How to Set Up a WordPress Contact Form (Contact Form 7)

Every professional website needs a contact form. Contact Form 7 is one of the most popular free WordPress plugins for this purpose - it's flexible, lightweight, and easy to set up.

Installing Contact Form 7

1. In your WordPress dashboard, go to Plugins > Add New.
2. Search for Contact Form 7.
3. Click Install Now next to the plugin by Takayuki Miyoshi, then click Activate.

Creating Your First Form

1. After activation, a new Contact menu item appears in your dashboard. Click it.
2. Contact Form 7 creates a default form for you - click Edit to customize it.
3. The form editor uses simple shortcodes like [text* your-name] and [email* your-email] to define fields. You can add, remove, or rearrange them.
4. Switch to the Mail tab to configure where form submissions are sent (by default it goes to your admin email).
5. Click Save when done.

Adding the Form to a Page

1. Copy the shortcode shown on the form's listing page - it looks like [contact-form-7 id="123" title="Contact form 1"].
2. Open the page where you want the form to appear.
3. Add a Shortcode block and paste the shortcode into it.
4. Publish or update the page.

Testing Your Form

Submit a test message and confirm it arrives in your inbox. If emails aren't coming through, you may need to configure an SMTP plugin like WP Mail SMTP to ensure reliable mail delivery from your dotCanada hosting environment.

Need help with form setup or email delivery? Contact our support team.