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Email (SMTP)

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Your blog sends a few emails of its own: password reset links, invitations to new team members, and on the Business plan the result of a post review. To send them reliably it needs a mailbox to send from. Set this up right after installing: without it, a forgotten password cannot be reset by email.

Everything is on Settings → Email.

Settings, Email: SMTP host, port, encryption, login, From address and name, Site URL and Send test email.123
  1. The mail server details from your host.
  2. Same address as the SMTP account.
  3. Save first, then send yourself a test.

SMTP Server

SMTP is simply the way one mail server hands an email to another. Your hosting company or email provider gives you these details, usually on the page where you set up email accounts.

  • SMTP Host: the mail server's name, for example mail.yoursite.com or smtp.gmail.com.
  • Port and Encryption: port 465 needs SSL; port 587 or 25 needs TLS. Typing the port picks the matching encryption for you.
  • Username and Password: usually the full email address and its password. The password field is always empty when you open the page; leave it empty to keep the saved one.

Tip: Create a separate mailbox for the blog, such as blog@yoursite.com, instead of using your personal one.

From Address & From Name

  • From Address: the address your emails come from. Use the same address as the SMTP account, otherwise many inboxes treat the email as suspicious.
  • From Name: the name recipients see as the sender. Leave it empty to use your site name.

Site URL

Your blog's main address, for example https://yoursite.com/blog. It is used for the links inside emails, such as a password reset link, and as the address search engines and social networks see. Leave it empty to use the address each visitor typed.

Send Test Email

Press Save changes first, then Send test email. It goes to the email address of your own account.

  • Test email sent: check your inbox. Not there? Look in Spam. On shared hosting delivery can take a few minutes, and mail from a new domain often lands in Spam at first.
  • Could not send: the message says why, with an error code. Check the host, port, encryption and password; most problems are a wrong port and encryption pair.

Tip: If your emails keep landing in Spam, ask your hosting company to check the SPF, DKIM and DMARC records of your domain. These tell inboxes your server is allowed to send mail for your address.

Still stuck? Write to us — we read every message.