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How to Link to an Email Address in WordPress

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Recently one of our readers asked us how to add an email address in WordPress? Creating a link to an email address allows users to send you an email with a click. In this article, we will show you how to link to an email address in WordPress.

How to link to an email address in WordPress

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Creating a Link to an Email Address in WordPress

Adding a link to an email address is very much like adding other links in WordPress. Take a look at our guide on how to add a link in WordPress.

When adding a link to any other web page, you usually add http:// or https:// followed by rest of the url. For example, http://www.example.com

Adding link in WordPress

Similarly when adding a link to an email address, you need to replace the http part with mailto: prefix followed by the email address you want to link to. Here is a example:

mailto:john@example.com

Here is how you will add it in a WordPress post.

Select the text you want to add the link to and then press CTRL+K (Command+K on Mac) or click on the ‘Insert Link’ button in the post editor.

This will bring up the insert link popup where you need to add your mailto link. Click on the apply button to close the insert link popup.

Adding a link to an email address in WordPress

As you can see in the animation above, we added a link to an email address. WordPress will automatically detect that the text you are trying to link is an email address and will add the mailto: prefix to the email address.

You can add an email link to any text. If the text is not a valid email address then you will need to add your complete link. Like this:

Adding email link to any text in WordPress

How to Manually Add an Email Link in WordPress Using HTML

If you want to add an email link in a text widget or a WordPress theme file, then you will need to add link by writing the HTML.

Here is how you will add an email link using HTML:

<a href="mailto:john@example.com">Email Me</a>

Adding an email link in plain HTML

Why You Should Avoid Adding Email Links in WordPress Posts and Pages?

The downside of adding an email link is that the email address becomes publicly visible. This allows email scraping bots to collect it, which means you will get tons of spam on those email addresses.

Another disadvantage is that users are less likely to switch applications (from browser to their email client) to send an email. Most users may not want to use their primary email address to send out emails.

You can easily avoid this by adding a contact form instead of adding an email link.

We recommend using WPForms. It is the most beginner friendly contact form plugin in the market.

See our step by step tutorial on how to create a contact form in WordPress.

Another way to beat email bots is by encoding email addresses. Check out our tutorial on how to protect emails from spammers with WordPress email encoder.

We hope this article helped you learn how to link to an email address in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on 14 tips for mastering the WordPress visual editor.

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Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi with over 16 years of experience in WordPress, Web Hosting, eCommerce, SEO, and Marketing. Started in 2009, WPBeginner is now the largest free WordPress resource site in the industry and is often referred to as the Wikipedia for WordPress.

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Reader Interactions

22 CommentsLeave a Reply

  1. Syed Balkhi says

    Hey WPBeginner readers,
    Did you know you can win exciting prizes by commenting on WPBeginner?
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  2. Kelly says

    I’ve got the email link established and it’s loaded to my “contact us” page. So when I load the page up externally and click the link, I get a “Page Not Found” because it’s using my email address link as a regular link to another page on my site, of course doesn’t exist. Can you tell me what I did wrong? Thank you!

  3. Deneen says

    I can’t figure out how to view the emails that are sent via my “Contact Me” page. I keep sending test emails, but they aren’t showing up. How do I link my website’s email address to my contact me forms?

  4. Gerald-in-Crete says

    I absolutely endorse your simple and direct explanations. I am referring to how to insert an e-mail hyperlink in a posting.

  5. Mima says

    Hello there,

    Thank you for providng such great support and guidance for beginners – most helpful. Please can you advise what the string is for mailto links which pre-populate the subject line. Is it as below?:

    “mailto:john@example.com?subject=”

    Thank you in advance for your response,
    Mima

    • WPBeginner Support says

      For adding content to the subject line you have the correct code for the HTML method.

      Admin

  6. Jessica says

    How can I safely allow people to send .jpeg files to me? I turn them into art and I don’t know how to allow them to upload a picture. Is the best way to let them email me a photo?

  7. Marlene says

    Hi there

    I am also creating the email links in the WP site text as demonstrated, yet, when we click on them (front page) they go to Chrome and do not create and email?

    What am I doing wrong?

  8. Kate says

    Hello

    Thank you for this…however, i have these standing OK on the site, but they dont link to actually make an email – all they do at the bottom is show the address. On mobile it works fine…

  9. matingholami says

    Great Post,
    But I’m searching for something different, could U help me?

    I want registered users to be allowed to write posts but not allowed to publish them, I mean they can write posts but every post written by users must be checked and edited and published by admins
    although I want to control admin area interface, I want to be able to disable admin widgets or show messages to them through the admin area

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