Choose an address your business controls
A professional email address uses your business domain, such as name@yourbusiness.co.za. It keeps your address consistent with your website and gives you more control over your naming as staff and providers change. It does not automatically make a message safe or guarantee that it reaches the inbox.
Free email or your own domain?
A free Gmail or Outlook.com address can be a practical starting point. A domain address offers a consistent business identity and lets you plan addresses around the business rather than a particular provider's name. Free services are not inherently insecure, and paid domain email is not inherently secure. Compare the actual account controls, recovery options, storage and support.
Your domain registration, email service and email application are separate things. You can use your own domain with a suitable hosting service or a business email platform. Using Outlook as an application does not necessarily mean that your mailbox is on Microsoft Exchange.
Plan people, roles and mailbox access
- Give staff clear individual addresses where individual accountability is needed.
- Decide how role addresses such as sales@ or accounts@ will be managed.
- Ask whether a proposed address is a full mailbox, an alias or a shared mailbox, and what access and storage it provides.
- Record who owns the domain, who administers email and how access is removed when someone leaves.
Do not share one password among staff simply because several people answer the same address. Ask your chosen provider which delegated or shared-access options it supports before deciding on the setup.
Choose storage and features for the way you work
Count the mailboxes and measure the messages and attachments already held. Confirm mailbox and total-account quotas separately, together with retention, export and restore arrangements. If staff need shared calendars or contacts, check those features explicitly. They are not supplied simply by having a domain name.
For a phone and computer accessing the same mailbox, compare IMAP, POP3 and Exchange before configuring the applications. Decide how local archives will be backed up and who will maintain them.
Authentication supports delivery, but cannot promise it
Google's email sender guidelines recommend SPF, DKIM and DMARC. These mechanisms help receiving systems evaluate messages claiming to use your domain. A domain address alone does not configure them, and authentication does not guarantee inbox placement.
Ask the administrator to account for every legitimate sender, including website forms, invoicing software and newsletters, before tightening the domain's policy. Avoid treating a move away from a free address as a way to bypass a receiving provider's rules.
Move email without losing the old records
- Confirm domain ownership and access to the registration and DNS settings.
- Inventory existing mailboxes, aliases, forwarding and local-only archives.
- Agree what will be copied and which historical messages must remain accessible.
- Create and test the destination mailboxes before changing mail routing.
- Test sending and receiving with external addresses, staff devices and business applications after the change.
- Keep the original service available until the agreed checks and final copying are complete.
Update your website, invoices and email signatures where the address changes. Decide whether the old address needs a monitored transition period, rather than leaving customers with an unattended inbox.
Discuss your business email requirements
SDDS arranges website and email hosting through Rhino Hosting, another brand of the same company. See the published hosting packages and domain registration information. Confirm the required features and migration scope before ordering.
Tell us how many people need email, the storage currently used and whether you also need website hosting. If you are comparing proposals, use our hosting cost checklist.