Verify your Squarespace domain to improve your Buzzshot email deliverability

Does Squarespace manage your domain's DNS?

Buzzshot sends emails to your players for you, such as your "Thanks for playing" emails. Verifying your domain tells other email servers that Buzzshot may send email for you, so fewer of those emails end up in spam.

If Buzzshot shows "uses Squarespace for DNS" on your domain's page, follow the steps below. This includes domains that moved to Squarespace from Google Domains.

Step 1. Find your records in Buzzshot

Log in to your Buzzshot Admin account. Go to Settings → Emails → Verify Sending Domains and click Setup next to your domain. You will see three records: DKIM (a TXT record), Return-Path (a CNAME record) and DMARC (a TXT record). Steps 2 and 3 cover the first two, and Step 4 covers DMARC. Click the copy button next to a value to copy it.

Step 2. Open your DNS records in Squarespace

Log in to your Squarespace domains dashboard and click your domain. Go to DNS → DNS Settings, then scroll down to Custom Records.

Squarespace adds your domain to the end of each Name for you. Enter only the first part of each hostname from Buzzshot (the part before your domain), for example 20240325pm._domainkey or buzzbounces.

Add the DKIM record

  1. Click Add record. If Squarespace asks for your password, enter it and click Continue.
  2. Set Type to TXT.
  3. In Name, enter the first part of the DKIM hostname from Buzzshot, without your domain.
  4. In Text, paste the DKIM text value from Buzzshot.
  5. Click Save.

Add the Return-Path record

  1. Click Add record.
  2. Set Type to CNAME.
  3. In Name, enter buzzbounces (or the first part of the Return-Path hostname from Buzzshot, without your domain).
  4. In Data, enter pm.mtasv.net.
  5. Click Save.

Step 3. Verify in Buzzshot

Go back to your domain's page in Buzzshot and click Re-Verify. Once DKIM and Return-Path show a green tick, go on to Step 4. Status on the Verify Sending Domains page shows Missing DMARC until you have.

Step 4. Add a DMARC record

DMARC tells mail providers that email from your domain is genuine. Your domain needs a DMARC record: Microsoft requires one, so without it emails to Outlook.com, Hotmail, Live and MSN addresses may not be delivered. Set up DMARC explains why. The DMARC row on your domain's page in Buzzshot shows what we found, with a button to copy the value you need.

First, check whether it is already there

A domain can have only one DMARC record, and a second one could make both stop working. Before you add anything, open your DNS records as you did in Step 2 and look through the list for a TXT record named _dmarc.

  • You find one: do not add another. Click Re-Verify in Buzzshot. If the DMARC row shows Verified, you are finished. If it shows Invalid, follow the warning on the page, or see Fix a record that does not work.
  • You do not find one: add it as shown below.

Add the DMARC record

  1. Click Add record. If Squarespace asks for your password, enter it and click Continue.
  2. Set Type to TXT.
  3. In Name, enter _dmarc.
  4. In Text, enter v=DMARC1; p=none;
  5. Click Save.

Then go to your domain's page in Buzzshot and click Re-Verify. The DMARC row now shows a green tick. On the Verify Sending Domains page, Status shows Verified and DMARC policy shows None with a green tick. None is the policy you just set, so you are done.

Troubleshooting

  • Squarespace says DNS changes can take 24 to 48 hours to show up.
  • If a record won't verify, open it in Squarespace and check the Name does not include your domain twice (for example buzzbounces.yourdomain.com.yourdomain.com).
  • Squarespace can't save a value that ends in a full stop. Enter pm.mtasv.net with no full stop at the end.
  • If your domain uses custom nameservers, records you add in Squarespace won't apply. Add them with the company your nameservers point to instead.
  • If the DMARC row still shows Missing after you click Re-Verify, check that the record's type is TXT and its name is _dmarc, then try again later.
  • If it shows Invalid, the warning below it says what is wrong with the record.
  • If you still can't get things to verify, book a call with the Buzzshot team and we'll go through it with you.

Any questions or feedback are gratefully received. Please use the message button on the bottom right of the screen or the "Help & Support" option within the app. Or feel free to email or call.