Are you looking for prevention from spam form submissions?
A lot of these spam submissions are automatically programmed through bots. Although, using WPForms, and following a few steps, anyone can create a spam-free WordPress contact form and get super solid leads.
In this particular article, you will get to know about how to restrain contact form spam on your WordPress site.
Reasons behind Bots Spamming Forms
In view of the fact that bots are automated, hence they crawl websites to attempt different ways to email you through a non-secure form. Even worse, particular bots are on the lookout for certain ways to defile your site or email list using a form.
And that the reason why it is suggested to have a contact form plugin that will help you to stop form spamming, more so if you are into a small business site.
How to end Contact Form Spamming
There are numerous great ways available when it comes to stopping contact form spamming and spam email. Down below there are some quick links given for your convenience to jump to every section so that you can know about which type of spam-free form would be idle for your site:
Ways to Add reCAPTCHA to Your Contact Forms (Method #1)
Now we will present to you how to create a contact form that will have an interactive reCAPTCHA. This reCAPTCHA segment is for the visitors of the site, for them to click on to prove they are indeed human beings whenever they submit a form.
Reasons for using reCAPTCHA:
- Spam Block — Simply by verifying that a human being is submitting the form, all of the automated spam attempts are blocked at one go. The extra added security will further make users feel that the form is secured, and it will help in reducing form abandonment.
- Easy to Comprehend— At the first CAPTCHA was occasionally hard to get correct, even for us human beings. Google has since then improved their CAPTCHA tool a lot, making reCAPTCHA v2 much more convenient for users. Now instead of entering a text form Captcha, users can simply swirl the pointer of the mouse over the checkbox, and the tool will automatically understand that this is not an automated spam bot.
In the year 2018, Google released something that is called reCAPTCHA v3, which puts it to use a behind-the-scene system so as to help you perceive abusive traffic all over your website without actually asking the users to do anything.
Since there’s an off chance that v3 reCAPTCHA may even prevent some legitimate users from submitting forms, it is recommended to use reCAPTCHA v2 to help you curb contact form spam.
reCAPTCHA v2 mainly has 2 options, first is the interactive checkboxes, and the second is the invisible reCAPTCHA. This particular guide will focus primarily on adding reCAPTCHA v2’s interactive checkboxes or invisible reCAPTCHA to your WordPress forms.
Adding a reCAPTCHA Checkbox to the Forms
Now, let’s go through how to include an interactive reCAPTCHA checkbox to the contact forms.
Step 1: Start with creating a Simple Contact Form on WordPress
First thing first, you will require to install and activate the WPF Forms plugin. For further details, follow this step by step guide on the installation of a plugin in WordPress. Then, you will have to generate a WordPress contact form. For any help with this particular step, go through the tutorial on creating a simple contact form in WordPress.
Step 2: Configuration of the reCAPTCHA Settings
Further next, one needs to configure the reCAPTCHA settings in WordPress.
To start with this, go to the option WPForms, then to Settings. Now tap on the reCAPTCHA tab.
Select Checkbox reCAPTCHA v2 so as to include an interactive reCAPTCHA box on to the contact form.
reCAPTCHA is given out by Google. It is absolutely free of cost and only requires a site key and secret key. A user can very conveniently create these keys for their website by simply visiting Google’s reCAPTCHA setup page.
After your arrival onto this setup page, select the Admin console button that is in the top right corner.
Now, check in to your Google account.
You will be redirected onto a page once you have logged in, wherein you can register your website for reCAPTCHA.
If sometime in the past you have already registered a website for Google reCAPTCHA, then you will get to view a different screen. In such a case, simply tap on the plus sign given so as to Register for a new website.
Punch in the name of your site in the label field given. This is for the user’s personal use so that they can identify their website if they ever require to get the keys again.
Now, select the kind of reCAPTCHA that you want to add to your site. For example, down below, we have selected reCAPTCHA v2 and then the “I’m not a robot” Checkbox.
Next, the user needs to add their web site’s domain, like example.com.
Finally, to save your website, click on the Submit button.
Now, you will get a page with the site key and the secret key for your site.
Now copy your website and the secret key and paste your website and the secret keys under the reCAPTCHA settings.
Tap on the Save Settings tab to store the changes made.
Step 3: Now add the Checkbox reCAPTCHA to the Contact Form
Adding on the checkbox reCAPTCHA onto the WordPress form is a very simple task.
