Forms are a way of asking for relevant information from anyone visiting your site, such as their email address so that you can send them further information. This could, of course, be achieved by suggesting they contact you directly via email; however, a form tends to look more professional, and is convenient in that it allows you to ask a range of very specific questions; they can also be interactive if required by using a range of coding options.

The image shows a typical form, which can to set up with whatever questions are required. These are generally used as Contact Forms, and radio buttons, drop-down menus etc can be added to allow for a range of answers.

One problem with forms is their potential to be used for spam, so to ensure that it's actually a person filling out the form, the visitor is often required to type in a sequence of letters or correctly answer a simple question. This is known by the term CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart). Such measures can of course put visitors off, and its use needs to be considered wisely.

Once the form has been filled out, the data is automatically sent to a specified email address (or several addresses, if necessary); however, these types of forms should not be used where sensitive information such as credit card details are to be sent online.