In this article, you will learn how to set up your custom business Gmail account so that you can use a professional-looking email address without using that awkward email application provided by your web hosting company.
Before we start let’s get rid of the elephant in the room. Are you doing some serious business while still using Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail domain in your email address? Stop doing that! What would your new client or potential business partner think of you if they receive a message that came from john.doe33@gmail.com or fast.plumbing.services@gmail.com email address? Would they take you or your business seriously? Would they want to do more business with you? Do you expect them to be eager in referring you to their friends and colleagues? They might not even see it because the email filter would consider it spam.
No matter how awesome your products and services might be, if your business transactions are going over the gmail.com domain, you will not appear as a professional or even as a legit business.
If you are already using Gmail, then you are familiar with the friendly user interface and the ease of using Google’s email service along with other tools like Docs, Drive, Calendar, etc.
What this article is not about
I’m not going to show you how to set up an email account through a desktop email application such as Mail on macOS or Outlook on Windows.
Also, I’m not going to show you how to configure Google Workspace (ex G Suite). This is a paid Google email service.
What this article is about
I’m going to show you how to hook up your Gmail account to your web hosting email service so that you can use Gmail as your main email app while having a professional custom business email address.
Prerequisites
You need to have these:
- Internet domain – this probably the cheapest investment you will have. But the one that will leverage all other aspects of your business. I use GoDaddy.
- Web hosting account – if you don’t have a hosting account yet, I recommend you get one at SiteGround. I’ve used them for years for my own sites and for my clients. They are fast, secure and have outstanding support.
- Google account – if you don’t have one (seriously?) then create your Google Account.
If you are running a business and you have purchased an internet domain then you can have your email with business domain on Gmail.
Create email account on your web hosting
If you already have a domain email account then you can skip this section and jump to Set up a business Gmail account.
You need to open the cPanel. If you don’t know what’s a cPanel – it’s a piece of software for managing various aspects of your websites, emails, domains, etc. Most web hosting providers offer it out of the box. You just need to locate it. You can either log in to your hosting provider’s website or use the cPanel URL. I’ll show you how to do it in the following sections.
If you are using SiteGround, head on to Websites > cPanel.
If you are using a different web hosting provider, it shouldn’t be too hard to find the link to cPanel through navigation links.
Another way is to enter the URL yourdomain.com/cpanel directly in your browser to get to the cPanel login screen.
Once you’re in, you’ll see a ton of options. On SiteGround, find the Mail section and click Email Accounts.
If you have a different hosting provider, it might look a bit different.
Here you create your email address from scratch. Enter your new email and password. Choose a domain that will be part of your new email address if you have more that 1 domain. You can leave the Maximum Quota as it is for now and click Create Account.
Other providers might have a different looking screen, but the interface is straightforward.
Now you can open the webmail app.
On SiteGround, it’s under the Mail section Webmail > Log In to Webmail.
Or under ’s under the Mail section Email Accounts > Listed account > More > Access Webmail.
If you are on a different hosting provider or want to access directly, append /webmail to your domain URL yourdomain.com/webmail and you’ll get a login screen. Enter the your domain email account’s username and password (the one that you have just created).
When you log in there will be different options, depending on your provider, but mainly there are mail settings and the Roundcube webmail application.
(You may also see two other webmail applications like Horde and SquirrelMail, but some hosting providers may have discontinued their usage.)
At this point, you can open the webmail application and start using your business email account with the custom email address. You can stop reading here.
However, I’d advise you to continue and hook up your email account with Gmail so that you reap the benefits of having:
- Friendly and amiliar user interface
- Integration with Google tools
- Portability on other devices like (Android) tablets and phones
Set up a business Gmail account
Now we are stepping into the juicy part.
Set up a new Gmail account or use the existing one. Creating a new Gmail account is pretty straightforward.
In the Check mail from other accounts section click on Add a mail account
Enter your domain email address and click Next
You select Import emails from my other account (POP3) and click Next.
Enter your email account username. Your username is your email address.
Enter your email account password.
Open the webmail to get the email server and port info.
On SiteGround it’s under Mail Client Manual Settings.
On a different hosting provider you may find the settings under Other Configure Mail Client or something similar.
Under SMTP Server and Port info, insert the Incoming Server information of your domain email account.
You can select the following options:
- Leave a copy of retrieved messages on the server – when you receive the message to your Gmail inbox, a copy of that message is saved on webhosting mail server (you will see the message in your webmail)
- Always use a secure connection (SSL) when retrieving mail – ensures that the connection is secured
- Label incoming messages – your incoming messages are labeled with the email address that you select
- Archive incoming messages – the messages you receive and you won’t see them in the inbox
When you’re done, click Add Account.
At this moment, we have configured how to receive emails to username@domain. Now we need to configure how to send emails from that address.
Select option Yes, I want to be able to send mail as username@domain.
Enter the name you want to appear on the emails you send and click Next Step.
Enter your email account username. Your username is your email address.
Enter your email account password.
Under SMTP Server and Port info, insert the Outgoing Server information of your domain email account.
Before your email account is added, you need to verify the confirmation either by clicking on the confirmation link or by entering the confirmation code from the email you have just received.
Head on to your inbox.
Open the Gmail Confirmation email.
Copy the Gmail confirmation code and paste it to the confirmation field and click Verify.
Or you can click on the confirmation link within the email.
If everything went well and your domain email account has been imported to your Gmail account, you should be able to send and receive business emails on your domain email account using the Gmail application. Awesome job!
Now if you want to send an email from Gmail, click on Compose and then click on the From field to select the address from which you want to send this email.
You can set the default address for sending emails by going to Settings > See all settings > Accounts and Import and under the Send mail as: section click on the make default link next to the email address. So, every time you hit Send or Reply, the email will be sent out from your business email instead of your Gmail address.
One more tip for the end and we’re finished. I’ve noticed that the inbox updated upon receiving the email, so you might want to refresh it manually by clicking on the Refresh icon if you don’t see the email you’ve been expecting.
Conclusion
There you have it. You have set up a business Gmail account by hooking up web hosting email to the Gmail application and now you can enjoy all the goodies that Google provides, ample storage and spam filtering. Also, now you have access to your domain email via the Gmail app on mobile and tablet devices so you are in sync wherever you go.
