If you are using a contact form plugin on your WordPress website then you might have had trouble with the emails going into your spam folder. This is a common problem with emails that are sent from a website via PHP (the programming language that WordPress is based on).
Many spam filters, especially Gmail, treat such emails with suspicion. This is with good reason. Servers can be set up to auto generate and send thousands of spam emails per hour.
One way to get around your own contact form email going in spam is to set up a filter that ensures you get the emails from your site sent to your inbox. http://www.pcworld.com/article/249061/how_to_use_gmail_filters.html
The problem gets worse if you have transactional email being sent from WordPress. If you have a membership site that sends out login details to new subscribers you don’t want people complaining that they don’t receive the email. Likewise, purchase confirmation emails from ecommerce plugins like WooCommerce.
So how to fix it?
The first thing to do is to check WordPress is sending emails at all. Use the Check Email Plugin to check it email is working. If it is then they are going into spam rather than something worse.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/check-email/
The easiest way to fix the spam problem is to use a SMTP plugin. These plugins use the SMTP protocol to send email rather than the WordPress PHP email function. You will need an email provider. Such as the email that comes with your web hosting account a provider like Gmail. You’ll also need to find your SMTP server details and username and password.
WP Mail SMTP is a no frills SMTP plugin. Just download it and activate. You’ll need to manually input your SMTP details.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/wp-mail-smtp/
Easy WP SMTP is more advanced. It works well with Gmail, Hotmail and Yahoo. Set up instructs are good and available on the website.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/easy-wp-smtp/
Postman SMTP is my favourite. It has an easy to use set up wizard if you aren’t great wit technical things. It can be set up with Mandrill, Sendgrid and Gmail as well as others.
https://wordpress.org/plugins/postman-smtp
Take it to the next level.
If you run a successful ecommerce or membership site that sends out a lot of email, you might need a email delivery service.
Email delivery services are designed to handle sending large volumes of transactional emails. These services do everything they can to ensure your emails avoid the spam folder. They are different from email newsletter services like MailChimp and AWeber.
Mandrill https://www.mandrill.com/
SendGrid https://sendgrid.com/
Elastic email http://elasticemail.com/
They usually use an API to connect to your website and send email. Some have WordPress plugins but most will need a developer to set up.
A word of warning. Setting up a SMTP plugin with your domain’s email or your personal address and sending spam is a bad idea. It could result in your email address or any addresses from your domain being blacklisted. Then all of your email will be marked as spam. Whether it comes from your website or your own keyboard.
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