Why Your Contact Form Isn’t Working (and How to Check It)
If you’ve ever thought, “Huh, I haven’t gotten any contact form messages in a while…”
…there’s a chance your form might not be working. Broken contact forms are one of the most common issues I see when I start working on a site. And worse? Sometimes they look fine but silently fail behind the scenes. Let’s go over why it happens, how to test it, and what to do if yours isn’t sending like it should.⚠️ Why Contact Forms Break
There are a few usual suspects:
- Email deliverability issues – The form is submitting, but the message is going to spam, or never arriving at all.
- Form plugin issues – The form builder (like WPForms, Contact Form 7, etc.) might need an update, or have a conflict with another plugin
- Misconfigured settings – The form might be sending to an old or incorrect email address
- Missing SMTP setup – WordPress by default doesn’t always send email reliably. Without an SMTP plugin, forms often silently fail.
- Broken markup or validation errors – A missing field, outdated shortcode, or even a small code mistake can cause the form to error out.
🧪 How to Check If Your Form Is Actually Working
Before you assume it’s fine – test it. Contact forms can look totally normal and still silently fail. Here’s how to figure out what’s going on:
- Submit the form yourself.
Use your own site like a visitor would. Fill it out and hit send. Wait a minute, then check your inbox and your spam folder. - Watch for the confirmation message.
Does the site tell you the form was submitted successfully? If not, that could be a sign the form isn’t functioning at all – even if it looks like it is. - Check your form plugin or platform logs.
Some form tools (like WPForms, Gravity Forms, or whatever came with your theme) log form entries. If you submitted the form but don’t see anything logged – that’s a clue the form isn’t working at all.
If it is logged, the form worked… but the email didn’t make it to your inbox. - Ask a friend or co-worker to test it.
Sometimes the easiest way to confirm what’s going wrong is to have someone else try it and tell you what happened. Two heads, one broken form.
🧯 What to Do If It’s Not Working
First, figure out which part is broken:
- Did the form submit successfully, but no email came through?
This is likely an email deliverability issue – meaning your site thinks it sent the message, but your inbox (or spam filter) didn’t accept it. - Did the form fail to submit at all?
That’s a form issue – the builder, fields, or settings need attention.
And yes, sometimes it’s both. Because of course it is.
🛠 How I Can Help
Here’s the thing: contact form email issues are often more complicated than they seem.
Sometimes the fix is simple – like a missing setting or outdated plugin.
But more often? It’s deeper than that.
If the form submits but the message disappears into the void, the issue may be with your DNS records – the technical behind-the-scenes magic that tells inboxes, “Hey, this message is legit.” That includes things like SPF, DKIM, and email authentication, and if that sounds like alphabet soup, don’t worry. I speak fluent tech-nerd.
I’ll test your form, track down the issue, and either fix it or send you a clear plan with what needs to happen – no guesswork, no jargon, no vanishing messages.
Final Thoughts
Your contact form should be the easiest way for people to reach you – not a black hole for leads.
If you’re not sure it’s working, it probably isn’t.
And if it’s been more than a few weeks without a single message… well, I hate to say it, but: that’s sus.
Let’s get your form talking again.
