1. Overview
  2. WordPress Website
  3. Sending email from your website

Sending email from your website

Your website sends email — order confirmations, form replies, newsletters — through your own email provider. This guide shows you how to connect that provider inside your website so your messages arrive reliably. You would do this once, shortly after your website goes live.

Note: You need access to your WordPress admin and an email account you can create an app password or SMTP credentials for.

How website email works

On the Website tab, the section Sending email from your website says: "You choose the provider and connect it inside your website, so the account and the sending reputation stay yours."

That means every email your website sends leaves through an account you own. You keep control of the address, the inbox and the sending reputation built up over time.

Why mailboxes are not included

1smart.link does not provide email mailboxes. Use your own Google Workspace or Zoho Mail account for your business address.

The reason is simple: your email stays with you whatever happens to your website. Your business address, your saved messages and your contacts are never tied to anything else.

The email settings

FluentSMTP is pre-installed on every website. Open it in your WordPress admin to connect your provider.

Choose one of the three providers below. You only need one.

ProviderBest for
Google WorkspaceBest if you already use Gmail for your business address
Zoho MailA low-cost mailbox for your own domain
Amazon SESCheapest at volume — best for larger email lists

Connect Google Workspace

Choose this if your business address already runs on Gmail.

  1. In your Google Account, turn on 2-Step Verification if it isn't already on.
  2. In your Google Account security settings, create an App password. Google shows a 16-character password — copy it.
  3. In your website's admin, open the email settings and choose Other SMTP.
  4. Enter host smtp.gmail.com, port 587, encryption TLS, your full email address as the username, and the app password you just copied.
  5. Send the test email. If it arrives, you're done.

Tip: Keep the app password somewhere safe. Google will not show it again after you close the window, and you would need to create a new one.

Connect Zoho Mail

Choose this if you want an inexpensive mailbox on your own domain.

  1. In your Zoho Mail admin, make sure your domain is verified and your mailbox works.
  2. Create an App password for SMTP in your Zoho account security settings.
  3. In your website's admin, open the email settings and choose Other SMTP.
  4. Enter host smtp.zoho.com, port 587, encryption TLS, your full Zoho email address as the username, and the app password.
  5. Send the test email to confirm it works.

Note: If your domain is not yet verified in Zoho, the connection will fail. Finish domain verification first, then come back to this step.

Connect Amazon SES

Choose this if you send to a larger list and want the lowest cost per message. This option takes the longest to set up because of the approval step.

  1. Create an AWS account if you don't have one, and open the Amazon SES console.
  2. Verify your sending domain, then add the DNS records SES gives you.
  3. Request production access. A new SES account starts in a sandbox that can only email verified addresses. Approval usually takes a day.
  4. Create SMTP credentials in SES and copy the username and password.
  5. In your website's admin, open the email settings, choose Amazon SES, and paste the credentials.

Warning: Do not skip the production access request. While your account is in the sandbox, your website can only email addresses you have verified — so order confirmations to real customers will not arrive.

Send the test email

Every provider above ends with the same step, and it is the one that matters most.

  1. In the email settings in your WordPress admin, open the test email tool.
  2. Enter an address you can check straight away — ideally on a different provider from the one you just connected.
  3. Send the test.
  4. Check the inbox. If it hasn't arrived within a minute or two, check the spam folder as well.

If the test email arrives, your website is connected and sending correctly. Order confirmations, contact form replies and password resets will now go out through your own provider.

What happens next

Once connected, you don't need to touch these settings again unless you change provider or rotate your app password. Email marketing campaigns (the Email marketing card) also send through the provider you connect here, so this single setup covers both transactional and campaign email.

Troubleshooting

The test email doesn't arrive. Check the username is your full email address, not just the part before the @. Then confirm the port is 587 and encryption is set to TLS.

WordPress shows a notice that no email connection is set up. Until an email provider is connected, your website may not send email reliably. Work through one of the provider sections above and finish with the test email.

The password is rejected. Ordinary account passwords will not work. You need an app password from Google or Zoho, or SMTP credentials from SES — these are different from the password you use to log in.

SES emails only reach some addresses. Your account is still in the sandbox. Return to the SES console and request production access.

Still stuck?

If the test email still fails after checking the host, port, encryption and username, contact support with the provider you chose and the exact error message shown in your website's admin.

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