How To Set Up Google G Suite Email For Your Small Business

Published on April 12, 2017 in Business Tools & Services, Web Design.

In a previous tutorial, we discussed why using the free email service that's bundled with your web hosting is no good for business, and how it can lead to a whole range of problems. Or, you may find yourself in a situation where your web hosting provider doesn't offer email service at all (as is the case with hosts like WP Engine). Either way, we want to ensure that our business's primary web services are handled by separate vendors. To achieve this, and get you set you up in the best possible way, we'll take a look at how to set up Google G Suite for your website.

First, I'll give you a quick run-down of G Suite features. You'll find out why G Suite really is one of the best choices for dedicated, business-level email service. Then after that, we'll jump right into the hands-on steps for setting up your G Suite account. The process of getting everything set up and configured correctly is a little involved, so for clarity I've broken the process down into three sections, Setting Up Your G Suite Account, Adding Users To Your Account, and finally Verifying Your Domain Name. I'll keep the entire process clear and simple to follow.

If you follow all the steps in this tutorial, you'll have your business's website communications set up and functioning via Google G Suite in no time.

I hope that sounds good, let's get rolling!

A Brief Overview of Google G Suite Features

Alright, I want to start off with a quick overview of some of Google G Suite's features, and why it's a great choice to handle your website's email.

Google G Suite is the business-grade version of Gmail.

Google G Suite is one of the most popular business-grade email providers on the market, supporting millions of businesses across the world. G Suite provides everything that a free Gmail account offers, but on a business-level. For instance, G Suite uses the same email interface as Gmail, and also includes Google Drive, Google Docs (which includes a word processor, slide show presentation creator, a spreadsheet application, and so on), Google Hangouts, calendar, contacts, and so on. Like Gmail, a paid G Suite account also allows you to access email from wherever you are via desktop and mobile devices. You'll also feel secure with Google's solid reliability, anti-spam and malware filters, and top notch security.

The big difference between G Suite and a free Gmail account is the ability to create site branded, or professional, email addresses. So, you@yourcompany.com, or info@yourcompany.com rather than an amateurish looking email from a free email service, like sparkle_wishes4ever@gmail.com!

In addition, each G Suite account includes 30gb of storage per account versus 15gb that comes with a free Gmail account, and no advertising. Finally, G Suite includes dedicated 24/7 customer support, which is available 365 days a year.

If you want to learn more about Google G Suite, and compare it against other dedicated email services, be sure to check out my tutorial, Finding The Best Email Service For Your Business.

With that brief feature overview out of the way, let's go and set up your G Suite account...

Part One: Setting Up Your Business's G Suite Account

Okay, so we know that G Suite is a solid choice for handling our website's email. We're now ready to get ourselves set up. As I mentioned earlier on, this is a multi-step process, so I've broken everything down into three sections. We'll take a look at getting a G Suite account set up first, then we'll move on to adding new users, and then finally we'll verify your website domain.

I hope that sounds good.

Here's how to set up a G Suite account:

Okay, let's go set up your G Suite account.

1. In your browser, navigate to Google G Suite.
2. In the top-right corner, click the green Get Started button; then on the screen that appears, click Next.
3. On the following screen, type in your company name and the number of employees; then click Next.

4. Now, set your location; then click Next.
5. On the screen that appears, insert your current email address; then click Next.

You can use a personal email address here.

6. Now, you can choose whether you'd like to use an existing domain, or register a new one. You should already have a domain name for your business, so go ahead and click the Yes I Have One I Can Use button.

If you're reading this tutorial, you should hopefully already have a domain name. If not, head over to my domain name registration tutorial and set one up.

7. More screens! Here, enter your company's domain name; then click Next.
8. On the screen that follows, fill out your first and last name; then once again, click Next.

Next, Google will ask you to create your first domain-based email address. Note too that what you set here will serve as your G Suite administrator account. So, you might want to set this to something generic, like info@yourcompany.com, especially if you're working in a team environment where more than one person might have access to the G Suite admin area. You can always add more email accounts later on.

On the other hand, if you're a solo business owner, you could use you@yourcompany.com if you think you'll only be using one account.

9. In the fields provided, insert what you'd like to use as both your primary email address and your G Suite admin username; then insert a password and click Next.

10. On the next screen, Google's asking you if you'd like to receive marketing emails from them. Go ahead and choose if you'd like to or not.
11. Finally, check I'm Not A Robot; then click Agree And Create Account.

G Suite goes to work setting up your account. When this process is finished, you'll see a success page appear. When you're ready to continue, click Go To Setup.

12. Sign in with the username and password you just created. Make sure to accept G Suite's terms of service by clicking the large blue Accept button.

Okay, you now have a G Suite account created! That was a bunch of steps, but it's worth it. This brings us to the end of the first part of getting G Suite set up for your website. Next, we'll need to add at least one user to your account. And that's coming up next...

