How to Configure Domain Mail Service with a Google Workspace Account

After initiating a business project and registering your own domain, it's only natural for you to aim to look as professional as possible. A part of being professional is having your email look professional too. Perhaps you have used Gmail for a long time, and you don't want to leave it behind. There is a way to move from @gmail.com to @yourdomain.com. In this post, we will explain all you need to know when configuring your domain with a Google Workspace account.

Table of Contents:

• What Is Google Workspace?
• How to Get Started with Google Workspace
• How to Import an Email Account into Gmail vs. Setting up Domain Email with Google Workspace
• How to Set Up a Google Workspace Account
• How to Manage a New Google Workspace Account?
• How to Create new MX records for Google Workspace
• Work Together as a Team in Google Workspace

What Is Google Workspace?

Previously called G Suite and Google Apps, Google Workspace is the business version of everything Google offers. Having a Gmail account gives you the opportunity to use all the tools that Google offers, while a Google Workspace account provides the business versions of all those tools, as well as the option to use your domain's .com for your email address.

In Google Workspace, the online apps look and work mostly the same as usual, but your company's logo is replacing the Google logo. Additionally, Google Workspace comes with extra sharing and management tools for your IT admins, speeding up the work process even further.

Using Google Workspace is one of the best ways to get email on your own domain while also getting all of Google's apps to improve your collaboration as a team.

How Much Does Google Workspace Cost?

As we all know, Gmail is free (similarly to most consumer apps that Google offers). It provides 15GB of storage for emails and files. For business email and collaboration, however, you will have to get a paid Google Workspace account, which starts at $6/month for each person on your team when using a basic account. That price is for all Google apps, plus Gmail on your company's domain, plus 15GB more storage per user, making it a total of 30GB/user. Additionally, you get some perks like 24/7 online and phone support and core sharing and management tools (shared calendars, mobile device management with remote white).

If you need more storage, as well as audit reports to track everything that your team is doing while using Google Workspace — pick the $12/month/user plan. It gives you unlimited storage for all the members of your team.

Remember that you can also start out for free with a 14-day trial while setting things up. It's a good idea to do that, and once you have a good grasp on the plan, you will need — to choose it.

How to Get Started with Google Workspace

Here is what you need to have when you want to configure your domain mail service work with Google Workspace:

• Your own domain name;
• Access to your domain DNS zone files;
• Google Workspace account;

How to Import an Email Account into Gmail vs. Setting up Domain Email with Google Workspace

While Google lets you import your existing domain email account into Gmail, to do so, you must have created a domain email account already, and you will need to have signed up for a Gmail account. Emails sent to your domain email address will still first arrive at your mail server. When you log in to your Gmail account, Google will connect to your mail server to download all your domain email messages. In other words, you are using Gmail as an email client.

On the other hand, when you set up your domain email with Google Workspace, you are not required to have an existing Gmail account – all you need is a Google Workspace account. With Google Workspace, you are moving your entire email infrastructure to Google. You will set up your email accounts with Google, and your domain email services will be hosted by Google.

How to Set Up a Google Workspace Account

To initiate the creation of a Google Workspace account:

• Click the Get Started button on the Google Workspace site.
• Enter your company name, and select the number of employees your company has.
• Select your company's location for locale and billing purposes, and enter a current email address. That's where Google will send your account info after you sign up.
• Enter your current domain name;
• Enter your name and an email address you want to use for yourself with your domain, along with a password for your new Google Workspace account. You will need this email address and password to log into any Google apps in the future.
• Google will give you a phone number to call a Google advisor and let them walk you through the steps of setting up your Google Workspace account. However, it's not too hard. If you feel comfortable managing your domain name and website, you should be fine setting up Google Workspace on your own.
• Click Next, and you'll see the Google Workspace setup screen. It makes setting up the rest of your account as simple as filling out a Google Form.

How to Add Google Workspace Users During Setup

You can add your entire team to Google Workspace now—or wait and add others later.

The first step is adding your team to Google Workspace. You can enter your team member's names and the email address you want them to have on your domain. Or, if you want, you can bulk-add them anytime later from Google Workspace's admin settings.

