How to Create an Interactive Poll in WordPress (Step by Step)

“What does our audience really want?” That’s the question we kept asking ourselves when we started WPBeginner. After trying different feedback methods, we finally found the answer in interactive polls. They completely changed how we understood our readers’ needs.

To figure out the most effective ways to engage visitors, we spent countless hours testing different WordPress polling tools. From free plugins to premium options.

What we learned is that the right polling strategy can completely transform how you connect with your audience. Plus, it helps you make smarter content decisions.

In this step-by-step guide, we’ll show you exactly how to create an interactive poll that your visitors will love to participate in. No complex coding required – just practical, proven methods that work for any WordPress website. 🙌

Why Add an Interactive Poll to Your WordPress Site?

Adding interactive polls to your website is a great way to engage users, as they instantly grab their attention. You can generate leads using polls and collect valuable feedback from your audience at the same time.

While there are many tools available, some require you to create an external account, store your data on their servers, or have a confusing user interface.

If you are looking for a good user experience with full control of poll data, then you’ll need WPForms. It is the best WordPress form builder plugin and includes a powerful surveys and polls addon.

With WPForms, you’ll be able to get the following features and benefits:

At WPBeginner, we use WPForms for our contact form, to run our annual reader surveys, and to manage site migration requests.

To learn more about the plugin, see our complete WPForms review.

With that said, let’s look at how to easily create online polls in WordPress using WPForms. Here’s a quick overview of all the steps we’ll cover in this guide:

Creating Online Polls in WordPress

The first thing you need to do is set up WPForms in your WordPress site.

You will need the WPForms Pro plan because it includes the survey and polls addon. WPBeginner users get an additional discount by using the WPForms coupon code.

There is also a WPForms Lite version you can try for free, but it does not include the polling features we’ll be using in this guide.

To create an account, you can go to the WPForms website and click ‘Get WPForms Now.’

On the next screen, you can choose a plan and follow the on-screen instructions to complete checkout.

With that done, you’ll see your WPForms dashboard. Go ahead and copy your license key – you’ll need this to unlock all the Pro features during plugin installation in WordPress.

With that done, you can install and activate the WPForms plugin. Let’s head over to Plugins » Add New Plugin in your WordPress dashboard.

Then, you can use the search bar to quickly find the WPForms plugin.

In the search result, click the ‘Install Now’ button and then ‘Activate’ when it appears.

After that, you can visit the WPForms » Settings page to enter your license key.

Then, simply click ‘Verify Key’ to upgrade the free WPForms version.

Once verified, let’s navigate to the WPForms » Addons page and scroll down to the Surveys and Polls addon.

Go ahead and click on the ‘Install Addon’ button.

Now, you are ready to create an online poll.

You can start by going to WPForms » Add New page to create a new form. Here, you have two great ways to create your poll. You can either use WPForms’ AI form builder to generate one from a text description, or you can choose from over 2,000 pre-built templates.

We’ll look at the AI option first. To begin, simply click the ‘Generate with AI’ option.

After that, you will need to enter a prompt for the AI form builder to create a poll.

You can start by describing the type of form you want, what it is for, which type of form fields it should include, and more.

You can press the Enter or Return key after adding the prompt.

WPForms AI form builder will then create a form for you. You can see a preview alongside the prompt. To modify or edit the form template further, simply give more instructions to the AI builder.

When you’re happy with the poll created by the AI forms, simply click the ‘Use This Form’ button in the prompt’s column.

On the other hand, you can also select from 2,000+ prebuilt templates offered by WPForms.

Go ahead and provide a title for your poll form. Then, select the ‘Poll Form’ template.

This will launch the WPForms drag-and-drop form builder interface.

You will see a pre-made poll form template with example fields already added to the form.

There are options to add new form fields from the left column. All you have to do is drag and drop the field you’d like to add to the form.

Besides that, you can just point and click to edit any field, rearrange them, or remove them.

For example, if you click the poll question in the template, then you will see more options in the menu on your left. Simply rearrange the order and edit their titles, labels, and more.

Next, you need to click on the ‘Settings’ button from the left menu and then go to the ‘Surveys and Polls’ tab.

Here, you can enable or disable the poll results option.

By default, the WPForms poll template will display poll results to users after they submit their votes. If you disable this option, users will not see the poll results.

On the other hand, you can show users a custom message or redirect them to another page or URL.

To do this, you can go to the ‘Confirmation’ tab and choose your preferred ‘Confirmation Type’ from the dropdown menu.

