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AhaSend verifies domains hosted at Amazon Route 53 when you publish the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records from your domain page; this guide shows where to enter them.

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Before You Start

Add the sending domain in AhaSend and keep its DNS record list open. Sign in to the account that can edit the domain’s authoritative DNS: the provider named by its nameservers. Buying a domain from one company does not always mean it hosts the DNS. Copy your current records before editing. Keep existing website, mailbox and verification records. See domain setup for the exact AhaSend values, required records and verification timing.

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Open the DNS Form

Open Route 53 → Hosted zones, select the public hosted zone for your domain, and choose Create record. Choose the type from AhaSend and fill in Record name and Value. These steps follow Amazon Route 53’s DNS guide. Use a public hosted zone, simple routing and Alias: No for CNAMEs. A private hosted zone is only visible inside your VPC and cannot verify a public email domain. Route 53 appends the zone name to relative record names; check the resulting full name before saving.

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Add SPF, DKIM and DMARC

For a zone named example.com, use this name mapping. The examples show a common managed-DKIM setup; your dashboard’s names and targets take precedence.
  1. If an SPF record already exists at the sending name, edit it to include AhaSend as described in domain setup. Do not add a second SPF record.
  2. Publish both managed DKIM CNAMEs. If AhaSend shows a manual DKIM TXT record, use TXT and its exact selector instead.
  3. Keep one DMARC record. Review all senders that use the domain before changing an existing policy; see SPF, DKIM and DMARC.
  4. Add the return-path and any tracking records displayed by AhaSend, using the same CNAME name mapping. Preserve your mailbox MX records unless you are deliberately configuring inbound routing.
For a sending subdomain such as notify.example.com in the example.com zone, use notify for SPF, _dmarc.notify for DMARC, and managed._domainkey.notify for that example DKIM name. If notify.example.com has its own delegated zone, names are relative to that zone instead.

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Verify the Records in AhaSend

Save the changes, then open the sending domain in AhaSend and click Check DNS. Compare each saved full hostname, record type and value with the dashboard. Most records verify within minutes. DNS changes can take up to 48 hours to propagate. If a check fails, look for a repeated domain suffix, a CNAME at the wrong name, a missing record, or changes made at a DNS provider that does not serve the current nameservers. The troubleshooting guide explains how to narrow down a failed check.