What emails does your website send?

Your website might send all kinds of emails to both you and your visitors. Messages like contact form submissions, order confirmations, newsletter signups, password resets, and more. Each one plays a small but important role in your user experience. If these emails don’t arrive, your visitors are left wondering and you’re left in the dark. You miss leads, and your customers end up confused.

Why email delivery matters

Your website might look great on the outside. But if it can’t send emails, things can quietly break behind the scenes. Order confirmations don’t arrive. Password reset links go missing. Contact messages vanish without a trace. You won’t know what’s gone wrong until someone tells you or until you realize it’s been far too quiet.

Email delivery issues are more common than you’d think. They can come from misconfigured servers, outdated plugins, or aggressive spam filters. And the worst part? These issues often go unnoticed for weeks.

A quick email delivery check helps you catch problems early. You make sure your site is doing what it’s supposed to. Messages get through, and your visitors get the experience they expect.

How do you check if your emails arrive?

At Progress Planner, we’ve built a simple check to help you confirm that the emails your site sends will be delivered. You’ll find it under Ravi’s Recommendation. By following the step-by-step check, you can quickly see if your emails are getting through. 

Here’s how it works:

Why is this a recommendation?

Ravi’s Recommendations are here to keep your site optimized. Making sure your site can send emails is essential. It’s the foundation for contact forms, order confirmations, and password resets. If those emails don’t arrive, visitors get frustrated. By checking the email delivery, you stay available, and your visitors don’t get left in the dark.

Troubleshooting

If the test email didn’t come through, don’t worry. It usually means your site isn’t set up to send email the right way. That’s where an SMTP plugin comes in, it helps WordPress deliver email more reliably.

Let’s look at two common situations:

1. I don’t have an SMTP plugin

WordPress can try to send emails by itself, but that often fails—especially on cheaper hosting. An SMTP plugin gives your site the tools it needs to send email properly.

Here’s what to do

• Install an SMTP plugin from the plugin directory
• Follow the setup steps in the plugin to connect your email address (Gmail, Outlook, your domain, etc.)
• Run the contact form test again

Still not working? Double-check your plugin settings or reach out to your host for help.

2. My SMTP plugin doesn’t work

If you already have an SMTP plugin but the test still fails, something’s not right in the setup. This is usually caused by:

• Wrong login details (like email or password)
• Missing or incorrect SMTP server info (like port or encryption)
• Email provider blocking access (sometimes Gmail or Outlook needs permission)

Here’s what you can try

• Open your SMTP plugin settings and go through each step again
• Look for error messages, they usually give a hint
• Make sure your email provider allows SMTP access (some require extra settings or an app password)

Need help?

There are many different SMTP plugins. Below, we’ve listed some of the most popular ones and where to find their setup guides:

• WP Mail SMTP – Docs
• Post SMTP – Docs (See plugin page > FAQ & Support)
• Easy WP SMTP – Docs
• FluentSMTP – Docs
• SMTP Mailer – Docs (See plugin page > FAQ & Support)
• Mail Bank – Docs (See plugin page > Description or Support)
• SureMails – Docs

Still stuck? You can try switching plugins or contact your web host or email provider for help.