Once you have created the poll form, go ahead and click on the ‘Save’ button to store your form settings.

Adding The Poll to Your WordPress Website

WPForms makes it easy to add your online poll anywhere on your website, including posts, pages, custom post types, and sidebar widgets.

You can click the ‘Embed’ button in the form builder to add your poll form.

Once you do that, a new popup window will open, where you can select an existing page or create a new one to embed your form.

Let’s select the ‘Create New Page’ button for this tutorial.

You’ll then need to enter a name for your page and click the ‘Let’s Go’ button.

You should now see your poll form embedded in the WordPress content editor.

Another way of adding your form is by using the WPForms block. Simply click the ‘+’ button to add the WPForms and select your form from the dropdown menu.

Next, you’ll see a preview of your form.

You can save or publish your post/page and visit your website to see your poll in action.

You can also add your poll to a sidebar or a widget-ready area.

To do that, you need to go to the Appearance » Widgets page and add the WPForms widget block to a sidebar where you want to display the poll.

In the WPForms widget block, you need to select the poll form you created earlier.

Don’t forget to click the ‘Update’ button to store your widget settings. You can now visit your website to see your online poll displayed in a sidebar or another widget-ready area.

Viewing Live Poll Results

If you have enabled poll results, then your users will see the results after submitting their votes.

You can also view poll results at any time without submitting a vote.

Simply visit WPForms » All Forms page and click on the ‘Survey Results’ link below your poll form.

This will take you to the poll results page, where you will see poll responses in an interactive chart.

You can change the charge type and export the results in JPEG, PDF, and print formats.

Embed Poll Results Anywhere in WordPress

WPForms also allows you to easily embed your online poll results anywhere on your website. This is particularly useful if you have disabled poll results and want to share them later.

First, you will need to find out your poll form’s ID. You can do this by going to WPForms » All Forms page and looking for the shortcode next to your poll form.

In the shortcode, you will find your poll’s ID number. For example, our test poll’s ID is 76, as shown in the screenshot above.

Next, you need to find out the field ID. This is the field in your form for which you want to show the results.

Simply edit your poll form and click on the poll field. You will find the field ID in the left column.

Now that you have both required IDs, you can go ahead and add the poll results shortcode like this:

[wpforms_poll form_id="76" field_id="1" label="true" counts="true"]

Don’t forget to replace the form ID and field ID values with your own. You can use this shortcode in WordPress posts or pages, as well as text widgets.

Here’s a preview of what your poll results will look like:

Bonus: Add a Polling Widget with UserFeedback

While WPForms is perfect for embedding polls directly into your content, sometimes you might want a quick way to get feedback with a popup widget that appears across your site. For that, UserFeedback is an excellent tool.

UserFeedback is one of the best WordPress poll plugins for easily collecting feedback from your website visitors in real time. You can create unlimited popup polls and receive unlimited responses, which will give you valuable insights on how to grow your business.

We used UserFeedback to run interactive surveys and quickly learn what our web design customers were looking for. It was easy to use and delivered clear, actionable results.

See our comprehensive UserFeedback review for a closer look at its features and performance.

The pro version of UserFeedback comes with powerful features like page-level targeting, custom branding, premium templates, and more. There’s also a free version of UserFeedback that has everything you need to create polling widgets.

For more details, check out this tutorial on how to easily add a feedback form in WordPress.

FAQs: Create an Interactive Poll in WordPress

What is the best free poll plugin for WordPress?

WPForms Lite is the best free form builder, and while it doesn’t have advanced polling, you can create a basic poll using its multiple-choice fields. For dedicated feedback widgets, UserFeedback Lite is a great choice.

Can I see who voted in a WordPress poll?

By default, polls are anonymous to encourage participation. If you need to identify voters, add a ‘Name’ or ‘Email’ field to your WPForms poll form and make it required.

How do polls help increase user engagement?

Polls give your audience an easy way to interact with your content and share their opinion. This makes them feel more involved, which can lead to more site engagement and a stronger community.

Additional Resources: Using Forms in WordPress

We hope this article helped you create an interactive poll in WordPress. Next, you may also want to see our other helpful guides on:

• Ultimate Guide to Using WordPress Forms
• How to Create WordPress Forms with Dropdown Fields
• How to Add Autocomplete for Address Fields in WordPress
• Ways to Use Conditional Logic in WordPress Forms
• Best Typeform Alternatives (Free + Paid)

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