WordPress Mistake Tip #3: Contact Form Spam
January 15, 2015 Reading Time: 2 MinutesSomething we all want less of. Spam.
When it comes to creating contact forms, circumventing spammers is often overlooked.
Big mistake.
You need to have appropriate measures in place to prevent your inbox from overloading with spam. Yes, Gmail and other email providers have gotten better about filtering this for us, but they don’t catch it all.
Spam, that originates from your website, is created by spambots that scan the internet for contact forms (or sign-up forms) that they can fill out.
Lucky for us, they only do this 24/7.
When it comes to WordPress, there are a variety of ways to block those wonderful spambots from sending you spam.
Contact Form 7
My personal favorite is a plugin called Contact Form 7.
It works great out of the box, has extendability, and free of charge. Not to mention the ability to be customized to your hearts content.
Contact Form 7 in and of itself isn’t going to help with spam, but a few add-ons will dominate it.
Really Simple Captcha
Really Simple Captcha is an add-on for Contact Form 7 that forces users to type in a simple code in order to submit your form.
When I say simple, I mean simple and easy to understand, like:
Not this nightmare we’re all familiar with:
The great thing about this plugin is that you’ve pretty much prevented most spambots from filling our your form. On the other hand, you’ve also given users one more task in order to fill out your form.
Contact Form 7 Honeypot
My personal favorite for blocking spam while also maintaining usability of your form: Contact Form 7 Honeypot
This plugin works by creating a hidden field that humans cannot read or fill out. The spambot doesn’t know the difference, so it will fill out all fields on your form, including this field. When the field has been filled out, this add-on blocks the message from getting out.
Perfect :)
Want More WordPress Tips?
Check out our WordPress Mistake #2: Changing Permalinks →
Check out our WordPress Mistake #1: Selecting Image Sizes →
Written by Shawn Hooghkirk on January 15, 2015
Last updated on August 31, 2016. Shawn is the President of Graticle, Inc.