To get the reCAPTCHA enabled in a simple contact form that you had created sometime in the past, click on the Add Fields option in the form editor and then tap the reCAPTCHA button.
You will be notified once the Google Checkbox v2 reCAPTCHA is enabled.
Tap on the OK tab to view the reCAPTCHA enabled badge on the form.
Remember to save it.
Now the user can add the contact form, complete with Google Checkbox reCAPTCHA, onto their website.
Step 4: Adding Contact Form with reCAPTCHA onto the WordPress
WPForms permits you to add your forms to several locations on the website, which includes the blog posts, pages, and even the sidebar widgets.
Let’s have a look at the most promising options available for a post or page embedding.
To begin with, create a new post or page in WordPress. Click on the Add WPForms option inside the block.
Then, choose the form from the dropdown menu in the modal popup
Now, publish your page or post so that the reCAPTCHA-enabled form will show on your website.
So now, we will show you ways to use the WPForms Custom Captcha addon.
Using the WPForms Custom Captcha Addon (Method #2)
If you do not want to use the Google reCAPTCHA to curb contact form spam, but also want to add an interactive reCAPTCHA element onto the site.
Using this particular addon, one can use custom questions or random math questions as CAPTCHA to stop spam form submissions.
Step 1: Make a Simple Contact Form in the WordPress
First thing first, you will require to install and activate the WPF Forms plugin. For further details, follow this step by step guide on the installation of a plugin in WordPress. Then, you will have to generate a WordPress contact form. For any help with this particular step, go through the tutorial on creating a simple contact form in WordPress.
Next, come down and tap on the Captcha button to activate the Custom Captcha addon.
There will be a pop-up window, select Yes, Install, and then Activate.
After the installation is finished, tap Yes, Save and Refresh.
The Custom Captcha addon will now be active and is ready to be added onto your form.
Step 2: Adding and Customizing the Captcha Form Field
After the user has made the contact form, remain in the form builder to add the custom captcha form field.
Simply drag it from the left-hand side to the right-hand side so as to add it to the form.
The field of the form will, on its own, show any random math question to the ones visiting the website for them to answer before they can submit their form on the website. A new different math problem will appear on the screen each time the page loads or gets refreshed.
To further edit the form field, first, click on it. Then the user can make the changes such as in the label, type of captcha, and also add a description.
If the preference is on using a custom question and answers instead of the Mathematics Captcha, make the change in the type of captcha to Question and Answer in the Field Options area.
Over here, one can even change the question and answer that the visitors of the website have to type out a response so as to submit their form on the website.
If the user wants to show some random question and answer every time the webpage loads or gets refreshed, tap on the (+) button and add another question and answer.
Then click on Save when you have customized your custom captcha according to your liking.
There you go, you are ready to add your Custom Captcha-enabled contact form on your site.
Step 3: Adding Contact Form with Custom Captcha to WordPress
WPForms lets the user add the forms to many locations on the site, including the blog posts, pages, and even sidebar widgets. Let’s have a look at the most common post or page embedded options.
To begin with, make a new post or page in WordPress and then tap on the Add WPForms option given inside of the block.
Then, choose the form from the dropdown menu in the modal popup.
Next, publish your post or page so that the contact form will appear on the site.
Building a Spam-Free Contact Form Without Captcha (Method #3)
Here you will get to know about how to create a spam-free contact form in WordPress and also how to prevent it form spam without Captcha, thereby making sure that the user’s experience is never disturbed and filling out the form is as easy as possible.
Why Not Use the Captcha instead?
Any user wishes to develop sites that are as easy as possible for the visitors to fill in the contact form, at the same time making it as difficult as possible for the spambots to get through the secure force field.
One of the simplest ways to stop spambots is to use a form field that can be answered by only a human being, and that is called Captcha.
Captcha usually asks the visitor to punch in a specific text into a box.
Although the method 2 given above works a little differently by making a field that will ask the site visitor to solve a particular math problem or to answer a question, this can further on be an extra step that may frustrate the visitor and hence might decrease the rate of form submission.
Visitors might not like taking the time out to answer these questions. Also, some users may have a problem answering a math question or in reading the CAPTCHA text, moreover if they have some form of disability. It is convenient to make a spam-free contact form without Captcha using the WPForms. Down below, you will get to know how to do this with Google Invisible reCAPTCHA v2.
