How to create a website contact form.

A woman sitting at a desk creates a contact form on her laptop.

Wondering how to create contact forms for websites but not sure where to begin? Learn how to craft a contact form for your website to collect user emails, names, and phone numbers.

What is a website contact form?

A website contact form is a web-based fillable form that website visitors can fill out to share a message with the website’s manager. Once a visitor fills out a form, an email message will be sent to the website owner’s inbox.

How to create a contact form for a website.

Whether you are searching for feedback, looking for leads, or just need a space people can sign up to receive emails from you, a website contact form is a simple way to gather the information you need. There are multiple ways you can create a contact form for a website.

Create a contact form for a website using an online form builder.

The easiest way to create a website contact form on a website is to use an online form builder. There are dozens of websites and plugins (if you use WordPress) that can build forms in just a few clicks — no coding required.

Most online form builders have templates, so you don’t have to start from scratch.

Follow these simple steps to create a website contact form using an online form builder:

  1. Look through the choices and find one that has all the fields you need for your website.
  2. You can either embed the contact form directly into your website using HTML or activate the plugin (for WordPress websites).

How to create a contact form in HTML.

Creating a contact form for a website from scratch gives you endless possibilities for customization.

Use these steps to learn how to create a contact form in HTML for your website:

  1. Choose an HTML editor.
  2. Make a new file with the .html extension.
  3. Make your HTML contact form.

There are endless possibilities for creating an HTML form, but you can use the following simplified instructions as a guide:

<form>

<label for="name">Name:</label>

<input type="text" id="name" name="name">

<label for="email">Email:</label>

<input type="email" id="email" name="email">

<label for="message">Message:</label>

<textarea id="message" name="message"></textarea>

<button type="submit">Submit</button>

</form>

It is best to do your own research to figure out what will best suit what you need for your HTML form.

Create an interactive PDF website contact form using Adobe Acrobat.

If you want more control over the contact form creation process, you can build one from scratch. There are a few different ways to create a contact form from the ground up.

Code is the most complicated way to create a contact form, but it’s also the only method that doesn’t involve a third-party resource. Just open your website builder and start coding with HTML or PHP.

For those unfamiliar with coding, an interactive PDF website contact form will give you the freedom to build a form from scratch without code.

How to create a website contact form

With PDF editing software like Adobe Acrobat, follow these steps to create your own interactive form:

A woman sitting at a desk creates a contact form on her laptop.

  1. In Acrobat, choose Tools > Prepare Form.
  2. Select Create New and click Start.
  3. Add text, logos, buttons, and entry fields.
  4. Use the Button Properties tab to route button clicks to emails or URL addresses.
  5. Add hyperlinks for easy navigation.
  6. Click Save.

You can also edit PDFs online if you don’t want to download additional software. Once you’re happy with the format, export the file as HTML and paste the code into your website. Your new contact form should appear, ready to capture leads.

What should be on a website contact form?

The main point of a website contact form is to get the website visitor in contact with you. In order to do this, you will need a blank space for the visitor’s name, email address, and a blank space to leave a message. Some people also choose to leave a space for a phone number.

How to create a contact form for a website that’s secure.

Most people receive many emails a day. You probably don’t want to spend time sorting through spam emails that will not provide you with any helpful information, so you’ll want to create contact forms that are secure. There are several ways you can create secure website contact forms.

After visitors fill out a form, you can have them authenticate that they are a person and not a bot through CAPTCHA authentication. To keep your contact form and other website areas secure, you can implement a web application firewall to prevent bot attacks and general spam.

If you do detect suspicious activity, be sure to blacklist the IP address associated with the unusual activity.

More resources on forms and letters.

After learning how to create a contact form, check out these additional resources on forms and letters:

Discover what more you can do with Acrobat to create content for your website, convert PDF to JPG (and other file types), split PDFs, and more.