Knowledge Base

Optimize the email delivery of your WordPress website’s contact forms

Optimize the email delivery of your WordPress website’s contact forms

To guarantee that contact forms and order confirmations from your WordPress website always land in your customers' inbox (and not in spam), we strongly advise connecting your WordPress site via SMTP.

By default, WordPress sends emails using an outdated method that is often blocked by modern mail filters. With the steps below, you can set up a secure connection within 5 minutes.

Step-by-step: Setting up SMTP in WordPress

1. Install the required plugin:
   In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New and search for "FluentSMTP". Install and activate the plugin.
2. Start the setup wizard:
   In the WordPress menu, go to Settings > FluentSMTP and select the option "Other SMTP".
3. Enter the following details:
   SMTP Host: mail.yourdomain.com (replace 'yourdomain.com' with your own domain)
4. Encryption:  Choose TLS
5. SMTP Port: 587
6. Authentication: Set to ON
7. SMTP Username: Your full email address (e.g., info@yourdomain.com)
8. SMTP Password: The password for this email account
9. Save and Test: Click 'Save Settings'. Then, go to the 'Email Test' tab within the plugin to send a test email to yourself.

Why is this necessary?
These settings force the website to properly identify itself to our mail server. This prevents bots from spoofing the 'From' address in your form headers and ensures you never miss important customer messages again.

Extra security:
Stop spam bots with reCAPTCHA
In addition to improving the delivery method (SMTP), we also recommend adding reCAPTCHA protection to your forms.

Why is this important?
Spam bots constantly try to automatically fill out website forms to send advertisements. This not only clutters your inbox but can also cause your email address to be 'blacklisted'.

How to set this up?
Most contact form plugins (such as Contact Form 7 or WPForms) have a built-in option for Google reCAPTCHA v3. This version doesn't require visitors to click on annoying images; the security works invisibly in the background.

1. Request keys:
   Go to the Google reCAPTCHA website and log in with a Google account.
2. Register website: Add your domain name and choose 'reCAPTCHA v3'.
3. Connect: You will receive a Site Key and a Secret Key. Copy these into the settings of your contact form plugin in WordPress.

With this combination of SMTP (for secure delivery) and reCAPTCHA (against abuse), your WordPress website’s email functionality is optimally secured.