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Overview
An online poll installed on your website can be an excellent way to ascertain the views and needs of your visitors. Such polls can help target any future content development on your site to assist you in meeting the needs of your website's audience. Many visitors may also enjoy taking part in polls as a way to interact with your web page and share their opinions. Learn how to build polls for a website to maximize communication between your site and your visitors. -
Introduction
Step 1
Decide whether you wish to have a third party host your poll, or if you wish to build and install the poll on your own server. The latter requires your web server to support the PHP and MySQL web-based technologies, but gives you more control over the operation of the poll. The former is easier to install but requires you to depend on an outside company. If you are unsure of whether or not your web server supports PHP and MySQL, contact the customer service center at your web host. Alternatively, login to your hosting account to check what features are included in your hosting plan.
Step 2
Choose the questions that you wish to ask on the poll that you build. Online polls on a website may be structured in a variety of manners. The most direct method is a simple "Yes" and "No" poll which gives viewers the option to choose an affirmative or negative answer to a short question. Alternatively, you can research your website visitors' needs at a more in-depth level using a multiple-question or multiple-answer poll. Such a poll gives readers more flexibility in answering your poll question.
Step 3
Identify where you would like to place your poll on your website. Choose a high visibility area on your website in order to encourage the maximum amount of individuals to vote. The more votes you get, the better your polling results can help you in finding the needs of your visitors. The eyes of a reader will naturally start at the top left-hand corner of the screen and move in a clockwise position. Placing the poll in the top half of your web page may ensure that the largest amount of visitors will see it.
Installing a Poll on Your Own Server
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Step 1
Create a new MySQL database if you wish to host your poll on your own server. Login to your webhost account and navigate to your MySQL options. Click "New Database" and name it "poll" or another equally identifiable title. Wait for your server to complete the initialization process for the MySQL database. Depending on your host, this may take anywhere from a few minutes to several hours. -
Step 2
Download a PHP poll script. PHP is a scripting technology that accesses and utilizes the MySQL database you created in Step 2 to build a user-accessible polling survey. Free poll codes can be downloaded from various scripting websites, most notably Hot Scripts (link in the Resources section). -
Step 3
Double-click the downloaded file and extract the script files. Open the "Read Me" or "Install" file and follow the developer's instructions to sync the script with your MySQL database and upload the PHP script to your server using an FTP program. -
Step 4
Navigate to the poll page to setup your polling preferences and begin building your first website poll. Once it is setup, your poll script will give you a unique web address at which viewers can access the poll. You may also embed the poll into an already existing website using the PHP code that the scripting page gives you. At this stage, you may enter your poll question and provide the potential answers that visitors may choose.
Building a Poll Using a Third-Party Server
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Step 1
Choose a third-party company to host your poll. The advantage is that the outside company handles all traffic to your poll, reducing the load on your own web server. Most individuals may wish to choose a polling company that provides free polls. One of the largest third-party providers of website polls is Micropoll (link in the Resources section). -
Step 2
Enter your poll question and poll answers from which the voter can choose. On the bottom of the form, type your email address. Click "Create My Poll." -
Step 3
Click "Edit Poll." Highlight the "Embed Code" script at the top of the page and copy it into the HTML of your website. Save the updated web page and upload to your web server using your FTP client. The poll you've built will now be displayed on your website. -
Step 4
Encourage your visitors to click the poll and vote. You may consider offering incentives for viewers to vote, such as offering a contest or drawing.
- Skill: Moderate
- Ingredients:
- FTP software (optional)
- Tip: Offer an incentive or contest to encourage visitors to vote on your website's poll.
