Follow these instructions to install the Contact Form 7 form on your web page
- Open the WordPress admin view under Plugins – Installed Plugins. Click “Add New”.
- Type “Contact Form 7” in the search box in the top right corner and click Contact Form 7 – “Install Now”. Then click “Enable” on the same button.
- Then click on “Contact” in the admin menu. You will only see one form at the moment. The form will usually work with its default settings, but you can edit the settings by clicking on the name of the contact form. By default, form submissions will arrive in the site administrator’s email inbox. You can also see the default fields for the form by clicking on the name of the form “Contact Form 1”.
- Click on the code in brackets "Shortcode". Copy the code with brackets and date to the clipboard, e.g. Ctrl+C/Command-C.
- After this, you need to place the shortcode in the desired location where you want the form to be placed. If you want to place the form on a specific page, click on “Pages” in the admin menu.
- Next, either add a new page or click on the title of an existing page. In page editing mode, click the plus sign in the top left corner to add a block. Type “short” in the search box.
- Drag the block to the desired location on the page. Paste the code copied to your clipboard as the block value. Then save the page by clicking “Update” in the top right corner.
Everything is ready. Your contact form will now send you contact requests entered via your form on your site. Your site's e-mail must of course be set up correctly. Try out your form and if you do not receive the message entered through the form to your admin email, there may be a problem with the email settings. In this case, you should test the emailing by trying to reset your own password. If you do not receive a message for resetting the password, your email settings need to be fixed. However, if you can receive a password reset message, there likely is a problem with your form.
Important spam settings
When your form is set up correctly, you will receive the test messages in your email. Consecutively, however, it won't be long before spam bots find your form. You should immediately block the reception of spam mail with additional settings. Contact Form 7 can connect Google's CAPTCHA/reCAPTCHA, the purpose of which is to prevent spam. However, CAPTCHA can be tricky to set. Furthermore, it may add extra tasks for your visitors before they can submit their messages. In addition, the new CAPTCHA requires some admin settings, and after all the trouble, you may block some genuine submissions or allow bots to submit the form.
The easiest way to stop the bot spam is to set up on your site the Bot Spam Block plugin. The plugin works automatically after activation. You only have to set the license code for the plugin. Your visitors won't notice the plugin as it works in the background. In addition, they won't have to complete extra image tasks or solve math equations. Yet the plugin prevents bot spam from being sent via your form.
