Email and Your Website: What You Need to Know
Often my Wix Instruction posts come out of an email I've received from a client about something they can't figure out with the website I've designed for them. Today the perfect reason for a blog post is the question about where emails go when a visitor uses the contact form -- usually on the contact page, or in a more contemporary design, in the footer. This illustration above gives the flow of the process.
Each contact form has a settings area into which your email address is inserted. When I create your Wix website, I use the same address as is used as the login for your Wix account unless you prefer the email to go somewhere else. A second email address can be added if you want extra insurance on not missing anything.
Wix keeps copies of messages sent to you through the contact forms. These are accessed from your account dashboard. Find the notification bell icon in the upper right corner of the dashboard screen, and click to open where the messages are stored.
These copies are stored in your Wix account so that if you ever want to use the Wix Engage system for sending blast (group) emails, all your contacts are right there. I don't recommend using the Wix Engage system, however, because it is not currently as flexible or secure as other blast programs such as Constant Contact, MailChimp or Aweber.
When using a free email address such as Sally4567@Outlook.com, adding the email address to the contact form settings is quick and easy. It's when you want to use a domain specific email that things start to get complicated. All messages sent to your free email address through your contact form will be simultaneously sent to the inbox associated with your email address.
Domain Specific Email Addresses
About half of my clients use what I call a domain specific email address. These are might be different from your Wix account login email, and that's fine. You can even have both a free email address connected to the contact form AND a domain specific one. You will then receive two copies of each contact form message sent to you, as well as the message stored in your Wix account.
The thing you need to know is that even if your email address is domain specific so that it reflects your website domain -- for example Info@DeWriteSites.com -- that email address is connected to some other actual email company, such as Gmail or Outlook, etc. Email sent to that domain specific address will end up in your email host inbox.
NOTE -- your email host is one of the 3 hosts you should know as well as you know your first, middle and last names. Read this blog on Understanding Your 3 Related Website Hosts if you aren't sure what these are.
If you purchased a domain specific email when you upgraded your Wix account and bought the domain itself, that company will be Google, and you'll need a Gmail inbox set up on your personal computer or phone to receive those emails.
Contact Gmail directly for help getting your domained email set up. Click on the Settings gear icon in your Gmail inbox screen, click Help, and Send Feedback under the Contact Us section at the bottom of the list.
Changing MX Records
Sometimes it will be necessary for your MX (meaning mail exchange) records to be changed in your domain registrar and possibly also in your Wix account.
This is a slightly complicated process and a service I don't offer because there are just too many domain registrars for me to be knowledgeable about.
Visit the Wix Support Center for info on mailboxes. Or, send a support ticket in to Wix, for live help.
If your contact form is attracting a lot of spam messages, there are special ways to configure the MX records to reduce spam. Ask the Support Center for help in doing this.
