Contact form spam has been a problem since the early days of the internet and has worsened with the rise of automated computer programs which can fill out and submit common form elements. A great solution for combating this problem is a called a captcha.
A captcha is the nerdy acronym “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart”, and is a human response test designed to block automated computer spamming. Automated spam software targets the typical and predictable form elements, such as text fields, radio buttons, and check boxes, that don’t require intelligent interaction.
By adding captcha code to your form, you introduce an unpredictable element that requires interaction only a real human visitor can provide.
Most people are familiar with old style captchas that require you to type in a series of numbers or letters. Many were hard to read or just plain annoying to interact with. Fortunately, the user experience for these has greatly improved, thanks in large part to Google. With the Google reCAPTCHA, there is no longer a need to enter a series of numbers and/or letters. On the user side, it’s just a simple checkbox, but on the code side, it adds deeper protection from contact form spam and abuse which other solutions currently don’t offer.
If your website is in need of a reCAPTCHA, please let us know. We are happy to help you add one to your website.