Your email pings yet again and you recognise the suspicious badly crafted message that has dropped into your Squarespace web form from someone who *discovered* you online.

Apparently they can see all your problems and are just the person to help you with {enter any random service here}. Without delay you hit the delete button.

Spam is an utter pain in the butt! Some people chose to simply ignore it, but if spam from your website outnumbers your real, legitimate enquiries then its time to step up your game.

ReCapture is a free and effective way to reduce spam

ReCapture was invented by these clever humans in 2007 and sold to Google in 2009. Because Google want us to have good web experiences we know they'll be making sure this product does the job it needs to.

By default reCapture isn't set up as an option for your Squarespace form, however getting it sorted is pretty straightforward. Less than half an hour of your time. (Which we're sure you'll get back by avoiding that horrid spam).

10 step guide to a spam free Squarespace form

1. Start off in your Squarespace dashboard and navigate to:
Settings >> Advanced >> External Services
2. Scroll down to Google reCapture and click on the link to grab the ReCapture API Keys. You'll be directed to the Google ReCapture website.
3. On the Google ReCapture website follow the instructions which start by adding a page identifying label (ours is YDD_contact)
4. From the radio buttons select ReCapture v2
5. Add your base domain into the domain box (base domain is the domain your website resolves to. It may be www.websiteurlhere.com.au or just websiteurlhere.com.au depending on what your base domain is.
6. Accept Ts&Cs, select the checkbox to Send alerts to owners and hit register
7. Copy the Site Key and the Secret Key
8. Navigate back to your Squarespace dashboard and paste each of the keys into the relevant spaces in the Google reCapture area. Save. *that's the hard work done*
9. Now its time to add that ReCapture box to your form. Navigate to the form on your website and select edit form
10. In the top of the pop up edit box you should now notice a Capture option is included. Select that option and tick the checkbox for Add Google Recapture. You can even select a couple of styling options to assist in matching your site.

This process should take less than 30 minutes. Now go forth and enjoy a quieter inbox. If you need a hand setting this up for your Squarespace website, give us a shout.