Contact Form Routine Check UP !

How many of you routinely send a test email through your contact form?

I’ll bet, close to ZERO.   You set it up and forget it.   DON’T FORGET IT!

Spam Bots use contact forms

Yeah, we all know this, but instead of cursing the intrusion to your inbox think of it this way.   “Hey, at least my contact form is working”

But I have Captcha on my contact form

Yeah, so do I on some of my sites.   I’ve been using Fast and Secure Contact Form on several of my sites.   I like how easy it is to configure and style.   Each release has more functionality and configurability than the one before.   Contact Form 7 is another powerful contact form plugin.   It is harder to configure since you have to manually add the fields to both the form and to the email notification.   There are quite a few simple contact form plugins available as well.

Captcha capable forms means the bots don’t get through.   Therefore, you really should send yourself a test at least once a month from your own contact form.

Your Contact Form is a Vital Link

Nobody likes it when someone doesn’t return their calls.   It is the same when someone fills out your contact form and never gets a response.

When you should check your contact form:

1. Every time you upgrade WordPress
2. Every time you upgrade your contact form plugin
3. At least once a month

Hosting Companies Require Email From Domain

I heard about this from Fast and Secure.   Some hosting companies to cut down on spam being sent are requiring the return email address for the form be a valid email address on the domain itself.   I don’t know that a hosting company would make this change without notifying their users, but . . .   It is worth noting this as another reason to routinely check the functionality of your contact form.

Feature for Contact Forms

I would like a feature added to contact forms where you can check to have a scheduled email sent from the form.   If there is a way for it to detect of the email didn’t go through it throws up a red warning banner much like All-In-One-SEO does every time you update.

But until we have something like that, you really should be making sure your contact form is working.

1. What is your favorite contact form plugin?
2. Why do you like it?
3. Do you use more than one contact form on your site?