Why your website contact form isn’t working (and how to test it)
By Nick Crookston, Axeldyne · Updated November 4, 2026
A broken contact form is one of the most expensive website problems because it fails silently. The customer sees “Thanks, we’ll be in touch”, and the message never reaches you. They think you ignored them.
The most common causes
- Messages land in spam. Many WordPress forms send email from your own web server, which inboxes like Gmail and Outlook often distrust. The message is sent but filtered.
- The “send to” address is old. It points to a former employee, a closed mailbox, or the web designer’s address.
- A plugin or theme update broke it. The form still displays but its sending code errors out.
- The form never had a destination. Common on templates: the form looks real but isn’t connected to anything.
- Spam protection is too aggressive, or a CAPTCHA key expired, so real people can’t submit.
How to test it properly
- Submit your own form from your phone, using an email address that is not the one the form sends to.
- Check the inbox it should arrive in, including spam and junk folders, within ten minutes.
- Reply to it, to confirm the reply goes to the customer’s address and not back to your website.
- Repeat after any plugin, theme, hosting or email change.
How to fix it
- WordPress: install an SMTP plugin and send through your real email provider (Google Workspace, Microsoft 365 or a transactional email service) instead of the server. This fixes most “goes to spam” problems.
- Email authentication: make sure your domain has SPF and DKIM records for whatever sends your mail. Your email provider’s help pages list the exact records.
- Builders (Wix, Squarespace, GoDaddy): open the form settings and confirm the notification address.
- Always show a backup: put your phone number and a clickable email near the form so customers have another way in.
Our checks look for whether a form or email link exists and whether the form’s code looks connected. We never submit your form, so the real-inbox test above is still worth doing.
Check your site in 10 seconds
Our free checker tests HTTPS, load speed, tap-to-call, contact options and leftover template text. Found something? The Axeldyne team can fix it from $99, with a written quote before any work starts and every fix reviewed by Nick Crookston before it goes live.