Is Your Contact Form Still Working?

Michelle Martello, digital strategist and web designer at Minima Designs, reminded me today of phone calls I have occasionally received from panicked clients. “My contact form isn’t working! I’m not getting any emails. What to do?” Here are her suggestions …
1. Go test your contact form right now.
When was the last time you tested your contact form? The settings and services running your site can change  – and you will never know until someone tells you that you failed to respond to their message.
Two of my favorite WordPress plugins for contact forms (Gravity Forms and Contact Form 7) have undergone various changes in the last few months so you may need to update your settings to make sure you’re getting your messages. The biggest issue? Trying to send your contact form to a gmail address instead of a domain related address (such as me @ gmail.com instead of me @ mysite.com).
The Test: Send yourself a message through your website contact form and have a friend try this as well.
The Fix: If you aren’t getting the message, change the email address that the form is sent to. Still having issues? Test another form plugin. Caldera Forms is another great option. If you’re still having issues, get in touch with your web host and see if they’ve made any mail server changes.
2. Have you added your site to Google Search Console?
Most business owners with a website are aware of Google Analytics and what that tool provides them – all the traffic that comes to their website is tracked, graphed and charted in Google Analytics.
But have you added your site to Google Search Console (formally known as Google Webmaster Tools?) This “sister” tool to Google Analytics opens up a banquet of useful information about your site (such as the detailed search terms people are using to get to your site).
Google Search Console  lets you learn a great deal of information about your website and the people who visit it. You can use it to find out things like how many people are visiting your site and how they are finding it, whether more people are visiting your site on a mobile device or desktop computer, and which pages on your site are the most popular.
I like to find out the terms people are using to find my site to help me with tweaking content on a regular basis. If you have any questions about all this, please get in touch.
– By Marcia Coffey
Find Marcia on Google+
Call Marcia @ 561.906.3436.
Follow @jmgroupdesign