Adding Invisible reCAPTCHA to the Forms
Step 1: Make a Simple Contact Form in WordPress
First thing first, you will require to install and activate the WPF Forms plugin. For further details, follow this step by step guide on the installation of a plugin in WordPress. Then, you will have to generate a WordPress contact form. For any help with this particular step, go through the tutorial on creating a simple contact form in WordPress.
Step 2: Configuring the reCAPTCHA Settings
Now, the user needs to configure the reCAPTCHA settings in WordPress.
To begin, tap on the WPForms » Settings. Now, click on the reCAPTCHA tab.
Select the Invisible reCAPTCHA v2 to add Invisible reCAPTCHA to the contact form.
reCAPTCHA is given out by Google. It is absolutely free of cost and only requires a site key and secret key. A user can very conveniently create these keys for their website by simply visiting Google’s reCAPTCHA setup page.
After you get on this setup page, select the Admin console button in the top right panel.
Now, check in to your Google account.
You will be redirected to a page, once you have logged in, wherein you can register the website for reCAPTCHA.
If the user had registered a website for Google reCAPTCHA previously, they would view a different screen. In that case, simply tap on the plus sign to Register a new site.
Enter the name of the site in the label field given. This is for the user’s use so that they can recognize the site if they ever need to get these keys again.
Next, select the kind of reCAPTCHA that the user wants to add to the site. For example, we have selected reCAPTCHA v2 and then the Invisible reCAPTCHA badge.
Next, the user needs to add the website’s domain, like example.com.
To save the website, tap the Submit button.
Now, the user will view a page with a site key and secret key for the site.
Copy the website and the secret key. Switch back to the WPForms » Settings page. Here paste the website and secret keys under the reCAPTCHA settings option, make sure Invisible reCAPTCHA v2 is selected for Type.
Tap on the Save Settings icon to save the changes made.
Step 3: Enabling an invisible reCAPTCHA on the Contact Form
Adding an invisible reCAPTCHA onto the WordPress form is very convenient to do.
So to enable the reCAPTCHA in the simple contact form that you have created previously, go to Add Fields option in the form editor and then click on the reCAPTCHA button.
You will be notified that the Google Invisible v2 reCAPTCHA has now been enabled.
Select OK to view the reCAPTCHA enabled badge on the form. Remember to save it.
Next, the user can add the contact form, entirely along with the Google Invisible reCAPTCHA, to the site.
Step 4: Adding the Contact Form with reCAPTCHA to WordPress
WPForms allows the user to add the forms to several locations on the website, such as in the blog posts, pages, and even sidebar widgets.
Let’s take a look glance at the most simple option of a post or page embedding.
To begin with, make a new post or page in WordPress. Click on the Add WPForms option inside the block.
Now, choose the form from the dropdown menu in the modal popup.
Now, publish your post or page so that the reCAPTCHA-enabled form will show on the site.
Whenever a visitor tries to submit a form on your website now, Google will decide whether it is a spambot that is trying to submit a fake form or is it a genuine user. Your visitors, though, will view the Captcha-enabled badge and will get to submit their form without having to do anything.
Enabling Anti-spam Honeypot (Method #4)
There is a secret way to protect the contact forms without having to use CAPTCHA of any sort in WPForms. This tool is termed as a honeypot.
A spambot essentially fills in a hidden field that the legitimate users cannot view. This extra field of data helps in determining whether the submitter is a spambot or not.
As the honeypot field gets filled in, the form is rejected, declaring it spam. The spambot gets trapped and hence cannot submit the form.
Honeypots are great because they do not disturb the visitors like a Captcha field. Also, they are a secure tool for stopping spam and spambots.
As per the default settings, this option is enabled for all the forms, even if the user uses another anti-spam strategy like Google reCAPTCHA or the Custom Captcha addon.
If you want to recheck whether it is activated or not, you can go to the Settings » General option.
Here, near the bottom of the right-hand panel, you will view that the Enable anti-spam honeypot option is selected for you by default.
Conclusion
So now, you know how to successfully stop contact form spamming on the WordPress site by using the Google Checkbox reCAPTCHA, Google Invisible reCAPTCHA, the WPForms Custom Captcha addon.
So, wait no more. Begin with the most powerful form of WordPress plugin right away.