WordPress Contact Form Plugins

If you’d like to increase your enquiries while avoid spam, adding a contact form to your WordPress website is a simple and effective option. There are a wide range of plugins designed to make adding a contact form to your website or blog pretty painless.

Great WordPress Contact Form Plugins

There are a whole host of contact form plugins available, including free and premium options, offering additional features. Here’s a brief snapshot of some of the most popular.

• Easy Contact Forms  –  4.1/5 stars
• Contact Form 7  –  4.3/5 stars
• Contact Form Maker  –  4.1/5 stars
• Contact Form Manager  –  4.3/5 stars
• Gravity Forms – Commercial grade plugin. The most advanced form management plugin available.

Designed for Easy Set-Up

While the ability to customise your contact forms varies between plugins, most are designed for quick-and-easy set up. I went through the process, installing Contact Form 7 on my personal blog, to see just how easy it was.

Step 1. Installation

First, I went into my WP Dashboard, and from there I found the ‘Add New’ option under ‘Plugins’ in the left-hand navigation. I searched for Contact Form 7, and once the plugin was displayed in the search results, selected the ‘Install Now’ button. It took a matter of seconds for the plugin to be installed – then I selected the ‘Activate’ option.

Step 2. Set-Up

Once the Contact Form 7 plugin had been activated, a ‘Contact’ option appeared in the left-hand navigation. Selecting this, and then selecting ‘Contact Form’ in the options, took me into the settings page, where I could customise my form with desired details and required fields, and well as message customisation options.

Step 3. Customisation

Your Name, Your Email, Subject, and Your Message were already included in the form by default, but I also wanted to add a captcha for added spam avoidance. Navigating the ‘Generate Tag’ menu, I selected the CAPTCHA option (to add a captcha to my form I also needed to install the Really Simple CAPTCHA plugin, which took less than a minute).

I was given the option to further customise my form’s captcha, but I left everything as the defaults, and then copied and pasted the image and input field code into my form.

Finally, I double-checked the To email address in the Mail section was correct. You have the option of customising your email subject, and how your email will appear when you receive it to your designated account, but I left these fields as they were and hit the blue ‘Save’ button near the top of the page.

Step 4. Adding your Form to your Website

The final step was to add the code generated by the Contact Form 7 plugin to a new page on my site. I grabbed the highlighted code and pasted it into a sticky note for safe keeping, then selected ‘Add New’ from the ‘Pages’ menu in the Dashboard’s left-hand navigation (since I didn’t already have a contact page set up).

I named my page Contact, included a brief introduction, and then pasted the code generated by the Contact Form 7 plugin into the text field. After a quick preview to ensure everything seemed to be functioning as it should be, I hit ‘Publish’, and then opened my website to test the form for myself (always test!).

All in all, I think the process took around half an hour, which is time well-spent when you consider the value adding a contact form can offer your website.

Why Include a Contact Form?

You might already have an email link and your phone number listed on your contact page, but offering a contact form gives your readers and potential customers a quick and hassle-free means of contacting you in seconds. Having a prospect contact you is invaluable, so breaking down any barriers that may prevent from initiating contact is vital.

Some people just prefer email communication, and others may not find it convenient to contact you during normal business hours, so only offering a phone number isn’t going to give you the best results. Including your email address is a good start, but there’s more perceived effort associated with sending an email than filling out a form.

A contact form makes it easy for them to drop their details in, and gives you the opportunity to encourage them to include all of the details you need, such as their organization.

Already using a great free or premium contact form plugin? Share your favourites in the comments below.