WordPress SMTP: How to Configure Your Website to Send Emails

If you’re having issues sending emails from WordPress, then this article is for you. Here, we will guide you through the process of setting up WordPress SMTP protocol to guarantee your email deliverance.

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What You Need to Know About WordPress Email Settings

By default, WordPress uses the PHP mail function to handle its email processing. Despite so, this feature isn’t the best approach for sending emails. As a non-native email service, WordPress’ email feature tends to fail the spam tests run by web hosting providers and popular email services.

Consequently, emails sent from WordPress websites often get blocked or end up in the spam folder.

For this reason, it’s recommended for WordPress users to utilize the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP). It will increase your deliverability rate and help you manage the overall email traffic in the long run.

How to Configure WordPress to Send Emails Using SMTP Plugin

Fortunately, you can easily configure an SMTP server on your site by using a WordPress SMTP plugin. For this tutorial, we’ll guide you through the process using the Easy WP SMTP plugin. Not to worry — the plugin is free and has a simple interface.

Here are the steps to configure the SMTP server on WordPress:

1. Navigate to your hosting account, then create a new email account for your WordPress site. If you’re using Hostinger, you can do so by accessing Emails -> Email Accounts from the hPanel dashboard.

2. Write down the SMTP server name and port information. Depending on your web hosting service, the location may vary. In Hostinger’s hPanel, you can find them from the Email Accounts menu.

3. Moving onto WordPress, install and activate the Easy WP SMTP plugin. If you don’t know how to do it, this article provides a detailed tutorial on how to install a WordPress plugin.
4. Navigate to Easy WP SMTP settings from your WordPress dashboard, then fill out the SMTP Configuration Settings form with the information you acquired in the previous steps. Once you’re done, click Save Changes.

   Here’s a breakdown of the details you need to input:

   • From Email Address — the email address you created in Step 1.
   • From Name — the name of the sender.
   • Reply-To Email Address — contains the optional second email address that will receive the replies.
   • SMTP Host and Port — the SMTP details you obtained in Step 2.
   • Type of Encryption — select the STARTTLS protocol command to secure your connection. If STARTTLS encryption does not work on your end, feel free to try out SSL/TLS.
   • SMTP Authentication — select the Yes option.
   • SMTP Username and Password — the login details of your mail server.
5. Use the plugin’s test mail feature to check whether the SMTP server works with your WordPress site. Head over to Test Mail, enter the recipient’s email address and the message, then click Send Test Email.

6. If the test was successful, you will see a confirmation message and you should recieve the email message in your inbox:

Conclusion

While WordPress isn’t an ideal platform to send emails, you can easily remedy that by configuring an SMTP server. The server helps the emails sent from WordPress get past the spam test that most email services use these days. Thus, your emails will less likely get lost on the way.