How to embed a Google Form

Interactive step-by-step tutorial

Google Forms is an online form creator that’s part of the Google Workspace suite of collaboration and productivity apps. No matter your organization’s size or industry, there’s a good chance you use online forms daily to collect valuable, actionable data. Tools like Google Forms can help you survey employees about your company’s culture, determine what customers think of a new product, register new clients, and assess student progress in quizzes and tests.

With free, no-code software like Google Forms, building online forms like surveys and quizzes has never been easier. In just a few minutes, you can either create a form from scratch or choose a ready-made template, customize it to match your brand’s look, and share it with your colleagues or customers when you’re ready to gather responses. 

You can share Google Forms in three ways: 

• Through email
• With a link
• By embedding the form on your website

Though it may not be the first sharing option that comes to mind, embedding a Google Form on your website allows you to direct respondents to a single, branded web page to fill out forms. That’s especially helpful if you want people to respond to your form over time. Instead of collecting and inputting email addresses or sending the link to individual people, you can direct people to your website, where they can access additional resources while they’re filling out and submitting the form.

By embedding a Google Form, you’ll be able to

• Display your form in a web page that’s consistent with your brand
• Provide a convenient way for customers to access forms
• Users can find your form through your website, rather than a complicated sharing link

Looking for the best alternative to Google Forms?

Jotform’s full-featured form-building solution is mobile-friendly and has the most integrations in the industry. Use it to collect payments, automate workflows, gather leads, and more.

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How to embed a Google Form into a website

Whether you’re the owner of a large enterprise, a small e-commerce shop, or something in between, your company website is probably one of your most important assets — especially for your customers. It serves as an information hub for those both familiar with and new to your brand, offering forms that enable customers to easily get in touch with you, shop your products and services, and provide feedback.

Here’s how to embed a Google Form into a website:

1. Navigate to your Google Forms homepage.
2. Select the form you’d like to embed into a website from the Recent forms section or create a new one from scratch.
3. Once you’re happy with your form’s design, click the purple Send button in the top right corner.
4. Next to Send via, you’ll see a few options. Click the third one — the icon with two pointed brackets (<>).
5. Copy the code that appears under Embed HTML. (This is also where you can change the dimensions of your Google Form to make sure it displays correctly on your website. Simply adjust the width and height of the pixels accordingly.)
6. Finally, paste the copied HTML code wherever you’d like to display it on your website.

How to embed a Google Form into an email

In addition to embedding one into your website, you can also embed a Google Form into an email. This method is particularly useful if you’re sending out a survey that you’d like only a select group of people to complete or if you’d like to draw immediate attention to it by sending it directly to your customers’ inboxes. (However, Google Forms limits the number of emails you can send forms to on a daily basis according to your Google account type, so depending on how many recipients you’re trying to reach, emailing your forms may not be your best option.)

Here’s how to embed a Google Form into an email:

1. Head to your Google Forms homepage and select the form you’d like to embed in an email.
2. Click the Send button in the upper right corner.
3. Next to Send via, select the first option that looks like an envelope.
4. Under To, type in your recipient’s email address. (If you’re sending your Google Form to multiple recipients, separate the email addresses with commas.)
5. Enter the email’s subject line under Subject.
6. Enter the email’s message under Message.
7. Lastly, be sure to check the box next to Include form in email.

How to share a Google Form with a link

Creating a shareable link to a Google Form — perhaps to post on social media or include in a blog — is another way respondents can receive and complete your form. This option, which is especially advantageous if you receive more traffic on Facebook or Instagram than your company’s website, can help you add a customer feedback survey or event registration form directly to your social media bio.

Here’s all you have to do:

1. Select the form you’d like to use from your Google Forms homepage.
2. After you’ve made your customizations and are ready to share the form, click the Send button in the top right corner.
3. To the right of Send via, click the middle hyperlink icon.
4. Copy the link that’s listed under Link. (This is also where you have the option to shorten the link to your Google Form, which may be more practical if you’re sharing it on social media.)
5. Paste the copied link in a social media post, blog, email, or anywhere else you’d like the link to appear.

