How to set up professional email at your own domain

What business email at your own domain means

Business email is a mailbox that uses your own domain, for example anna@yourcompany.lv, instead of a free address on a public provider. It signals that you control the brand, keeps correspondence with the company rather than a personal inbox, and gives you full authority over who can read, forward or archive it. For a registered company in the Baltics it is also the baseline for GDPR and NIS2 record keeping, because mail stays inside infrastructure you can account for.

Step 1: Secure the domain

Register the domain (.lv, .eu, .com or another zone) or, if you already own it, make sure you have access to its DNS control panel. Every step below happens in that DNS zone, so confirm you can add MX and TXT records before you start.

Step 2: Choose where the mail is hosted

Mailboxes need a mail server. Most web hosting plans already include mail hosting, so a single account can serve your website and your inboxes. If you need isolation, higher volume or custom anti-spam, run a dedicated mail server on a VPS. Hosting the mailboxes in an EU data centre, such as our Riga facility, keeps your correspondence under EU data sovereignty and simplifies GDPR compliance.

Step 3: Create mailboxes and aliases

• Create one mailbox per person: name@yourcompany.lv.
• Add role addresses as aliases: info@, sales@, support@, billing@.
• Use distribution groups so several people receive support@ mail.
• Set a strong, unique password on every mailbox.

Step 4: Point the domain at the mail server

The MX record tells the world which server accepts mail for your domain. Add it in the DNS zone and remove any leftover MX records from a previous provider.

Type  Host  Value                 Priority
MX    @     mail.yourcompany.lv   10

Step 5: Authenticate with SPF, DKIM and DMARC

These three TXT records decide whether your mail reaches the inbox or the spam folder. Without them, banks, government portals and large mailboxes may reject or quarantine your messages.

; SPF, lists the servers allowed to send for you
TXT   @                   v=spf1 mx ~all

; DKIM, signs each message (key issued by your mail host)
TXT   default._domainkey  v=DKIM1; k=rsa; p=MIGfMA0GCSq...

; DMARC, tells receivers how to handle failures
TXT   _dmarc              v=DMARC1; p=quarantine; rua=mailto:postmaster@yourcompany.lv

Start DMARC with p=none while you monitor reports, then move to p=quarantine and finally p=reject once your legitimate mail passes cleanly.

Step 6: Connect your mail clients

Configure Outlook, Thunderbird, Apple Mail or your phone with encrypted IMAP and SMTP. Never use plain, unencrypted ports.

Incoming (IMAP):  mail.yourcompany.lv  port 993  SSL/TLS
Outgoing (SMTP):  mail.yourcompany.lv  port 465  SSL/TLS
                  (or port 587 with STARTTLS)
Username:         full address, e.g. anna@yourcompany.lv

Step 7: Test, then harden

• Send a message to an external inbox and check that it lands, not in spam.
• Open the received headers and confirm SPF, DKIM and DMARC all show pass.
• Enable two factor authentication on webmail and the control panel.
• Turn on server side anti-spam and anti-virus filtering.
• Keep a backup of mailboxes, and add a valid SSL certificate on the webmail host so logins stay encrypted.

Practical takeaway

Professional email is four things done in order: a domain you control, mailboxes on a server you trust, correct MX records, and SPF plus DKIM plus DMARC so your mail is delivered and cannot be spoofed. Get those right and your business email is credible, compliant and safe. If you would rather not manage the DNS and mail server yourself, CloudHosting sets it up on EU infrastructure with 24/7 human support.