How to add a contact form to a static website
Your agent made a beautiful contact form. You publish the site, someone fills it in, presses Send — and the message goes nowhere. A static site has no server part that could receive it and email it to you. The form needs somewhere to send the data.
Option 1. A form service
Services such as Formspree, Web3Forms or Getform receive submissions from any website and forward them to your email.
- Sign up with the service and create a form. You get an address to send the form to, or an access key.
- Give it to the agent: "Connect the contact form to this Formspree address. After sending, show a thank-you message instead of leaving the page."
- Update the site and send yourself a test message.
Check the limits of the free plan and what the service stores: the messages pass through its servers.
Option 2. An embedded form
Google Forms, Tally and Typeform let you build the form in their own editor. Then ask the agent to embed it in the page or link to it with a button. The answers are collected on their side, often in a spreadsheet. This suits surveys, sign-ups and applications with many fields; the form looks a little less like part of your site.
Option 3. No form at all
For many small businesses a form is not the best way to be reached. Buttons that open WhatsApp, Telegram, a phone call or an email draft get answered faster and never end up in a spam folder. A business card website in one evening shows the links for each.
Protect the form from spam
Public forms attract bots. Ask the agent to add a hidden "honeypot" field — bots fill it in, people do not see it — and switch on the spam protection your form service offers.
Tell visitors what happens to their message
A form collects names and email addresses, which is personal data. Say on the page who receives the message and why. Depending on your country, you may need a privacy notice; the form service's documentation explains what it does on its side.
Before you rely on it
- send a test message from your phone;
- check your spam folder;
- make sure the thank-you message appears;
- reply to the test message and see that the answer goes to the visitor's address. Most services use the email field as the reply-to address.