Online Surveys

Topics on this Page

• What Is an Online Survey
• When Should You Conduct an Online Survey?
• How Do You Conduct an Online Survey?

What Is an Online Survey?

An online survey is a structured questionnaire that your target audience completes over the internet. Users typically use web forms to enter data. The data is stored in a database and survey tool generally provides some level of analysis of the data.

When conducting an online survey, you have an opportunity to learn:

• Who your users are
• What your users want to accomplish
• What information your users are looking for

Online surveys can vary in length and format. Unlike traditional surveys, they offer companies a way to collect information from a broad audience for very little cost.

When Should You Conduct an Online Survey?

You can conduct an online survey at any stage of the development process:

• Before a site redesign you learn about current users and what they are trying to accomplish
• After launching a new or revised site, you can learn if your new design meets the needs of users and identify areas for improvement
• Ongoing surveys can allow users to rate or rank the features on your site or provide ideas for future improvements

How Do You Conduct an Online Survey?

First, consider:

• Your purpose
• Where you will find respondents
• The software you will be using
• How you will collect the data

Create your questions once you have determined the software and purpose. You may want to consider collecting:

• If users are able to find the information they seek
• How satisfied users are with your site
• What experiences users have had with your site or similar sites
• What users like and dislike about your site
• What frustrations or issues users  have with your site
• If users would recommend your site to others
• If users have any ideas or suggestions for improvements

Be sure to:

• Keep your surveys as brief as possible
• Provide the participant with an estimate of completion time up front, as well as something that indicates their progress 
• Include a mix of open-ended questions—in which users complete the answer—and closed questions
• Consider asking if a respondent is willing to answer more in-depth questions in a follow-up survey or interview