not free anymore. We are working on a tutorial for another free solution. It will be out next week.
What is up with the free one coming next week – 2 months later?
We did write about it here: http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-setup-a-professional-branded-email-address-with-outlook-com/
You can still use if for FREE. Google Apps is a paid service now but it provides you GMAIL for free. You can signup by the same process, even if your 30 day Google App version gets expired your GMAIL Accounts would remain active. So, you can still enjoy the Perks of Gmail
Sounds good, but what if you have been paying for Google apps and then stop paying. Will you be able to retain your Gmail email accounts?
Yep, You can easily access your all Gmail accounts, even if your package gets expired. Since, You are Paying for other Google Apps Not Gmail, so it would remain active as long as you like.
Does this work for new customers/signups too? I just signed up for google apps and just want to make sure that my gmail will still work after 30 days.
If I use the free gmail idea for 5 account holders, after the trial expires do I get to continue using drive and calendar.
Hello I have a big question I did all of this but Google says is only a free trial for 30 days, so in 30 days If I don’t pay I won’t be able to access my personalized g-mail? Also can I configure such personalized email as I would any other gmail on outlook express? Please help me, thanks.
Yes they got rid of the free option. http://www.wpbeginner.com/beginners-guide/how-to-setup-a-professional-branded-email-address-with-outlook-com/
When it comes to the MX records, I have this:
Your current MX records…
Priority Points to
0 MYBLOG.COM.
I dont see anything like:
ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM 1
What went wrong?
They are not suppose to be there when you first go in. You have to add those in your MX records.
Thanks. google Apps has changed a bit, but the tutorial still works.
This seems like a great way to go. My only question is that many people have stated that it is not a bad idea to use email other that Gmail for privacy sake. Is this a valid concern or just a bunch of hyped up info?
OK now I see what’s missing. In Step 4: Setting up Your WordPress Gmail Account, I don’t see the option in my Google Apps for Gmail or even Gmail setup. I did look around and found settings>email but all it points to is MAIL.MYDOMAINNAME.COM so I am not sure what to do at this point. I am still looking around to see if gmail is somewhere. Any ideas?
Thanks for this! I was not aware I could do this, and was getting rather frustrated trying to do it between my hosting site and email provider. Much better and easier in my opinion. With me, I didn’t have to do anything after step 2. I am not sure if it’s because I have bluehost or not, but it was so easy. It automatically sent me to in my inbox, but I will check to make sure that I have everything all set.
Great tip, I’ve noticed that some hosts like hostmonster provide a google app wizard that will do most of this automatically.
Yes they do
10 emails are VERY less. I have migrated to live domains for the same reason. It works very well too.
Oh good to know. Do they not have a limit of accounts?
When I signed up Gmail restricted upto 10 accounts for free while hotmail did not had any limit or had thousands emails accounts for free.
Ok. Yeah we are aware of Gmail limits. Just wanted to clarify the Microsoft Live account limit. It’s good to know that they don’t have a limit.
Thanks, I had no idea that you could do this without shelling out $$. I need to setup my existing email this way. I just need to make sure I don’t loose any mail in the process.
There is a way to sort of import all your mails to your new Google Apps email.
To do it for mail at GoDaddy, try https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/gmail-users/l1NB98Dr3Oc
I think it should work for other providers too!
This is interesting and I’m not a hardcore Gmail user so for me it raises a concern.
Once you do add your email does Google lock you into using this email address only?
In my experience, as long as I keep my YouTube, Google+ and Google Voice on my own email address, I can freely change it in my Google account settings. However, with a Gmail address, I’m stuck with it.
You have the ability to switch your email if you want. You can stop using Google and switch to server email or anything else. Because you own your domain, you can use whichever mail server you like and keep the same email name.
Thanks, now I feel more comfortable about it!
Although when I first read this post, I thought it was only for one email address. While going through the process, it seems that the MX records will route ALL email from the domain to Gmail. Is that correct?
If so, how will I access the additional inboxes I have from the addresses I didn’t set up with Google?
You can setup up to 10 accounts with Google Apps for free. You can enable multi-sign on as well, so you can be simultaneously be logged into multiple accounts and switch with few clicks. For more than 10 accounts, you will have to pay Google.
There are no free versions of Google Apps anymore. If you don’t want to get locked into paying 5.00 a month for the rest of your life for a Google Apps account after the 30 day free trial, just use Horde from cPanel and deal with the lil quirks.
I can’t begin to tell you how much I appreciate all the helpful tips, tutorials, and user -friendly web content that you provide. Although I have a lot to still learn, I wanted to stop by and say “thank-you”
I set up a few Google Apps acc for my clients and for my use, i see this write up is awesome and very useful for references to set up Google Apps. Thanks for Syed Faizan Ali and WPbeginner.
Thanks Pal, For your Kind Response and Truly I am having a great time while posting on WPBeginner. Lots of stunning Articles and Tutorials are coming up, so stay Tuned to WPB.
Hi Syed Great article thanks for that. Question – If the domain hosting lapses then does this mean the email address will no longer work?
YES, it does mean that. Lets say that you are changing hosting providers from HostGator to Bluehost. You need to make sure that you have properly configured the MX Entry before moving. Otherwise, you will see that your emails won’t work. Same with if you let the domain expire… it won’t work.
I bought a .in domain from a local registrar, and hosted it elsewhere. And I registered it for use with Google Apps. It was frankly a pain to get it all working.
Changing MX settings only for buying registrar’s DNS Manager was not enough, and only for hosting registrar’s cPanel didn’t work either. Got it working only after changing MX settings for both, and a little bit of praying!
Seems like a lot of work to me. I just go to CPanel, set up a forwarder to my gmail account, and I’m done. I can use gmail to filter it to a specific folder.
As a side note, I use a similar trick to track who is selling my emails. I use a forwarder to send all email to any @mydomain and then I can create new emails on the fly. For instance, when I subscribe to a newsletter I’m not sure about, my email address is @mydomain. Then if anybody other than that ever sends me an email, I know that he has sold my name, and @mydomain gets routed to the bit bucket.
Sure you can use your server Email provided in cPanel and then forward it. You can also mask the sender email using your server email. However sometimes it will still show sent from xyz@yourdomain.com from xyz@gmail.com
This allows you to prevent that. Not to mention it allows you to have calendar invites that will sync with your mobile phone (giving you reminders). It is a much more efficient setup doing it this way rather than sticking with the server email.