{"id":10412,"date":"2022-05-17T04:31:30","date_gmt":"2022-05-17T11:31:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mapp.com\/?p=10412"},"modified":"2022-06-27T09:57:27","modified_gmt":"2022-06-27T16:57:27","slug":"what-are-aligned-domains","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mapp.com\/blog\/what-are-aligned-domains\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Domain Alignment, and Why Does It Matter?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Trust is crucial in the online world. After all, customers are only communicating with technology, trusting it with confidential information or even financial transactions. But how does one establish trust in a brand digitally? \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

Phishing attacks are constantly happening everywhere and are threatening your domain\u2019s reputation. Sometimes it\u2019s just little dips; other times it\u2019s larger attacks. Either way, it can affect the credibility of your domain and your reputation in the real world. The earlier you protect your domains, the better.<\/p>\n

One option is a BIMI mark for emails<\/a>. Just like a verification badge or blue checkmark on social platforms, it creates trust in your brand while directly communicating with customers. BIMI shows your logo in inboxes, reassuring recipients that your brand is really behind the communication. It also makes your messages stand out between less colorful email previews.<\/p>\n

The requirement for BIMI, and Deliverability in general, is domain alignment<\/strong>. We see more and more demand for domain alignment, and I predict this to be a trending topic in the coming years. \u00a0In this blog, I\u2019ll dive deeper into the definition and the benefits of aligning domains and the need for DMARC authentication in our recent use case. <\/em><\/p>\n

Generally, deliverability is a matter of trust and reputation. Email providers want to deliver messages from trusted sources that recipients actually want to see. In order to prove to the services that you are a \u201ctrusted source\u201d, you need to do the equivalent of showing your ID: unveil your identity by authenticating yourself.<\/p>\n

Historically, emails didn\u2019t contain any mechanisms for authentication. A few years later, marketers had the option to add a DKIM-signature<\/a> to prevent the first phishing attacks. This digital signature has a function similar to a letter envelope, confirming that the email has not been compromised on its way into the recipients\u2019 inbox.<\/p>\n

Aligned domains also have the goal to create trust in the validity of the sender.<\/p>\n

How does this look like on a technical level? <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Let\u2019s imagine the following situation: the SMTP protocol asks for a \u201cFROM\u201d information (5321.FROM). If we stay in the letter analogy, this is the \u201cEnvelope FROM\u201d. <\/strong>In the meantime, the email header contains another FROM field, which is called 5322.FROM (or \u201cDISPLAY FROM\u201d<\/strong>). That alone would already confuse a regular mailman. Additionally, we see the added DKIM-signature-From<\/strong>. And why have it simple when all three forms can technically look different?<\/p>\n

If you compare that to an old-fashioned snail mail letter, it looks like this:<\/p>\n