Step 7: Test your inquiry form

Your website has two forms: the one on your Contact page, and the quote form. Both save the inquiry in Leads. Both also send you an alert, to wherever Notifications is set to send it.

Test them yourself now. It takes five minutes, and it is the only way to know a customer can reach you.

Before you start, check where your alerts go. Go to Plugins, then Notifications. It sits in the System group. Click the Destinations tab. Your email should be there. If it is not, add it.

The checklist

1. Send yourself a contact inquiry

1. Open your live website and go to the Contact page.
2. Fill in Name, Email and Message. Write something you will recognize, such as “test from me”.
3. Click Send Message.

The page tells you the message was sent.

2. Send yourself a quote request

Do the same on your quote page. That form has more boxes, including Phone and Timeline. Click Request Quote at the end.

3. Find them in the panel

Go to Plugins, then Leads. It sits in the Forms & Leads group. Both of yours should be at the top of the list, marked New. One says Contact and one says Quote.

Click a row to open it and read what you sent. Leads explains the screen.

4. Check your inbox

You should have two alerts about them. An email can take a minute or two. If they are not there, look in your junk folder, then mark them as not junk so the next one lands properly.

Nothing is sent back to the person who fills in the form. Your website does not reply for you.

5. Tidy up

Open each test lead and click Archive. It comes off the main list and waits in Archived, so your real inquiries start with a clean inbox.

Use Archive, not Delete. Delete cannot be undone.

If nothing arrives

The inquiry is safe even when the alert is not. A lead whose alert did not go out shows Not emailed in the list.

Go to Plugins, then Notifications, and click the Delivery log tab. It shows whether each alert went out, and why not.

One habit worth starting

Your website turns away inquiries that look like they came from a robot. They are never saved, so you will not see them.

If a junk one gets through, open it and click Mark spam. It is archived, and deleted 30 days after it was sent.

What done looks like

Two test inquiries sit in Archived. Two alerts about them are in your inbox. You know your form works, because you used it.

Next: Step 8: Going live.