My domain is connected to Squarespace but registered elsewhere — where do records go?

At the registrar (or wherever the domain's nameservers point). Squarespace's DNS Settings panel only manages domains whose DNS Squarespace actually hosts — for connected third-party domains it shows the records to add, but you add them at the provider that controls the nameservers.

Do I need any of this if I only use Squarespace for my website?

If nothing sends email as your domain, SPF/DKIM setup can wait — but publishing a DMARC record at p=none plus an SPF record of `v=spf1 -all` is cheap protection that stops spammers from spoofing a domain that sends no mail.

Squarespace won't accept my long DKIM TXT value.

2048-bit keys are long but paste as a single string into the Data field. If validation rejects it, check for stray line breaks introduced by copying from a PDF or terminal — the value must be one unbroken string.

Squarespace DKIM, SPF and DMARC: adding email DNS records

Squarespace manages DNS for domains registered there — including the millions migrated from Google Domains. Squarespace itself doesn't send your email (that's Google Workspace, an ESP, or Squarespace Email Campaigns), but the DNS records that authenticate your email all get added in one place: the domain's DNS settings.

Updated July 25, 2026

Where DNS lives in Squarespace

Sign in and open your account dashboard → Domains (for site-connected domains: Settings → Domains).
Click the domain, then open DNS → DNS Settings.
Custom records are added under Custom Records — that's where everything below goes.

The Host field takes @ for the root domain and bare host names for subdomains (_dmarc, google._domainkey). Squarespace appends the domain itself.

Add the SPF record

Add a custom record → Type TXT, Host @, with the value from your email platform. Domains that came from Google Domains often already carry a Google Workspace SPF record — merge rather than duplicate, because a domain gets one SPF record.

v=spf1 include:_spf.google.com ~all

Example for Google Workspace (the most common pairing with Squarespace)

Add the DKIM record

Copy the record from your sending platform (how to enable DKIM) — for Google Workspace that's a TXT record at Host google._domainkey generated in the Admin Console. CNAME-style DKIM from ESPs goes in as a CNAME custom record with the selector as Host.

Add the DMARC record

One more custom record: Type TXT, Host _dmarc. Build the value with the DMARC generator; start at p=none with a reporting address and tighten once reports show everything aligned.

v=DMARC1; p=none; rua=mailto:reports@yourdomain.com

Type: TXT, Host: _dmarc, Data:

Verify it worked

Squarespace DNS changes typically propagate within an hour. Run the email health check to confirm SPF, DKIM, and DMARC all resolve, then send a message through the inbox test to see the authentication results a real receiver computes.

Sources and further reading

Squarespace — Adding custom DNS records to your domain