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Sure, Hotmail or Gmail email addresses work just fine for emailing your friends and family. But when you send and receive emails with your customers then you need to look professional.
If you’re using an email address like [email protected], that’s no bueno because because your business looks unprofessional!
Here in this blog post you will learn step-by-step, how to create a custom email address, using your own domain like [email protected] and how you can connect it to your Google Gmail account.
This way, you can send and receive emails using Gmail, but your customers will see the emails as coming from your domain name.
What you’ll learn:
- Step 1 – Create a professional and custom email address with your own domain name
- Step 2 – Use your newly created email address to send and receive emails using Gmail
What you need:
- Domain name and web hosting (from around $5/month, for both!)
- Free Google Gmail account
- Approx 20-30 minutes of your time
Step 1 – Create a custom email address using your own domain name
First, you need to go and get web hosting. We recommend that you use Bluehost or GreenGeeks (both companies offer a free domain name when you sign up for hosting with them).
The good thing about getting a domain name and hosting all from the same place is that you don’t have to configure nameservers or fiddle around with DNS settings Everything is already set up for you!
Okay so you went and got yourself web hosting and a domain name, and they’re connected (again, we recommend Bluehost or GreenGeeks as you don’t need to do any DNS setting updates).
Now it’s time to go and create a custom email address, something like [email protected].
- Log in to your Bluehost or GreenGeeks cPanel > Email section > Email Accounts
- Select the domain you want your email account to be associated with in the drop-down list and enter the desired email and a strong password of your choice
- Make a selection for Mailbox Quota (choose unlimited or set your own quota)
- Click Create Account.
All done! You have now created your custom email address, something like [email protected].
So now what?
cPanel email settings
Let’s go back to cPanel and find your email settings.
Log in to your cPanel > Email section > Email Accounts
- Click the cog icon that says Configure / Set Up Mail Client (next to the custom email address you created)
- Under Manual Setting there’s a Secure SSL/TLS Settings box (copy & paste this or keep this window open because we need this info later when we configure Gmail)
Good! Because you’ll need to have these settings in front of you to be able to configure Gmail to send and receive emails (later step).
Step 2 – Send and receive emails using Gmail
Gmail (Google Mail) is awesome and it’s free. You get 15GB of storage and you also get access to Google Drive (cloud storage for your photos and files, and you can create and share documents, spreadsheets and make presentations).
You can also be logged into multiple Gmail accounts at once (meaning you can easily toggle between your personal and business email inboxes).
Go and get yourself Gmail account, sign up here http://mail.google.com/mail/signup
You should now have a sparkling new Gmail email address created, something like [email protected].
Add email forwarding
Before we configure Gmail we need to create an email forwarder.
Now let’s head back to cPanel and create an email forwarder. I.e. we want to forward your [email protected] to [email protected])
- Log in to your cPanel > Email section > Forwarders
- Click the Add Forwarder button
- Set what email address you want the email address to be forwarded to (destination).
That’s it. Now all emails to [email protected] will be forwarded to [email protected].
Receiving emails in Gmail
- Login to your Gmail Account
- In the top right hand corner, click on the Settings cog icon and choose Settings
- Click Accounts and Import
- Click ‘Add a POP3 mail account you own”
- Enter your Email address, e.g. [email protected]
- Click the Next Step button.

- Enter your full email address as the Username
- Enter Password for your email account
- Enter the incoming POP Server. Choose the Always use a secure connection (SSL) option. Make sure the port is changed to 995
- Choose any additional options you may want
- Click the Add Account button
Sending emails in Gmail
- Choose ” Yes, I want to be able to send mail as e.g. [email protected]”
- Untick the “Treat as alias” checkbox (if left ticked the receipents of your emails will see a message saying “email is sent on behalf of …@gmail.com” – which doesn’t look very professional)
- Click the Next Step button.

- Enter the outgoing SMTP Server
- Enter your full email address as the Username
- Enter Password for your email account
- Choose Secured connection using SSL. Make sure the port is changed to 465
- Click Add Account
- Verify your email address
- Because we setup email forwarding before, a confirmation email will be sent to your Gmail
- Click the confirmation link in the email or copy/paste the PIN
- All done! You can now send and receive emails using Gmail
Wrap up
If email is important to you then you owe it to yourself to get yourself a professional looking email address. Because having a @hotmail, @yahoo or @gmail email address simply won’t cut it!