Either way, check the I added all current users box, and Google Workspace will show you a template email it'll send to each new user. You'll need to add their current email addresses so Google can send them the info.

Tip: Google will immediately send the notification emails to your team, though your custom email addresses won't work. You'll likely need to wait another day before relying on your new email addresses.

How to Verify a Domain Name with Google Workspace

You need to verify your domain name in addition to setting your DNS settings.

You're almost done. All that's left now is to verify your domain name and set your DNS server to send your company's emails to Google Workspace's Gmail.

First, verify your domain. Google will detect where your domain name is hosted, if possible, and give you the link to log into your domain management page. One of the simplest ways to verify your domain is by adding a meta tag to your website's header section or uploading an HTML file to your website's server. 

The first option is easy if WordPress powers your website. Just open your site's admin page at yoursite.com/wp-admin, click Appearance → Editor in the left-hand menu, and select Header in the file list on the right. Add the meta tag before the </head> tag in the code editor, and save your changes.

Then, you'll have to tweak your DNS settings to get Gmail emails on your domain—and you can add an extra record to verify your domain at the same time if you'd rather not add a new meta tag to your site. Go to your domain name registrar, hosting account, or server settings and find your domain name settings. With many shared or VPS hosts, including FastComet, you'll use cPanel to manage your site—and it has a dedicated DNS settings page.

Either way, add the DNS settings Google shows on your Google Workspace setup page and save the changes. You can then tell Google to verify your domain, and it'll start doing that—with an hour timer counting down until your account is ready.

How to Manage a New Google Workspace Account?

Everything you need to manage your team's Google Workspace accounts

And that's it—your team now has Gmail accounts on your own domain, along with all of Google's other great apps. If you've already added your team members, you could stop right here. Google Workspace will keep your team's Gmail, Google Drive, and more running without you ever needing to tweak anything.

If you would like to tweak your team's settings and customize Google Workspace for your team, though, just log in to Google Workspace Admin with your new company email address. The Profile settings are what you'll want to check first—that's where you can set your company name, language, time zone, and other locale settings. You can also upload your company logo to replace Google's logo in each of Google's apps—as our team has done.

How to Add More Users to a Google Workspace Account

Still, need to add team members to your Google Workspace account? You'll find a link to do just that on your Google Workspace admin homepage—or you can open the Users settings page to add users from there. Either way, you can add people individually, just as you would during the initial setup.

The best option, though, is to bulk-add users. Google includes a spreadsheet file that you can download and add all of your users' names, email addresses, and other contact info at once. Save that file, then re-upload it to Google Workspace admin—and in a few minutes, Google can add as many people to your team as you need.

New users will be standard, non-admin users by default. If you want to add other admin users to help you manage Google Workspaces, just open your Google Workspace User settings and select the team member you want to make an admin. Click Show More on their settings page, select Admin Roles, then click Manage Roles. You can set them to be an admin with the account rights you need their account to have.

How to Create new MX records for Google Workspace

An MX record tells senders how to send emails to your domain. Each MX record points to a mail server that is configured to process mail for that domain. In other words, for you to send and receive emails at your domain email address, your domain's MX records must point to the mail server that processes your emails.

By default, when your domain is registered with FastComet, your MX record points to your FastComet mail server. When you set up Google Workspace for your domain emails, you need to edit your MX records so that it points to the Google mail server. Follow these steps:

• Login to your cPanel;
• Access MX Entry icon from the Mail section:
• Choose which domain you would like to manage the mailbox via Google Workspace;
• Delete all current records;
• Add these records:

Priority: 1
Destination: ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM
—
Priority: 5
Destination: ALT1.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM
—
Priority: 5
Destination: ALT2.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM
—
Priority: 10
Destination: ALT3.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM
—
Priority: 10
Destination: ALT4.ASPMX.L.GOOGLE.COM

The last thing to do is to change the Email Routing to Remote Mail Exchanger. With the new configuration, the Google Workspace mail is set properly.

Work Together as a Team in Google Workspace

In just a few minutes, you will have Gmail and the rest of Google Apps on your company's own domain, complete with extra features to help you work together as a team.

Now that you've got new Google Workspace accounts for your team, it's time to get your old data ready to use in your new accounts.

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