Forms and your inbox

A Form section lets visitors send you a message, like a question or a quote request, with photos if you like. Every message is saved in your Inbox and emailed to you, so nothing gets lost in a spam filter. The inbox is included in every plan.

Add a form

1. Open Pages and choose a page, often Contact.
2. On the Content tab, click Add a section and pick Form.
3. Optional: start from a ready-made form (see below).
4. Fill in the Heading and Intro.
5. Give it a Form name, like "Quote request". It labels these messages in your inbox, so you can tell your forms apart.
6. Publish. See Publish your changes.

There's nothing else to connect. The form sends messages to us, and we send them on to you.

Start from a ready-made form

Ready-made forms ask what businesses usually need for each kind of request.

1. Open the Form section.
2. Under Start from, open Choose a ready-made form… and pick Contact, Quote request, Appointment request, New client, Request a call, Catering or event inquiry or Job application.
3. Click OK when asked. The form's questions and wording are replaced with the ready-made ones.
4. Change anything you like, then publish.

A Quote request, for example, asks for a phone number, the project address and when they'd like to start, and lets people attach photos.

Ask what you need

• Ask for phone number adds a phone box.
• Ask what they need help with adds a menu of up to 10 Topic choices you write, like "Patios" or "Lawn care".
• More questions adds up to 8 of your own questions, like a project address, a start date or a budget. Pick an Answer type for each one (Short, Long, Number, Date, Choice or Yes/No), and turn on Required for the ones people must answer. For Choice, type the Choices separated by commas.
• Label for the message box is the label over the big box for their message, like "Tell us about your project".
• Let people attach photos allows up to 5 photos, 10 MB each. Large phone photos are made smaller before they're sent, so they arrive quickly.
• Consent checkbox: see the next part.
• Button text is what the send button says.
• Thank-you message is what visitors see after they send.

Add a consent checkbox

A consent checkbox is a box visitors must tick before they can send, like "I agree to be contacted about my request."

1. Open the Form section and find Consent checkbox.
2. Under Use wording for:, click Contact about my request or Text messages, or type your own wording.
3. Publish.

If you'll text people, use Text messages. Phone carriers require wording that says how to stop texts, and a publish check warns you if it's missing or if the form doesn't ask for a phone number. Leave the box empty for no checkbox.

Answer messages by email

After sending, visitors see your Thank-you message. We don't email them a copy, so put anything they need to know (like when you'll answer) in that message.

You get an email for each new message, at the address you sign in with (every owner of the account gets one). It isn't sent to the email address shown on your site. Click Reply in your email program to answer the person directly. The email also has links to any photos.

You can also answer from your Inbox, which keeps your replies with the message. See Follow up on leads.

Not getting the emails? Check your spam or junk folder, and look in your Inbox: every message is saved there even when an email doesn't arrive. Messages marked as spam aren't emailed at all, so check the Spam folder too.

Read your messages

To see every message in one place, click Inbox in the left menu of the editor. The number next to it shows unread messages, and new ones have a dot. Inbox, Done and Spam at the top switch folders, each with how many it holds.

1. Click a message to open it. You'll see their answers, their message and their photos. Click a photo to see it full size.
2. Type your answer under Reply to, then click Send reply. Or click Call, or Use your email app to write from your own email.
3. Set its Stage, a Note or a Follow up on date if you're tracking it as a lead. See Follow up on leads.
4. Click Mark as done when it's handled. It moves to the Done folder. Move back to inbox brings it back.
5. Click Back to inbox to return to the list.

Read messages in your dashboard

The same messages are in your dashboard, without opening the editor:

1. Sign in and click Inbox in the left menu, or the Inbox button on your site's card on Sites.
2. If you have more than one site, pick one from the menu at the top, or choose All sites to see them together.
3. Open, answer and mark messages the same way as in the editor.

The dashboard shows your newest 2,000 messages.

Download your messages

Click Download (CSV) above the list, in the editor's inbox or your dashboard's. It saves the messages in the folder you're looking at as a spreadsheet file that opens in Excel, Numbers or Google Sheets. Each message is a row, with a column for each of your questions, links to any photos, and its stage, note and follow-up date at the end. It's a handy way to keep a list of leads or bring them into another program.

Spam

Forms have built-in spam protection, so most junk never reaches you. Messages that look like spam (for example, ones stuffed with web links) go to the Spam folder and aren't emailed to you. If a real message ends up there, open it and click Not spam. If spam gets through, open it and click This is spam.

Messages from your Spanish pages

If your site is also shown in Spanish, messages from the Spanish pages arrive with your questions and choices in English, so they read the same as the rest. The visitor's own message is as they wrote it, and it's marked as sent from your Spanish pages.