Part Two: Adding Users To Your Account

Now that we've created a G Suite account, the next thing we'll need to do is add users to the account. Even if you only want to use the single email account that you just set up a moment ago, you'll need to walk through this process.

Here's how to add users to your G Suite account:

We're now ready to add users to our G Suite account. The good news is, the process is simple.

1. Adjacent to Add People To Your G Suite Account, click Start.

2. Optionally, in the area that appears, use the fields to add as many users as you need; then when you're finished, towards the bottom check "I Added All User Email Addresses Currently Using..." and click Next.

If you want to add additional accounts, simply fill out the First Name, Last Name, and Username fields and click Add for each one.

If you'll just be using the single account that you've already set up, then just check "I Added All User Email Addresses Currently Using..." without making any other changes.

That's all there is to it. So far, so good?

Now that you've added at least one user to your G Suite account, the last thing we need to do is verify your website's domain. That's next...

Part Three: Verifying Your Business's Domain Name

We're almost there! The final step in setting up G Suite for your website is to verify that you own the domain that you want to use with G Suite. You can do this in a few different ways. Probably the easiest method is to add G Suite's meta tag to your website's header. I'll outline how to do this with a WordPress-driven site, below.

Admittedly, we have several hoops to jump through to finish this process off. We'll have to paste some code into our WordPress theme, jump back to G Suite a few times, and also edit our domain name's MX (Mail Exchange) records. Let's take our time, and go step-by-step...

Here's how to verify your domain name:

Alright, let's verify your domain and finish setting up G Suite.

1. Select and copy the code that appears in the Meta Tag field.

Now you'll need to log into your WordPress site's admin dashboard, where we'll paste the verification code into your site theme's header. If this sounds complex, stick with me—it's pretty straightforward.

2. Log into the admin dashboard of your WordPress site.

As always, this is going to be yourcompany.com/wp-admin.

3. Once logged into your dashboard, go to Appearance > Theme Editor.

This opens the admin dashboard's built-in code editor.

4. From the Theme Files list on the far right, click header.php.

This opens header.php for editing. In the main editor window, look for <head>. It's inside the <head> that we need to paste G Suite's verification code.

5. Place your cursor inside the <head>; then paste.

6. When you're finished, click Save in the top-left corner.
7. Now, head back to your G Suite account and check "I Added The Meta Tag To My Homepage."

G Suite will now request that you edit your domain's settings. This needs to be done via your domain registrar's control panel. If you've been following some of my other tutorials, you know that I use NameCheap for all my domain registration and management. So to complete this process, I'll have to head back to my NameCheap account.

If you're using a different domain name registrar, the steps are very similar.

7. Once you've logged into your registrar's control panel, you'll need to navigate to your domain's MX Records.

In NameCheap, we do this by first clicking Manage adjacent to the domain we're using; then at the top of the screen that appears, clicking Advanced DNS. Finally, on the screen that appears, scroll down about half way and look for Mail Settings.

8. Delete any MX Records that are currently listed for your domain.

I didn't have any settings for my domain, so I opened the pull-down the menu and selected Custom MX.

9. Head back to G Suite and check "I Have Opened The Control Panel For My Domain."

G Suite now provides a list of MX Records that you need to add to your domain. This part's a bit tedious, as you'll have to go back and forth between your domain registrar and G Suite, adding each MX Record. Here's what the first record looks like for me in NameCheap.

10. Once you're finished adding all the MX Records, head back to G Suite and check "I Created New MX Records."

Now, G Suite will ask you to delete any existing MX Records for your domain. We did this earlier, so we can keep moving.

11. Check "I Have Deleted Existing MX Records."
12. Next, check "I Saved The MX Records" then click the Verify Domain And Set Up Email button.

MX Records to take time to propagate throughout the web, just like domain DNS settings need to resolve. This can take up to 72 hours, but often you'll start to receive email to your new account much sooner than that.

G Suite now goes to work verifying that all the changes you've made are correct. Once everything's verified, you'll see a success message appear.

Congratulations, you set up G Suite for your domain!

Now, to actually use your G Suite email, you can log into your account just as you would with a free Gmail account: Navigate to the Gmail Website and log in with your email address and password. If you want to log into your G Suite admin dashboard, where you can manage user accounts, apps, billing, and so on, just head over here.

Wrapping Things Up

I hope you now have your G Suite account and your email set up and running smoothly. Again, it was a bit of an involved process, but that's why we broke things down and took a step-by-step approach. If you ran into any problems, Google has detailed set up information, which you can find right here.

We started off with a brief overview of Google G Suite's features, to make sure that we were all on the same page and understood why G Suite is such a great choice for our website's email. Then, we jumped into the first section in our three-part process, Setting Up Your G Suite Account. Once those steps were complete, we moved into Adding Users To Your Account, and lastly Verifying Your Domain Name. If you follow all the steps in this tutorial, you now have your business's communications set up and functioning via Google G Suite. Awesome!

I hope you found this tutorial helpful and informative.

I'll see you soon!