How to Manage Your Bluehost Email with Gmail

So, you have a new Bluehost email address.  Now what?  You may be hesitant to share the email address, because the only place to manage the emails is through the Bluehost portal. 

Not true.

With a Bluehost email address, you have the same flexibility of other email addresses.  You can set up access via your cell phone, Outlook, or even Gmail.  Using Outlook or Gmail will give you the flexibility to organize, tag and delete your emails easily.

I love this option, because it lets me tie my email, Google Analytics, Google Search Console, YouTube, Google Drive and Screencastify accounts to one login.

In this tutorial, I’m going to walk you through the set-up process of adding your new Bluehost email address to a Gmail account for management.

If you haven’t already added your Bluehost email address to your cell phone, be sure to check out How do I set up my Bluehost email address on my iPhone?  If you have another smart phone, not to worry. This post shows you where to find the proper settings regardless of the smart phone model you use.

Let’s get started! 

1. Log into Bluehost and Navigate to your Email Configuration Page.

To begin, you will need to be logged into Bluehost to access the appropriate email settings for Gmail.

Once logged in, you will click the “Email” link in the main navigation.

Then, click the “Email Configuration” tab in the left-hand navigation.

Lastly, select the appropriate email address from the drop-down menu.  This will bring up your proper email settings.

2. Create a new Gmail account.

To set up your Bluehost email address for full management through Gmail, you will need to set up a new Gmail account.  The name of the email address is not important as it will not be seen by anyone. 

If you are already logged into Google, you can access this from your profile image.  If you are not logged in, you can simply click the “Use Another Account” from the login screen.

3. Navigate to the Settings page.

One you have completed the setup process of creating a new Gmail (Google) account, click the gear icon in the top righthand corner of your Gmail account and click the “Settings” link in the menu.

4. Navigate to the “Accounts and Import” tab from the settings page.

Once you are in the settings section, click the “Accounts and Import” tab.

5. Click on “Add a Mail Account”

6. Now, enter the your new Bluehost email address and click “Next”

7. Select “Import emails from my other account (POP3)” and Click “Next”

8. Input the Username and Password

In this step, you will enter the Bluehost email address as your “username”.
For the password, you will enter the password that you assigned to this Bluehost email address during the initial setup process.

9. Update the POP Server and Port information.

For this step, we are going to look at your proper email settings in Bluehost.   In Bluehost, you will be provided with both “Standard (without SSL)” or “Private (with SSL)” settings information.  

If you have set up an SSL certificate on your blog and your blog begins with HTTPS, you will use the “Private (with SSL)” settings.  

Otherwise, if your blog begins with HTTP, you will use the “Standard (without SSL)” settings.

For the “POP Server” field, you will copy/paste the appropriate Incoming Mail Server setting from your Bluehost account.

Then, for the Port, you will use the POP3 number that appears just below the Income Mail Server information.

10. Check the first three boxes (copy on server, SSL connect, and labeling emails) and Click “Add Account”

11. Select “Yes, I want to be able to send email as….” and Click “Next”

12. Enter the name that you want to appear when you send emails

This is the name that will appear in a “From” field when a recipient receives emails from you.

13. Enter the Outgoing Mail Server Information

Now, we are going to set up the outgoing settings.  The previous step was for when emails are arriving and this step is for when emails are being sent.

To begin, you will need to look in Bluehost for the appropriate settings.  Again, if you have an SSL certificate, you will be using the “Private (with SSL)” settings.

• For the SMTP Server, you will enter the Outgoing Mail Server information.
• For the Port, you will use the port that appears just below the Outgoing Mail Server information.
• For the Username, you will enter the email address.
• Select the recommended connection and Click “Add Account”

14. Verify your account.

When you reach this screen, you will have received an email from Google in your new Gmail inbox.  Simply, open that email and copy/paste the verification code into this field.  (Mine was a 9 digit code.) 

Once you have entered the code, click “Verify”.

Almost done!

15. Make your Bluehost email address your default.

To fully use Gmail to manage your Bluehost email address, you will want to update the default email address.  As of right now, if you were to send an email from the new Gmail account, it would come from the Gmail address.  Once you have updated the default email address, all outgoing emails will appear to be coming from your Bluehost email address.

To do this, you will need to navigate back to the Settings > Accounts and Import (Steps 3 & 4).  From this screen, you will simply click the “Default” button to the righthand side of your Bluehost email address.

16. Test.

I always send a new email address with another one of my email addresses. Then, I also reply when I receive the email.  That will test both the sending (outgoing) and receiving (incoming) of your Bluehost email address through Gmail.

You made it!  You have officially set up your Bluehost email address on Gmail.

Be sure to check out these other posts to keep customizing your email and your blog.

How to Set Up a Bluehost Email Address on Your iPhone
7 Things to Know in the Bluehost Control Panel
Why I Fell in Love With the Genesis Framework and How to Install It