Should my business email be on my own domain?
Short answerYes. An address like hello@yourbusiness.ca looks established, matches your website and stays yours if you change email providers. A free Gmail or Hotmail address works, but it reads as less permanent and ties your contacts to an account you don’t fully control. Setup is straightforward through Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, plus a few DNS records.
Are your form emails landing in spam?
Send me your domain. I’ll check your email authentication records and tell you what’s missing, within two business days.
The longer answer
Why it’s worth doing
When a homeowner gets a quote from name@yourbusiness.ca and another from yourbusiness1984@gmail.com, the first looks like a business. It’s a small trust signal, but it lands on every quote and invoice you send.
It’s also about control. Because the address sits on your domain, you can switch providers without changing it. When staff leave, you keep their inbox. And customers never have to update an address that’s been on business cards for years.
How to set it up
Choose an email provider, usually Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. Both charge per user per month. Then add the records they give you to your domain’s DNS: MX records to receive mail, plus SPF, DKIM and DMARC to prove your messages are genuine.
Those last three are known as email authentication. Gmail and Yahoo tightened their sender requirements in 2024, especially for bulk senders, and mail without proper authentication is more likely to land in spam or be rejected.
Small details that save trouble
- Use a role address, like hello@ or bookings@, on your website, so it survives staff changes.
- Make sure your website’s contact form sends from an authenticated address, or enquiries may go to spam.
- Keep the domain registered in your name. If it lapses, your email goes with it.
When you switch, set up forwarding from the old free address for a while and add an auto-reply that mentions the new one. Update your Google Business Profile, invoices, signatures and directory listings in the same week, so customers see one consistent address everywhere.
What I’d do
Nick Lovett, founder of Tavro
I check email setup on every project, even though I don’t host email myself. Contact forms that send from an unauthenticated address are one of the quieter reasons small businesses miss enquiries. The form works, the message goes to spam, and nobody notices for weeks. So I make sure SPF, DKIM and DMARC are in place and that form notifications send from a domain that passes. If you’re still on a Gmail address, moving to your own domain is one of the cheapest upgrades to how your business comes across.
Follow-up questions
Yes, through Google Workspace. You get the Gmail interface with an address on your own domain.
Not if you migrate them. Both major providers have tools to import mail from an existing account.
Nothing, as long as the domain and email accounts are in your name. The DNS records just need to be kept when anything moves.
Keep reading
- nick@tavro.ca
- 587-439-9994
- Calgary, Alberta