DNS settings: only 1 SPF record?

[Jeff Guynn]

I'm testing out Elastic Email (http://www.elasticemail.com), and they provide the following instructions for validating domains with SPF / DKIM:

*DNS settings should only have 1 SPF record. If there is an existing SPF record, just add "include:_spf.elasticemail.com" to the existing record. Make sure it is added before any IPs"

Silly me, I've always added each SPF record as a stand-alone entity in my host's DNS settings...i.e. one for mailwizz, one for sendgrid, one for mailgun, etc.

Curious what the practice has been in the group here. Appreciate your insight.

 

[twisted1919]

I just use a single spf record with all the records needed. It sometimes becomes a very very long string.

 

[Jeff Guynn]

@twisted1919

If my mailwizz spf record by itself is the following: "v=spf1 mx a ptr a:mailwizz.tranzware.com ip4:50.87.23.137 ~all", how would I add that to a preexisting spf record to consolidate them into one? Like this? ..."include:spf1 mx a ptr a:mailwizz.tranzware.com ip4:50.87.23.137 ~all" ??

 

[twisted1919]

@Jeff Guynn
I think the key to this is to understand how SPF works.
Tools like http://www.spfwizard.net/ help but googling on the subject also gives insights.