What is Google reCAPTCHA and how to use in Divi

Did you know that Divi comes with Google reCAPTCHA support built-in?

This means you can use the Divi Contact Form module and Email Optin module to engage your visitors without being annoyed by spammers and bots.

If you have been using a third-party anti-spam plugin, you can safely uninstall it as Divi will take care of that job for you too.

Here’s a step-by-step tutorial on how you can use Google reCAPTCHA in Divi. But first, let’s get a better understanding of what is Google reCAPTCHA, to begin with.

What is Google reCAPTCHA? How does it work?

CAPTCHA is an acronym that stands for – “Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart.” Now, Google reCAPTCHA is a special type of CAPTCHA developed by Google and provided as a free service to protect website owners from the abuse of spammers and bots.

Google reCAPTCHA works by providing the visitor with adaptive challenges like a scanned word (or alphanumeric string). It then asks the visitor to interpret the word (or alphanumeric string) and rewrite it in the provided field.

These challenges are super difficult and borderline impossible for bots or AI’s to crack. However, for humans, these challenges can be easily solved (for the most part), giving them access to the website and/or the CAPTCHA-protected content/service.

Likewise, reCAPTCHA is also useful for preventing human spammers by forcing them to retype the CAPTCHA every time they send a message or perform a task. This can drastically reduce your spam count.

How does Google reCAPTCHA v3 work?

Divi works with Google reCAPTCHA v3, and it functions differently from v2, which required the user to clear a challenge. As you can imagine, reCAPTCHA v2 sometimes got a bit intrusive and affected the overall user experience. This is where reCAPTCHA v3 comes into the picture.

Under v3, by default, the user is not required to clear any challenge. Instead, each user gets a score based on their interactions on your website. Based on a satisfactory score that you can set, you can allow visitors access to your website. Likewise, you can prevent access (or offer challenges) for all traffic that fails to attain your set score.

A step-by-step guide on how to use Google reCAPTCHA with Divi

Now, if you are a WordPress user, you would typically need to install a third-party plugin to integrate reCAPTCHA on your website. However, if you have Divi installed, you get the reCAPTCHA feature built-in to protect your site from spammers and bots.

Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to use it.

Step 1: Set up a Divi “Contact Form” module

In this tutorial, we will set up Google reCAPTCHA v3 with Divi. Once enabled, it works site-wide and is not limited to any form or comment section. That being said, to enable it, we will be using the Divi “Contact Form” module.

To do this, create a new page, access it using the Divi Builder, and add the “Contact Form” module. Now, open the “Module Settings,” go to the “Content” tab, and scroll down till you find the “Spam Protection” option.

Set up a Divi Contact Form module

As you can see, “Use Basic Captcha” is enabled by default. This is why you see the “0+10=_” next to the submit button. Disable it and turn on “Use a Spam Protection Service.”

You will now need to select the “Spam Protection Service.” Since only the “reCAPTCHA” option is available, so select that. Next, under the “reCAPTCHA v3 Account,” click the “Add” button. This will make available three new fields where you need to enter the “Account Name,” “Site Key,” and “Secret Key.”

Divi Contact Form Goole reCAPTCHA settings

So let’s get them!

Step 2: Create a Google reCAPTCHA account

To get the necessary details required in the previous fields, we need to create a Google reCAPTCHA account.

Important” Google has recently released a new version – Google reCAPTCHA Enterprise. However, Divi works with reCAPTCHA v3, and so we need to create a reCAPTCHA v3 account.

Now, to create a reCAPTCHA v3 account, visit this link – google.com/recaptcha/admin/create, and fill out the registration form.

Create a Google reCAPTCHA account

For the Label, you can pick any name you like. It’s there to help you identify this reCAPTCHA account. For the sake of this tutorial, we are going to set it as – “testwebsite.”

Next, under the reCAPTCHA type section, select the “reCAPTCHA v3” option, as that’s required by Divi.

Once done, enter the Domain name of the site where you wish to add the Google reCAPTCHA. This registration will be restricted to use in that domain only, plus any subdomains.

All that’s left to do is accept the reCAPTCHA Terms of Service and hit the Submit button.

And that’s it; you have successfully created a new Google reCAPTCHA account.

Step 3: Get your Google reCAPTCHA credentials

After hitting the “submit” button, you will get transferred to this page with your reCAPTCHA credentials.

Get your Google reCAPTCHA credentials

Keep this page open as we’ll need to copy and paste the codes into their respective fields in the Divi Contact Form module.

Step 4: Add the reCAPTCHA credentials into the Divi Contact Form module

Now that you have your reCAPTCHA credentials go back to your website with the Divi Contact Form module.

Now fill in the fields – “Account Name,” “Site Key (v3)”, and “Secret Key (v3)”.

Enter reCAPTCHA details into Divi Contact Form

Copy the “Site Key” and “Secret Key” that you got from the Google reCAPTCHA registration and fill it in this field. And for the “Account Name,” type in the Lable of the Google reCAPTCHA account.

Once done, hit the “SUBMIT” button. And that’s it – you have now successfully set up Google reCAPTCHA on your Divi Contact Form module. Only one more thing left to do.

Step 5: Adjust the Minimum Score

After entering the reCAPTCHA details into the module, if you scroll down, you will find an area to set the “Minimum Score.” This refers to the reCAPTCHA v3 score that goes from 0 to 1, where 1 means very likely a human and 0 means very likely a bot.

You are allowed to select any score in between as the benchmark for what means a “good interaction”. If visitors get a score equal to or greater than what you have set, they will be passed by reCAPTCHA.

Now, by default, the score is set to “0.5.” However, we recommend keeping it around “0.8” to be on the safe side.

Set a minimum Google reCAPTCHA score

One more thing to note is that reCAPTCHA v3 is invisible and doesn’t interrupt user actions. As such, to know whether it is working or not, you can check for the following reCAPTCHA badge on your website:

Google reCAPTCHA badge

And that’s it; you have completed the Google reCAPTCHA set up on your Divi website.

Wrapping up

So this is how you can set up Google reCAPTCHA in Divi. We hope you found this tutorial useful and that it helped you secure your Divi website from spammers and bots.

As you can see, setting up Google reCAPTCHA is super simple and straightforward. However, if you are facing any difficulty, feel free to leave a comment, and we will try our best to help you out asap.