Google Forms is a powerful tool used to create free surveys and quizzes online. However, that’s not all it does. With this guide, you can create a contact form which can be embedded directly into your website.
Creating a contact form on Google Forms is super simple. Google even has a template already made for you to use, which makes your job that much easier. All you need to do is load the template—customize it if you want—then embed the form directly into your website. That’s all there is to it. Let’s get started.
Creating a Contact Form
To get started, head over to the Google Forms homepage and place the cursor on the multicolored plus sign (+) in the bottom-right corner.
The plus sign becomes a purple pencil and purple page icon. Click the purple page icon.
Once the window opens, choose the template “Contact information.”
Customizing the Contact Form
The default template has entries for a name, email, address, phone number, and comments. If there is anything else you want to add to the form, click the plus sign (+) for additional fields or questions.
By default, name, email, and address are required to submit the form. To enable/disable whether a section is mandatory or not, click the desired field, then turn on or off the “Required” toggle.
To change the theme of your form, click the palette at the top of the page to select a header image, main and primary colors, and font. Choose colors from here that match your website’s theme as they will show up when you embed the form on your site.
Finally, click the Settings cog to change the form’s behavior when respondents fill it out
The first tab has a few settings you can enable. From here, you can collect email addresses, send a copy of their responses via email, and limit each person to one submission. You can also choose whether respondents can edit their answers after they’re submitted or see a summary chart at the end of the survey.
Note: If you enable “Limit to 1 response,” the respondent must log in with their Google account to access your form. Anyone without a Google account won’t be able to submit answers to your forms. Unless you’re positive everyone has a Google account, leave this option disabled.
The “Presentation” tab has a few settings here, but the only one we care about is the confirmation message that respondents see after they submit the form. This message will be displayed for people to see after they submit the contact form.
After you finish, hit “Save” to confirm any changes and return to your form.
Embedding the Contact Form
After you’ve got everything on the contact form perfect, click the “Send” button at the top of the page.
Click the angle brackets (< >) tab, and then click “Copy” to copy the embed HTML to the clipboard.
If you need to change the dimensions of the form and how it appears on your website, alter the width and height underneath the HTML code before you click “Copy.”
Now, all you have to do is paste the code into the HTML editor of a WordPress page or directly into your website’s .html file where you want the form to appear.
If the size doesn’t look right the first go around, don’t fret. Just come back and fiddle with the width and height numbers, and re-copy the code until everything is looking perfect on your site.
Collecting Responses in Google Sheets
One of the best features in Google Forms is all responses gathered can be sent directly into a Google Sheets spreadsheet. From here, you can use Sheet’s formulas and charts, view responses in real-time, and install add-ons to analyze, filter, and manipulate the data even further.
To set up a spreadsheet for responses, select the “Responses” tab, and then click the green Sheets icon.
Next, click “Create” to generate a new spreadsheet to store all your answers.
Alternatively, if you already have a spreadsheet you want the responses to go into, click “Select existing spreadsheet” and follow the prompts. The spreadsheet is saved to your Drive and is available through the Sheets homepage as well.
That’s it. Each spreadsheet contains all responses, along with a timestamp of when the survey was completed, making it easy to get in contact with your clients.
