I’ve always recommended using some form of spam protection on website contact forms but it’s now recommended, more than ever, to use Google’s free reCAPTCHA service.
This week alone I’ve had three separate clients contact me to say that they’ve been receiving a relentless amount of spam via their contact form. It may be that some spam bots are being more aggressive to repeatedly submit contact forms on the same website.
What is reCAPTCHA?
reCAPTCHA is a free service offered by Google to help combat the thousands of bots which roam the internet looking for forms they can submit their spam via.
From Google’s website: “reCAPTCHA is a free service that protects your website from spam and abuse. reCAPTCHA uses an advanced risk analysis engine and adaptive challenges to keep automated software from engaging in abusive activities on your site. It does this while letting your valid users pass through with ease.”
We’ve been using different forms of anti-spam measures on contact forms for the last 15+ years but none have been as effective as Google’s reCAPTURE service. It’s not perfect and some submissions may slip through the net but in my personal experience it seems to cut out 95%+ of contact form spam.
Technically the latest version of reCAPTCHA (v3) requires more resources (as it now monitors all the traffic on your website to generate a better risk analysis profile) but if you’re receiving spam at such a volume that it’s interrupting your productivity, then it’s an essential addition to your website security.
Need help integrating reCAPTCHA?
If you need assistance in integrating reCAPTCHA contact us for more information.