Unable to validate the domain with GoDaddy after adding the CNAMEs from SendGrid
3 Answers
This was a simple fix. SendGrid asks you to add 3 CNAMES(5 CNAMES if branding needs to be enabled) for domain verification on your DNS Management Portal. Issue was that I was adding the entire CNAME which SendGrid was providing me, but GoDaddy just expects only the individual name, it appends the domain name to the CNAME during domain name resolution.
So for example, if SendGrid asks you to add something like below as a CNAME in GoDaddy,
- ex0123.sub.domain.com, you should be adding only ex0123
- for s1._domainkey.sub.domain.com you should be adding only s1._domainkey as the
- For s2._domainkey.domain.com add only s2._domainkey
This fixed my issue, hope this helps you as well!

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OMG I know this is against the rulz, but man I LOVE YOU.... keep it safe Sreepriya – Guillermo Oramas R. Sep 23 '20 at 13:26
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How you even knew that :O ? I've more than 4 days and a lot of lost clients trying to fix this – Guillermo Oramas R. Sep 23 '20 at 13:31
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You are a legend. Why can't they standardize this stuff. – MadMac Oct 06 '20 at 02:07
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This works! This should be the accepted answer! Thank you so much! – KJ Sudarshan Oct 11 '20 at 11:54
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Back here for a 2nd time as I forgot. Thanks again! – MadMac Feb 17 '21 at 01:20
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Back here for a second time !! Thanks again – Guillermo Oramas R. Jul 27 '21 at 19:05
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This works with GoDaddy and the documentation in SendGrid should reflect your answer – Raffaeu Aug 25 '21 at 07:01
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I found this was the case for Google Domains as well, where the domain is automatically appended to whatever you enter into the host field. – DannyRosenblatt Aug 13 '22 at 13:34
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does this work for namecheap? – Alex Antoine Sep 10 '22 at 09:21
In my case, I struggled for a day and found this doc which says:-
Some DNS hosts will automatically add your top-level domain to the end of DNS records you create, which can turn a CNAME for “email.domain.com” into “email.domain.com.domain.com”. Be sure to follow the convention on existing records in your DNS panel when adding new ones, as sometimes you will only need to add what is to the left of the top-level domain.
For example, a CNAME
for “email.”
becomes “email.domain.com”
In Godaddy, you dont have to put domain name in CNAME
records, just put the subdomain. Also, you need to put the entire VALUE
string provided by Sendgrid in value
field in Godaddy. as of Sep 2021.

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The answer by Sreepriya Sreekumar worked perfectly but as of May 2021 in Godaddy I had to keep the full s2._domainkey.domain.com then it worked.
Steps 1 and 2 are exactly as written in that answer.