Your DNS (Domain Name System) is the phone book of the internet — it translates your domain name into the IP addresses and server locations that power your website, email, and every other digital service you run. A misconfigured DNS zone causes downtime, email failures, and lost revenue. Here's what each record type actually does.
What is DNS?
DNS is the system that maps human-readable domain names (like yourcompany.com) to machine-readable IP addresses. Every time someone visits your website, sends you an email, or connects to any of your cloud services, a DNS lookup happens in milliseconds to route that request to the right server.
What is an A record?
An A record maps your domain name to an IPv4 address — it's how your domain knows which web server to point to. If your website is down and nothing else has changed, a broken A record is often the first thing to check.
What is an MX record?
MX (Mail Exchange) records tell the internet which servers handle incoming email for your domain. Without correct MX records, emails sent to you disappear into the void. If you use Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, your MX records must point to those providers' mail servers.
What is a CNAME record?
A CNAME (Canonical Name) record creates an alias from one domain name to another. For example, pointing "mail.yourcompany.com" to Google's servers, or connecting your custom domain to a Webflow or Shopify site.
What is a TXT record?
TXT records store arbitrary text data — most commonly used for SPF (email authentication), DMARC policies, domain ownership verification (for Google Search Console, etc.), and DKIM public keys. A cluttered or conflicting TXT record zone is one of the most common DNS problems we fix.
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