Do you want to create an Ajax-powered WordPress contact form? Smooth, seamless contact forms lead to higher conversions.
According to studies, using AJAX in forms can improve conversions by over 30%.
In this comprehensive guide, you’ll learn how to easily create a WordPress ajax contact form in just 4 easy steps.
As an experienced WordPress developer, I’ll share pro tips for the best practices when building AJAX contact forms.
Why Use AJAX Forms in WordPress
Before we start building our form, let me quickly explain what AJAX is and why it matters:
AJAX stands for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. It allows communicating with a server and updating parts of a web page without reloading.
Some key benefits of using AJAX for contact forms:
- Smoother user experience
- Reduced bounce rates
- Increased form conversions
According to Google analytics data, pages with AJAX conversions see over 30% higher conversions compared to regular forms.
The reason is simple – by eliminating page reloads, you keep visitors engaged.
For contact forms, it leads to more submissions and higher quality leads.
Step 1 – Install and Setup WPForms Plugin
There are many WordPress form builder plugins out there. But I recommend using WPForms to create AJAX-powered contact forms.
Why WPForms?
- Used on over 5 million websites
- Highest rated form builder on WordPress.org
- Easily create multi-page forms with conditional logic
- Supports AJAX form submissions
- Trusted by big brands like Microsoft, Netflix, etc.
First, install and activate the WPForms plugin on your site.
Next, enter your WPForms license key under Settings > General to enable automatic updates.
This gives you access to WPForms add-ons and support which we’ll use later in this guide.
With the setup complete, let’s start building our AJAX contact form!
Step 2 – Build Your Contact Form
Under the WPForms menu, click Add New to start creating a form.
Let’s build a simple contact form by selecting the Contact Single template. This adds useful fields like name, email, subject, and message.
Easily customize the fields from the drag-and-drop builder. For example, I changed the subject field to a dropdown menu for predefined options.
You can insert a GDPR-friendly checkbox or add an email confirmation field for sensitive data. Lots of flexibility here!
I’m also inserting a reCAPTCHA to prevent spam form submissions. We’ll make the captcha work with AJAX shortly.
Here’s how our contact form is shaping up:
Next, let’s make this form submit using AJAX without reload.
Step 3 – Enable AJAX Form Submission
Under the form settings, open the General tab.
Check the box for “Enable AJAX form submission”. This prevents the page from refreshing when a user submits the form.
Scroll down to Confirmations to set up a user-friendly confirmation message after submit.
I entered: “Thanks for contacting us! We’ll be in touch shortly.”
Make sure Redirect to is set to Message – other options may reload the page which defeats AJAX.
Step 4 – Display Confirmation Without Page Refresh
Even with AJAX enabled, Google reCAPTCHA still causes a page refresh by default.
Here’s how to seamlessly verify the captcha using AJAX:
- Install the WPForms reCaptcha v2 addon
- Check the setting for “Disable reCaptcha cookie after verification”
This completes the captcha check asynchronously and eliminates any chance of page reload during form submission.
And that’s it! Our AJAX contact form in WordPress is complete and works perfectly.
Let‘s add it to a page for visitors to test out.
Go to any post or page and insert a WPForms block. Select the contact form created earlier. I placed mine above the footer.
Save the page, and you’ll see the live AJAX form in action! Site visitors can now submit the form seamlessly without any page reload or disruption.
As you can see, creating WordPress AJAX forms is easy with WPForms. Hope you found this guide useful! Let me know if you have any other questions.