Why Jotform is a great Google Forms alternative

Now, as impressive and user-friendly as Google Forms is, it does have its disadvantages.

For starters, compared to other online form builders, it’s not nearly as comprehensive. Its template library is fairly minimal — as are the available colors, fonts, and other design features. Google Forms also lacks native integrations with third-party apps, which limits its versatility as well as its usefulness in everyday processes, like automating workflows and collecting e-signatures.

Additionally, there are limitations to embedding Google Forms in your website. If you want to restrict responses to one per person, respondents must be signed in to a Google account to submit the form. This limitation may shrink your potential respondent pool and discourage people from filling out the form. It can be difficult to choose between receiving accurate responses from verified respondents and excluding non-Google users. 

Google Forms’ limited design and customization options also make it difficult to match your website’s branding compared to other solutions. Online form builder Jotform, for example, includes many of Google Form’s most popular features — and much more. It’s easy to use, highly secure, fully customizable, and completely code-free. Choose from Jotform’s 10,000-plus ready-made templates to create stunning, professional-looking forms, surveys, quizzes, apps, and e-commerce stores.

Then, using Jotform’s intuitive drag-and-drop builder, customize your form with fun and engaging widgets, e-signature capabilities, payment processing functionality, and other powerful and popular integrations. Finally, when you’re ready to publish your form, simply embed it into a website or share it in an email or with a link — similar to how you would in Google Forms.

How to embed a Jotform form into a website

Whether you create your Jotform form from scratch or use one of the thousands of customizable premade templates, the process for embedding it into your website is the same:

1. Select your form from Jotform’s Form Builder.
2. Click Publish from the list of options in the center of the screen.
3. Click Embed in the left toolbar.
4. Select the green Copy Code button.
5. Paste the copied code in the web page where you’d like your form to display.

How to embed a Jotform form into an email

While you can embed a Google Form directly into an email, Jotform doesn’t offer this same capability — but for good reason.

Not only does embedding forms in emails create data security risks, but embedding them directly also increases the likelihood that your form will be inaccessible or distorted once your audience receives it. Simply using a different device or web browser than your recipient(s) use can affect how the form will appear if embedded in an email.

For increased security and reliability, you can instead embed a Jotform form as a link within an email. Alternatively, you can email your form directly from the Jotform Form Builder (instead of copying and pasting a link and using your personal email to send it).

How to share a Jotform form with a link

Though embedding a Jotform form in the body of an email isn’t possible, you can easily create a link to your form to include in an email. With this method, you can still conveniently correspond with your email list without compromising security.

To start, here’s how to share a Jotform form with a link:

1. Navigate to the Form Builder to select the form you’d like to share with a link.
2. Once you’re happy with your form, click the Publish button at the top of the screen.
3. Click Quick Share from the list of options on the left.
4. Click Copy Link.
5. Lastly, paste the copied link in a blog post, social media platform, email, etc.

If you don’t want to send your recipients a link to your form using your personal email, you can share the form with them via email directly from Jotform.

To email a form from Jotform, simply complete the first two steps mentioned above and then follow these steps:

1. Select Email from the left sidebar.
2. Select Share On Email to send an email directly to your respondents (instead of copying and pasting a link into your personal email). This screen also lets you schedule reminder emails to recipients who haven’t yet completed the form or survey.
3. Under the Email tab, type in the email’s subject line under Email Subject and the email’s message under Email Content.
4. Select the Recipients tab.
5. Enter how you’d like your name to appear under Sender Name.
6. Enter your email address under Reply-to Email.
7. Enter your recipient’s email address under To.
8. Finally, click the green Send button.

That’s it! Congratulations! You’ve successfully learned how to embed both a Google Form and a Jotform form into a website, email, and link.

Now you’re equipped to create powerful surveys and quizzes — as well as share them with colleagues and customers — using two of the most popular online form builders. Whichever one you ultimately choose for your organization, you can trust your forms — and the data they collect — are in safe, capable hands.