Website email and SMTP setup
Your contact form says "thank you", but the enquiry never reaches your inbox. Order confirmations land in customers’ spam. Website email is one of the most common and least noticed email problems.
The short answer
Websites often send email straight from the web server, which usually isn’t authorised in your domain’s SPF record and doesn’t sign with DKIM, so Gmail and Outlook treat those messages with suspicion. We switch your website to send through an authenticated SMTP or email API service, set up SPF, DKIM and DMARC for it, and test every form and notification.
What’s included
- SMTP or API sending set up for your website (WordPress, Shopify, custom sites and more).
- Authentication: SPF, DKIM and DMARC for the website’s sending service.
- Correct From and Reply-To: the enquiry comes from your domain, and pressing Reply answers the customer.
- Every form and notification tested: contact forms, orders, bookings, password resets.
- Sending logs, so you can see if an email failed.
- Form spam protection recommended if forms are also sending spam.
How we do it
- Test every form and notification on your site.
- Choose an SMTP or API service.
- Configure the website and your DNS.
- Re-test to Gmail, Outlook and your own inbox.
- Document the setup.
The WordPress problem
WordPress sends email with the server’s built-in mail function by default. On most hosts, that mail isn’t authenticated for your domain, so contact form notifications and WooCommerce order emails often go to spam or vanish. Sending through authenticated SMTP fixes it. For the forms themselves, see contact form spam protection.
Common questions
Why do contact form emails go missing?
Usually because the website sends them from the web server, which your domain hasn’t authorised, so they fail SPF and DMARC and are filtered as spam.
Should the form email come from the customer’s address?
No. Sending "from" the customer’s address fails authentication. The email should come from your domain, with the customer’s address as Reply-To, so pressing Reply still answers them.
Does this work for online shops?
Yes: order confirmations, shipping notices and password resets all benefit from authenticated sending.