How to Redirect Form Respondents to Your Site

The form builder allows you to set up a Return URL for each of your forms and automatically redirect users to that URL after they've submitted a form.

To change the Return URL of a form, use the button showing a pen to edit the form and update its Return URL in the Submit Actions tab.

Redirect Form Users to Your Site

You can set up a form to skip the Confirmation page and instead automatically redirect the user to a Thank You page or download URL on your site.

To activate redirect:

  • Navigate to the Form Details screen of the form builder and set a form return URL in the Submit Actions tab
  • Select Redirect to Return URL in the On Submission drop-down menu

Browsers won’t redirect from a secure HTTPS page (the form) to non-secure content for security reasons. Please make sure the Return URL starts with https://. If your site still doesn't support TLS/HTTPS, FormSmarts won't be able to redirect form respondents.

Note that form users will not get a FormSmarts Reference Number for their form submission if you redirect them to your site unless you also set up the form to send an automatic form confirmation email.

Redirect With Embedded Forms

If you have embedded a form onto your site and set it to redirect to its Return URL, some browsers may load the URL in the iframe that contains the form. Follow these instructions to ensure the Thank You page consistently loads in the top browser window or tab.

Return URL & Site Ownership Verification

Although the redirect option is only available with paid accounts, members with a Free account can still provide a button on the form confirmation page to allow respondents to navigate to a Thank You page or other URL.

To prevent abuse, FormSmarts only provides a link to the Return URL for Free accounts if you have verified your site.

To verify your site, visit the Settings tab of the form builder.

We use the return URLs of your forms to compute the list of websites in Settings > Websites, so make sure those are correct before you attempt to verify.

PayPal Landing Page for Payment Forms

If you use our PayPal form feature to collect dues, fees or donations on your form, the Return URL will be used as the PayPal landing page. Users will be redirected to that page by PayPal after the payment has been completed.

22 Responses to “How to Redirect Form Respondents to Your Site”

I would love it if, once the form embedded on my site was completed and sent, instead of the tiny text giving the confirmation of a successful submission, I could either personalize a “pretty” thank you message, or at least have something more prominent show up.

Posted by: Matthew Osmun | Jul 11th, 2008 11:50 am

I absolutely agree with Matthew. I want them to go directly to my thank you page. Also, in the non-embed form, I would like to go directly to my thank you page without needing to go through the page where the person has to click “finished”. They are not finished at that point, they still need to make a payment after completing the form.

Thanks.

Posted by: Steve | Jul 20th, 2008 10:27 pm

Steve,
We’ll soon allow verified form owners to skip the confirmation page and lead users directly to a “thank you page” on their website.

We also have plans to integrate FormSmarts with PayPal.

FormSmarts Posted by: FormSmarts | Jul 21st, 2008 4:53 am

I would like the thank you page to have a link to my paypal payment. is that possible?

Posted by: karina | Jul 23rd, 2008 12:49 am

Karina,
As said above, we have plans to integrate FormSmarts with PayPal pretty soon. That effectively means you’ll be able to send your visitors to PayPal for payment after they’ve submitted a form, and much more. Subscribe to the feed or by email to be notified when this becomes available.

FormSmarts Posted by: FormSmarts | Jul 23rd, 2008 7:50 am

Yes we would like a “Thank you message” facility.

Posted by: Barrie | Aug 26th, 2008 11:43 am

Wow, all of this sounds fantastic. I am already using PapPal with this form and it is very confusing to the user. They have to fill out the form and then manually click on a PayPal link. 50% forget to press the PapPal button. It would be great for the user to go directly to PayPal after filling out the form.

Posted by: tarra | Sep 9th, 2008 3:41 pm

We have many features in development and on the design board, but note that some of them will only be available to good FormSmarts citizens, who have a minimum amount of SmartsPoints in their account.

FormSmarts Posted by: FormSmarts | Sep 9th, 2008 4:38 pm

Yes, yes, yes a customizable thank you message would be fantastic. We sometimes need to add text to tell the user where to go next. As Tarra said, we use a form with Google Checkout and being able to remind the user to CLICK THE BUY NOW BUTTON at the bottom of the page would be fantastic.

Thanks.

Posted by: Nikki | Sep 16th, 2008 4:07 pm

Nikki,
As noted in comments above, we both have plans to (1) allow customizing the thank you message and (2) integrate FormSmarts with payment processors (most probably, PayPal and Google Checkout).

FormSmarts Posted by: FormSmarts | Sep 16th, 2008 4:19 pm

A thank you message once a person has completed a form would be a fantastic idea.
Great service by the way, you are saving me so much time in designing!!!
CHEERS!!

Posted by: Mat Lawrence | Oct 2nd, 2008 7:54 am

How close are you to getting the customized thank you messages / payment processors integrated?

Posted by: Joe | Oct 29th, 2008 7:12 pm

Hopefully towards the end of November.

FormSmarts Posted by: FormSmarts | Oct 30th, 2008 7:44 pm

want a thankyou page

Posted by: mahavir | Feb 10th, 2009 2:54 am

Yes, I would love the “thank you” message, thanks :)

Posted by: Fir Mamat | Mar 31st, 2009 10:52 pm

Yes, yes, yes – personalized thank you page would be a real improvement!

Posted by: Jon | Apr 1st, 2009 8:08 am

As said above, we will provide mechanisms to personalize the thank you page. We are currently very busy working on major new features for the next two releases. Changes to the confirmation page will come after that. Subscribe to the feed (RSS or email) to be notified when this becomes available.

FormSmarts Posted by: FormSmarts | Apr 1st, 2009 9:17 am

Of course, it would be much better for us to control the thank you process. The fewer confirm clicks the better.

Thank you redirection is essential.

John

Posted by: John O'Donovan | Apr 2nd, 2009 12:06 pm

Yes I think it’s essential that I have my own personalised message after submission from an embedded form as I need to instruct the clients what our intentions are after submission of the form.

Posted by: jennifer dean | Apr 7th, 2009 11:41 pm

Thank you message would be ideal! Would also like the ability to add comments throughout form (explanations etc…). Another wish is a question type similar to checkbox, but that would have multiple answers rather than a simple yes/no. For example, I could choose 1 and 3 of a set of 1, 2, or 3.

Also LOVE the idea of payment integration!

Posted by: Emily | Apr 10th, 2009 9:47 pm

I can get the redirect to url to work on my desktop but it returns to the main web page on my mobile – what do i need to do to correct this?

Posted by: Ed | Apr 14th, 2018 9:31 am

Ed, when you embed a form, redirects may not work consistently across browsers. You can easily fix this.

FormSmarts Posted by: FormSmarts | Apr 14th, 2018 11:53 am

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About the Form Builder Blog

The Online Form Builder Blog is published by FormSmarts, a web form service providing all you need to create a form and publish it online in minutes. FormSmarts makes it easy to build a form and embed it on your site. You can then get form submissions by email or store them on FormSmarts and download an Excel report. Learn more about the many other benefits of FormSmarts.