Google email in phone

Are you rebranding your business? Maybe changing your business name or your website URL and want your email address to match, without losing access to your old emails but also without having to pay for and check two email addresses? This is a question I get pretty regularly, and if you have Google Workspace, this is something that can be done! But, it can be confusing to configure, so I’m hoping to break it down for you here in a way that makes it make sense.

Requirements

First of all, this option applies only to Google Workspace email addresses, not to your gmail.com email. That means your professional business email, like myname@mydomain.com, and not mybusinessname@gmail.com. It must be purchased through Google Workspace. If you aren’t sure if you have Google Workspace email, an easy way to check is to go to MX Toolbox and look it up here. Enter your domain name, and it’ll tell you what the MX records are.

What are MX records?
MX (Mail Exchanger) records are a type of DNS (Domain Name System) record used to specify the mail servers responsible for receiving email messages on behalf of a domain.

If you use MX Toolbox and see records that look like this example below, then you are using Google Workspace for email.

Google MX Records

The next thing you need to know is how to login to your admin console for Google Workspace, which is different than logging into your email account. You would be surprised at how many folks don’t know how to access this, but it’s pretty important. You need it to add users, change settings, and manage your billing for this email, because Google Workspace isn’t free (for most people – some organizations can get a free account.) If you don’t know how to login and your credit card expires, you may lose your email account. Don’t be that guy! Bookmark this page and write down your password.

Getting Started – Buy your new domain

Before you can change your primary email address, you must own the new domain name you want to use. So if you are switching from jamie@jamiesbusiness.com to jamie@jamiesnewbusiness.com, you need to own the domain for jamiesnewbusiness.com. You can buy your domain wherever you’d like, GoDaddy or NameCheap, or wherever. As long as you have access to manage the domain, that’s all we need. It’s often surprising how frequently I talk to people who don’t know where their domain is registered or how to login. This is important information because you may at some point need to change your billing information or risk losing your domain.

Add your new domain to your Workspace account

Note: Adding the new domain won’t affect or change your current email.

  1. Go to Menu ""and then""Account > Domains > Manage domains.
  2. Click Add a domain. Enter the name of your new primary domain.
  3. Click Continue to verify domain ownership. (If you’ve never managed DNS or added records to your domain, this might be intimidating. We can help!)
  4. Set up Gmail by updating the new domain’s MX records. This won’t affect or change your current email. This is more configuring DNS records, so ask for help if you aren’t sure.
  5. Click I have completed these steps.
  6. To prevent spoofing (spammers sending messages that appear to be from you) set up SPF and DKIM. Setup takes about few minutes but really helps your email from being blocked as spam.

Make new domain the primary domain

  1. Go to Menu ""and then""Account > Domains > Manage domains.
  2. Next to your new primary domain, click Make Primary. 
  3. Click Change Primary Domain. It can take up to 48 hours for your new primary domain to take effect. Until then, your email will be delivered as usual to your old email address.

Rename users with your new domain

Change your users over to the new domain.

When you rename your own admin account, you’ll be automatically signed out. You then sign in with your new username.

  1. Go to Menu ""and thenDirectory > Users.
  2. Click a user to open their account page.
  3. On the left, click Rename User.
  4. Under Primary email, click the Down arrow and select your new primary domain.
  5. Click Rename.

Make your old domain an alias domain.

Get email at your old domain and new domain for no additional cost.

  1. Go to Menu ""and thenAccount > Domains > Manage domains.
  2. Click on Add domain > select User alias domain.
  3. Enter the domain name desired.
  4. Proceed to complete the steps on screen to activate your domain.

Now you should be able to receive email at both your old and your new email addresses.


Why keep the old address?

There are a lot of reasons for this. The number one reason is that you have people who are already using your old email address, and most people won’t be likely to remember to update their contact info or type in the new email address, they’ll simply login to their email program and start typing your name and let autofill do the rest. If you drop the old, you will lose those emails.

Another reason is account recovery. I cannot tell you how many times I’ve had folks come to me in a panic because they had an account set up using the old domain name, and they need to reset their password or verify their login and can’t because they no longer have access to that domain name. It’s tragic. Don’t lose access to accounts because you lost your email. Does this mean you need to pay for that domain name until the end of time? Yes. But most domain names are pretty cheap and that $15 or $20 a year is going to be well worth it down the road.


A few tips for using your new email address

  • After you’ve set up your new domain as your primary domain in Google Workspace, you will have to update your email settings in any device or email program you use, including your phone and any desktop email clients.
  • You will now use your new domain to access and admin your Google Workspace account, so be sure to update that in your password manager or wherever you keep records of your logins.
  • Update your email address in any other accounts that use email addresses for logins or access. If you were using that email address as the email associated with your GoDaddy account, or web hosting account, or your electric bill account, or whatever, go to each of those accounts and update your email address. You will still get emails to the old address if you set up the alias correctly, but it’s important that you update your email wherever it’s being used.
  • Update your email address in your website’s contact forms, to make sure that your form submissions are getting to you directly.

This seems like a lot of steps, I know. But doing it right will be worth the time it takes so you keep your existing emails while setting up your new email address.

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Amy Masson, Web Developer
Owner/Developer

Amy Masson

Amy is the co-owner, developer, and website strategist for Sumy Designs. She's been making websites with WordPress since 2006 and is passionate about making sure websites are as functional as they are beautiful.

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