Website Troubleshooting: Broken Forms

If you run a website, you’re likely to use online forms to collect data from your visitors, customers, and clients. Whether you use WordPress or an HTML format, the simplest way to utilize forms is to install form plugins such as WP Forms or NinjaForms, or you can use online form makers such as JotForm or Wufoo if plugins are unavailable to you.

Online forms allow for simple, convenient, and accurate data collection directly from your website. Your data is easily accessible online, and you have full control over the format, design, and number of fields of your form.

While forms are usually easy to use and simple to set up, you can still run into some problems when installing them on your website.

The most common problem with forms is when you don’t receive email notifications from successful submissions. Fortunately, this is the easiest issue to fix. If you use a form plugin on WordPress, first access your plugins by clicking “Plugins” on the left-hand side of your dashboard.

Next, locate your form plugin and click on “Settings” or “Configuration.” Then, check that you’ve correctly entered your contact information. If you used an online form builder, check its settings and that you’ve entered the correct details. If you find that you’ve entered incorrect information, simply update it and watch the submissions roll in!

Sometimes, forms can cause spam submissions and cross-site scripting attacks. Spam submissions on your form can taint your collected data and prove to be a major headache. Unfortunately, cross-site scripting attacks are far more serious. According to acunetix.com, cross-site scripting refers to a client-side code injection attack wherein an attacker can execute malicious scripts (also commonly referred to as a malicious payload) into a legitimate website or web application.  Essentially, some forms can leave your website vulnerable to attacks and threaten your visitor’s online security.

The solution to both of these problems is contacting a professional web developer as soon as possible. Click here to learn more about our free 30-minute consultations!