Adding a contact form to your website is one of the easiest ways for visitors and potential customers to reach out to you. Whether someone wants to ask a question, request a service, or send feedback, a contact form creates a direct communication channel between your business and your audience.
For WordPress users, Contact Form 7 is one of the most popular and widely used free plugins for creating contact forms. It allows you to build customizable forms, configure email notifications, and add forms anywhere on your website using shortcodes.
However, many beginners often struggle with the setup process, especially when configuring email settings or embedding the form on their website.
In this guide, we will walk you through how to configure Contact Form 7 step by step. By the end of this tutorial, you will learn how to create a contact form, configure email notifications, display the form on your website, and capture leads effectively.
Table of Contents
What is Contact Form 7?
Contact Form 7 is a popular and free WordPress plugin that allows you to create and manage contact forms on your website. It provides a simple yet flexible way to build forms that visitors can use to send messages, inquiries, or feedback directly from your site.
With Contact Form 7, you can create multiple forms and customize them according to your needs. The plugin supports different types of input fields such as text, email, phone number, dropdowns, checkboxes, radio buttons, and file uploads. This flexibility makes it suitable for creating various types of forms, including contact forms, inquiry forms, support forms, and lead capture forms.
One of the key features of Contact Form 7 is its customizable email notification system. When a visitor submits a form, the plugin sends an email notification containing the submitted details to the configured email address. This allows website owners to receive and respond to inquiries quickly.
Let’s start creating the form in Contact Form 7. Before that, make sure the Contact Form 7 plugin is installed and activated on your website.
Creating a New Contact Form
After installing the plugin, you can start creating your contact form.
- Go to your WordPress Dashboard.
- Navigate to Contact → Add Contact Forms.
- Give your form a meaningful name so you can easily identify it later.
Adding and Customizing Form Fields
Contact Form 7 allows you to configure how form submissions are sent via email. Whenever a visitor submits the form, the plugin sends an email notification containing the submitted details.
To configure the email settings, open your form and navigate to the Mail tab.
Here you will find several options that control how the email notification works.
To
- The To field specifies the email address where you want to receive form submissions.
From
- The From field defines the sender’s name and email address for the notification email.
Subject
- The Subject field sets the subject line for the email notification. You can use mail tags to dynamically include form data.
Additional Headers
- The Additional Headers section allows you to define extra email headers.
Message Body
- The Message Body section contains the main email content. Here you can add mail tags to include the submitted form fields.
File Attachments
- If your form includes a file upload field, you can attach the uploaded files to the email using the corresponding mail tag.
Mail (2)
- The Mail (2) option allows you to send a second email notification. This is commonly used as an auto-response email sent to the person who filled out the form.
After you are done, hit the Save button.
Customizing Form Messages
Contact Form 7 also allows you to customize the messages displayed to users during different situations.
To edit these messages:
- Click on the Messages tab.
Here you can modify messages such as: Spam detection messages, Successful form submission message, Validation errors, Required field messages and more.
Adding the Contact Form to Your Website
By now, we are done with the structure of the forms and also did all the additional settings that were required to set the form.
Now, we just need to insert the form to our website’s page.
To do this:
- Go to Contact → Contact Forms.
- Copy the shortcode of the form you want to use.
Next:
- Edit the page or post where you want to display the form.
- Paste the shortcode into the content area or a shortcode block.
- Publish or update the page.
Your contact form will now appear on your website.
Testing Your Contact Form
Once the form is live, it is important to test it.
Fill out the form on your website and submit it to confirm that:
- The form is working correctly
- You receive the email notification
- All submitted fields appear in the email
Testing ensures that your form is capturing leads properly.
Where Are Contact Form 7 Submissions Stored?
By default, Contact Form 7 does not store submissions in the WordPress database.
When a user submits a form, the plugin simply sends the submission details to the email address configured in the Mail settings.
While this works for many websites, relying only on email can cause problems such as:
- Missing emails due to mail server issues
- Difficulty searching for specific inquiries
- Losing track of leads in a crowded inbox
- No easy way to analyze form performance
To overcome these limitations, you can store form submissions directly in your WordPress database.
Saving Contact Form 7 Submissions in the Database
A simple way to store and manage Contact Form 7 submissions is by using the Form Vibes plugin.
Form Vibes automatically captures form submissions and stores them in the WordPress database. This allows you to manage all your leads directly from the WordPress dashboard.
With Form Vibes, you can:
- View all form submissions in one place
- Filter entries using date ranges
- Export submissions as CSV files
- Track submission analytics
- Manage leads more efficiently
If you want to learn how to store Contact Form 7 submissions step by step, you can check our detailed tutorial on How to Save Contact Form 7 Submissions in Database.
Conclusion
Contact Form 7 is a powerful and flexible plugin for creating contact forms on WordPress websites. With its customizable fields and email notification system, you can easily capture leads and communicate with your visitors.
By following the steps in this guide, you can create a contact form, configure email notifications, and add the form to your website.
However, since Contact Form 7 does not store submissions by default, using a tool like Form Vibes can help you securely save and manage all your form entries directly in your WordPress dashboard.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I create a contact form using Contact Form 7?
You can create a contact form by installing the Contact Form 7 plugin, navigating to Contact → Contact Forms, creating a new form, and adding the shortcode to a page or post.
Does Contact Form 7 save submissions in the database?
No. Contact Form 7 only sends form submissions through email. To store submissions in the database, you need a plugin like Form Vibes.
How do I add a Contact Form 7 form to a page?
Copy the shortcode of the form from Contact → Contact Forms and paste it into the page or post where you want to display the form.
How can I store Contact Form 7 submissions in WordPress?
You can store submissions by installing the Form Vibes plugin, which saves all form entries directly into the WordPress database and allows you to manage them easily.
