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WPBeginner» Blog» Plugins» How to Create an Interactive Poll in WordPress (Step by Step)

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

Last updated on February 28th, 2018 by Editorial Staff
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How to Create an Interactive Poll in WordPress (Step by Step)

Do you want to run an online poll on your WordPress site? Polls are an interactive way to engage your audience, while getting useful information from them. In this article, we will show you how to easily create and add a poll in your WordPress website.

How to create an online poll in WordPress

Which Tool to Choose for Adding a Poll in WordPress?

There are plenty of WordPress plugins and online tools that allow you to embed polls on your WordPress site. Many of them require you to create an account, some store data on their own servers, and others have terrible user experience.

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

With WPForms, you’ll be able to do the following:

  • Create polls in WordPress using a drag and drop form builder
  • Gather poll results on your own websites
  • Show votes count when user submit their vote
  • Display poll anywhere on your website
  • Show poll results anywhere on your website

Having said that, let’s take a look at how to easily create online polls in WordPress using WPForms.

Disclosure: WPForms is created by the same team behind WPBeginner. It is one of our premium WordPress plugins.

Creating Online Polls in WordPress

First thing you need to do is install and activate the WPForms plugin. For more details, see our step by step guide on how to install a WordPress plugin.

WPForms survey and polls addon is part of their Pro plan which you’ll have to purchase. WPBeginner users get an additional 10% off by using the WPForms coupon code: WPB10.

Upon activation, you need to visit the WPForms » Settings page to enter your license key. You can find this information from your WPForms account.

WPForms license key

Next, you need to visit WPForms » Addons page and scroll down to the Surveys and Polls addon. Go ahead and click on the Install addon button. Once installed, you need to click the ‘Activate’ button to start using the addon.

Survey and polls addon

Now you are ready to create an online poll.

You can start by going to WPForms » Add New page to create a new form. This will launch the WPForms’ drag and drop form builder interface.

Create a poll form

First you need to provide a title for your poll form and then click on the Poll Form template.

This will load a pre-made poll form template with example fields already added into the form.

Editing your poll form

You can just point and click to edit any field, rearrange them with drag and drop, or remove them. You can also add new form fields from the left column.

Poll results can be collected and displayed for any of the following field types:

  • Dropdown
  • Checkboxes
  • Multiple Choice

Next, you need to click on the settings button from the left menu and then click on Surveys and Polls tab. Here you can enable or disable poll results.

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

Instead, you can show users a custom message or redirect them to another page or URL. You can configure the confirmation setting by clicking on the ‘Confirmation’ tab.

Select a different confirmation after poll submission

Once you have created the poll form, go ahead and click on the save button to store your form settings. You can now click on the close button to exit the form builder.

Adding The Poll to Your WordPress Website

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

Simply edit the post, page, or post type where you want to add the poll. On the post edit screen, click on the ‘Add Form’ button.

Add form button

This will bring up a popup where you can select the poll form you created earlier and click on the insert form button to continue.

You will now see the form shortcode added into the post editor.

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

Poll in a WordPress blog post

You can also add your poll to a sidebar or widget ready area. To do that, you need to go to Appearance » Widgets page and drag the WPForms widget to a sidebar where you want to display the poll.

Poll widget

In the widget settings, you need to select the poll form you created earlier. You can also provide a title for the widget as well as show form name and description.

Don’t forget to click on the save 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.

Sidebar poll

Viewing Live Poll Results

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

Poll results displayed for everyone

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.

View poll results from admin area

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.

Poll results page

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 had disabled poll results and wanted to share them later.

Here is how to embed poll results in WordPress.

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.

Find your poll ID

In the shortcode, you will find your poll’s ID number. For example, our test poll’s ID is 171 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.

Field ID

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

[wpforms_poll form_id="171" 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, pages, and text widget.

We hope this article helped you create online poll in WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to use contact form to grow your email list in WordPress.

If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.

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About the Editorial Staff

Editorial Staff at WPBeginner is a team of WordPress experts led by Syed Balkhi. Trusted by over 1.3 million readers worldwide.

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12 Comments

Leave a Reply
  1. Detra says:
    Jan 18, 2021 at 12:06 am

    In WPForms is there an option to add an image to each selection of a poll? For instance, I want people to vote on a favorite book and I would like to show the book covers.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jan 19, 2021 at 11:42 am

      You would want to reach out to WPForms directly and they can let you know what options are available :)

      Reply
  2. Tim says:
    Aug 7, 2020 at 3:59 am

    Hello all,

    Looking for the code please, as of right now the article doesn’t show it.

    There is no code showing.

    Will search your YouTube for now.

    Thank you

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 7, 2020 at 10:22 am

      Thank you for letting us know about this, the article should be fixed now :)

      Reply
      • Tim White says:
        Aug 8, 2020 at 8:36 am

        You’re welcome and thank YOU!

        I love WPForms and WP Beginner!

        Stay happy and healthy!

        Reply
  3. Deepak says:
    Jul 27, 2020 at 1:54 pm

    I need to add poll at the end of each of my blog. This poll will also act as QnA to help assess readers evaluate their understanding of the article. How do I do it?
    Please help.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Jul 28, 2020 at 10:16 am

      Depending on what you’re specifically looking for, you would want to take a look at LMS plugins like the ones in our article below:

      https://www.wpbeginner.com/plugins/best-wordpress-lms-plugins-compared/

      Reply
  4. Cathy Novaresi says:
    Aug 8, 2019 at 1:41 pm

    I need to create a poll/ballot where I can insert videos to vote on. Where I can show the videos numbered 1 – 10 for example and then have a drop down check box where they vote for their favorite video. The poll feature on Facebook does not allow specific videos, survey monkey and doodle cannot accommodate my needs. Any help is appreciated!

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      Aug 9, 2019 at 10:12 am

      Unless I hear otherwise we don’t have a recommended setup for what it sounds like you’re wanting sadly but we will be sure to keep an eye out

      Reply
  5. Omaye Daniel says:
    May 5, 2019 at 3:20 pm

    Thank you for sharing this really helpful information. I’ve learnt a lot.

    Reply
    • WPBeginner Support says:
      May 6, 2019 at 1:57 pm

      You’re welcome :)

      Reply
  6. sazia says:
    Feb 28, 2018 at 12:22 pm

    Hi, Great information shared about interactive poll in wordpress. Thanks for sharing this useful information with us.

    Reply

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