Here we have walked you through (step by step) how you can create a custom email address using your own domain name. We recommend getting a domain name and web hosting from either Bluehost (review here) or GreenGeeks (review here).
We have also shown you how to connect this email address to a free Gmail account, so that you can both send and receive emails from Google’s email solution.
I used my email this way. I looked out of Google, another user logged in with their gmail address and google automatically took that person’s gmail address and made it my primary. I cannot change it. I’ve spent countless hours on the phone with Google and they cannot figure it out. I have to use another person’s gmail+password to access ALL my Google accounts. I’m using Google Drive that i pay for with 1TB, Google voice and gsuite. They all say they’re not affiliated with each other no they all begin with the word Google. I have been dealing with this nightmare since March of 2017. if I cancel the account then I lose all my data on Google voice. This was how I got my nonprofit started. It has been an absolute nightmare and they still can’t solve the issue today. Before Google one showed up you could only go to the forums and a lot of people are having the same issue where Google has hijacked somebody’s Gmail account and replaced their domain email to where they cannot access their own services that they are paying for. I’ve never heard of a company where you cannot change your primary email to any email that you want to use. I am very unhappy and still trying to find a way to disconnect myself especially with over 300 voicemails needed for my business. So just beware.
This was SO helpful! I just set up my wife’s freelance writing business with an email account that she can now access through an intuitive Gmail interface rather than a non-user friendly cPanel. Thanks!
Using this process, how does setting up an email program (either on mobile or on a desktop app like Outlook or Apple Mail) work? Would you just put in the info for the “behind the scenes” Gmail account?
Also, what happens on the domain email side in terms of storage? Do emails get deleted after they’re forwarded, so that the space remains open for use later or do they just build up until you run out of storage?
The tutorial is thorough and down to earth.
Many thanks
Thanks for this info!! I tried adding the Mail account on my gmail but it gave an error – “Server returned error: Connection timed out: There may be a problem with the settings you added. Please contact your other email provider to verify the correct server name and port.”
Not sure how to fix this and add my account! Would appreciate any advise! Thank you!!
Hi there, thank you very very very much for this tutorial. I find this kind of tutorial since last year and now I can do it with the help of this tutorial. I am lucky today because I got you from Google. Whoever you are, you help people a lot. I wish you success and have a great day ahead. TQVM once again. I am going to visit here again to get an information that you shared. Writing from Malaysia with love.
Best,
Saza
This is very good, but I fear there’s a catch. Google doesn’t correctly authenticate outgoing messages through other servers, so recipients (e.g. with other Gmail accounts) see a question mark and a note saying that Google couldn’t confirm the sender. I can’t risk this with a business email.
Great article. I just got done going through the entire process and it is working like a charm. I am now trying to set this up on my iPhone, however, when I send emails from my iPhone it is showing the Gmail address instead of the domain address.
I tried going into the email account settings, but it is telling me I cannot use the SSL. Do you have a guide on how to set this up on your phone?
Thanks!
Hallo,
Very informative post. The only problem with it is that very often mails you send out through this setup will end up in spam at some email providers. I personally have been plagued by this when sending to any Microsoft-mail service address (outlook.com; hotmail.com; Office365 mail users). Nothing as bad as sending invoices to your customers which end up in spam because your mail headers contain bluehost/greengeeks/ionos/whatever… AND your own domain AND Google. Even when adding SPF and DKIM validation to your domain, my problems remain. Currently looking for a solution to this myself.
Extremely helpful, step-by-step tutorial. Had no clue what I was doing but this got me through it.
Thank you so much!
I received an email stating that my message couldn’t be delivered to my business email, and received no forwarded copy of the email to my alias. I followed all of your instructions to the T, so I’m a little frustrated. Any advice?
Is this still possible to do if you used GoDaddy and do you have another tutorial using their hosting/domain site?
Can you do the above if your domain/website is hosted with GoDaddy? I already have a gmail email. Thanks!
Hi there! Thank you for an amazing step-by-step guide! I honestly couldn’t have done it without your clear and accurate instructions. I followed all the steps and everything is done correctly but most of the times the emails I send from my domain email (via Gmail) end up in the recipients’ junk folder. Any ideas how to fix this? Thank you again for fantastic guide!