Finding out what your users think about your content (or what they want from your website) can be a challenge. Analytics tools can provide you with most of the metrics you need, but sometimes numbers alone aren’t enough to figure out the problem. You could, however, ask your audience directly if you set up a WordPress poll.
The benefits of setting up a poll on your WordPress website 📝
An online poll poses a question to an audience, and provides them with enough options to give you a relevant response for your research. Through a poll, you get to know your audience better and create consumer profiles based on the answers that you receive. Depending on the question, you might need more than a simple “Yes” or “No”, for example:
While a simple “Yes” or “No” might suffice in that case, adding more options can provide you with more accurate results. The same applies to all online polls in general. If you make a point of asking the questions your audience cares about (and provide them with a decent set of options), they’ll reward you with some excellent data.
Once in your hands, you can use the gathered survey results to tailor your content to your visitors’ interests. That way, you can turn a simple WordPress online poll into a long-term engagement boost.
In general terms, there are several types of polls, ranging from the simplest (‘Yes/No’) to those that pose several questions successively (i.e. surveys). For this article, we’ll be dealing only with basic multi-option online polls, and how to set them up using a WordPress poll plugin.
How to set up a WordPress poll in 3 steps 📊
In this guide, we’ll show you how to set up a WordPress poll in just three simple steps using the YOP Poll plugin. It’s lightweight, beginner-friendly, and gives you everything you need to create, publish, and track polls in minutes. Let’s get started.
- Step #1: Install and activate YOP Poll
- Step #2: Set up a WordPress poll
- Step #3: Insert your WordPress poll
Step #1: Install and activate YOP Poll
We’re sure you’re familiar with this process, but just in case, feel free to check out this guide to installing and activating WordPress plugins.
When you’re done, you’ll notice a new Yop Poll item in your WordPress dashboard – and it’s here you’ll need to be for the next step.
Step #2: Set up a WordPress poll
Click on the Add New option under Yop Poll, and type a title for your poll at the top of the page:
Next, click on the Question & Answers tab. Since we’re setting up a simple poll, all we need is the one question. Go ahead and type your question in the corresponding field:
Now type your answers in the fields underneath.
To add more answers, click on the duplicate icon that shows up when you hover over each answer block. Every time you click on this icon, you create an answer duplicate, which you can edit afterward.
When you’re ready, click on Design tab at the top of the page to select the poll’s template. After selecting the template, choose from the list of the predefined styles that the plugin offers.
Choose one that fits well with your WordPress theme, and click Publish.
Step #3: Insert your WordPress poll
After configuring and choosing a style for your WordPress poll, you have two options. Firstly, you can add it to your site using a shortcode. You’ll find it in the All Polls list under the Shortcode column, and it uses this format: [yop_poll id="X"].
Alternatively, navigate to Appearance > Widgets in your WordPress dashboard. In modern WordPress versions, this screen uses the block-based widgets editor, so the YOP Poll widget appears as a Legacy Widget instead of in the old drag-and-drop widget screen.
If you’re using the block editor, go to the location where you want to display the poll and add a Shortcode block. Then paste your shortcode (for example, [yop_poll id="X"]) to display the poll on your site.
Once you click Update, you’ll see the poll displayed on your website. That’s all there is to it!
Conclusion 🏁
Connecting with your users and determining what they want from your site is not a simple process, but it can be done. We’re not recommending that you eschew analytics tools per se, just consider whether in some cases, a plain old poll can be the better option.
Do you have any questions about how to set up a WordPress poll? Share them with us in the comments section below!
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