When creating a store or personal website, a contact page is essential for visitors to reach out immediately. Since publicly displaying your email address can easily lead to a flood of spam, using Contact Form 7, a free contact form plugin, is a widely used method on WordPress. It is a leading plugin installed and used by over 10 million places worldwide.
1. Installation and Form Creation
Install and activate Contact Form 7 from Plugins > Add New in the Admin screen, then create a new form in the Contact menu. The default form already includes fields for Name, Email, Subject, Message, and a Send button, so you can use it as is initially. Please change the recipient email address in the Mail tab to an address you actually verify.
2. Inserting a form into the page
Saving the form generates a shortcode. Create a new page with the title 'Inquiry', paste the shortcode into the 'Add Block' option, and publish to complete the inquiry page. After publishing, be sure to log out and send the email yourself to test whether the email arrives and if the reply address is set to the visitor's email.
3. Use reCAPTCHA v3 for spam prevention.
Contact Form 7 natively supports Google reCAPTCHA v3 starting from version 5.1, so no separate plugin is required. Register your site in the Google reCAPTCHA admin screen to obtain a Site Key and Secret Key, then paste both keys into the reCAPTCHA field in WordPress Admin > Contact > Integration and save to apply the changes.
v3 distinguishes between humans and bots based on scores behind the scenes, without requiring visitors to perform additional actions such as selecting an image. However, please note that the reCAPTCHA script can be loaded even on pages without forms, which may have a slight impact on site speed. If you feel that even legitimate inquiries are being blocked, it is recommended to check the score threshold settings.
4. Final Inspection
· Write a one-line explanation below the form regarding the purpose of collecting personal information.
· Check if test emails go into the spam folder
· Set a specific email signature and contact time for responding to inquiries.
The inquiry form is like the 'front door' of the website. If it feels difficult, start with the basic form, and once you have completed the spam protection integration, you can take your time refining the items.
Source: IvyForms — How to Add reCAPTCHA to a WordPress Contact Form (Contact Form 7 Integration Procedure) https://ivyforms.com/blog/how-to-add-recaptcha-to-a-wordpress-contact-form/
Source: IPServerOne — How to add reCAPTCHA (v3) for Contact Form 7 https://www.ipserverone.info/knowledge-base/how-to-add-recaptcha-v3-for-contact-form-7-plugin-in-wordpress/ | 
