Why are emails from my website contact form not arriving?

The most common causes

• The messages are arriving but landing in spam or junk, or in a quarantine folder on Microsoft 365.
• The notification address in the form settings is wrong, out of date or belongs to a former member of staff.
• On WordPress, the site sends email using the web server’s basic mail function. Mail sent this way is not authenticated, so Gmail, Outlook and others often reject or discard it.
• The from address is a problem. A form that sends the message as if it came from the visitor’s own address, for example a Gmail address, fails the checks that receiving servers run.
• The domain has missing or broken SPF, DKIM or DMARC records, which are the DNS records that prove an email is allowed to come from your domain.
• The form itself is failing, so no email is ever sent. A wrongly configured spam protection tool such as reCAPTCHA is a frequent reason.

Quick checks to do first

1. Search your spam, junk and quarantine folders for the form’s subject line. If you find messages, mark them as not spam and add the sending address to your contacts.
2. Open the form’s settings and confirm the address that notifications go to. Look for typing mistakes.
3. Submit the form yourself and watch for the success message. If you see an error or the page reloads with nothing, the form is failing before any email is sent.
4. Change the notification address temporarily to a different provider, for example a Gmail address if you normally use Outlook, and test again. If it arrives there, the issue is filtering at your normal mailbox.

SPF, DKIM and DMARC in plain terms

These are three records held in your domain’s DNS settings. SPF is a list of the services allowed to send email for your domain. DKIM adds a digital signature to each message so the receiver can confirm it was not altered and did come from an approved sender. DMARC tells receiving servers what to do with mail that fails the first two checks,.

Gmail, Yahoo and Microsoft have all tightened their requirements since 2024, and mail without valid SPF or DKIM is now much more likely to be rejected. Your email provider, such as Google Workspace or Microsoft 365, publishes the exact records to add.

A domain must have only one SPF record. If you add a second one for a new service instead of merging it into the existing record, SPF fails for all of your email. Take a screenshot of your DNS records before changing anything.

Fixing it on WordPress

The reliable fix is to send the site’s email through a proper email service using SMTP, which is the standard way of sending authenticated email. Plugins such as WP Mail SMTP, FluentSMTP and Post SMTP do this.

1. Install one SMTP plugin and open its settings.
2. Choose a mailer. You can connect your existing Google Workspace or Microsoft 365 mailbox, or a sending service such as Brevo, Mailgun, SendGrid or Amazon SES.
3. Set the from address to a real address at your own domain, for example website@yourbusiness.co.uk.
4. Add the SPF and DKIM records the mailer asks for at your domain provider.
5. Use the plugin’s test email feature and confirm the test arrives.
6. Open your form plugin’s notification settings. The from address should be the same address at your own domain, and the reply-to address should be the visitor’s email field. In Contact Form 7 these are on the Mail tab of each form.

Fixing it on Shopify, Wix, Squarespace and Webflow

Shopify. Messages from the standard contact form are sent to your store’s sender email address, which you will find under Settings, then Notifications. Check that the address is correct and that you have completed the domain authentication steps Shopify shows there.

Wix. Open the form’s settings in the editor and check which addresses receive notifications. Submissions are also saved in the forms and submissions area of your Wix dashboard, so you can recover any enquiries that did not reach your inbox.

Squarespace. Edit the form block and open its storage options to see where submissions go. Email is one option, and you can connect Google Sheets as a second destination.

Webflow. Notification addresses are set in the site settings under Forms, and submissions are stored there too. Republish the site after changing them.

On all four platforms the message is sent from the platform’s own mail servers, so SPF and DKIM on your domain are rarely the cause. Filtering at your mailbox is the most likely reason.

How to stop enquiries being missed again

• Send notifications to two addresses at different providers.
• Keep submission storage switched on so that every enquiry is saved on the site as well as emailed.
• Submit a test enquiry once a month, and after any change to your domain, email provider or form plugin.

Related questions

Why do my contact form emails go to spam?

Usually because the message is not authenticated with SPF and DKIM, or because the from address does not match the domain that really sent it. Sending through an SMTP service with a from address at your own domain fixes most cases.

Do I need an SMTP plugin for WordPress?

For any site that relies on enquiry, order or password reset emails, yes. WordPress sends mail through the web server by default, and that mail is often rejected by the large email providers.

Have I lost the enquiries that did not arrive?

Often not. Wix, Squarespace, Webflow and many WordPress form plugins store submissions on the site. Contact Form 7 does not store them unless you have added a companion plugin such as Flamingo.