How to Add a Poll to Your WordPress Blog

One of the countless reasons that contribute to the popularity of WordPress as a blogging platform is its extensive selection of plugins that allow users to enhance the functionality of their websites. There are numerous plugins available for adding surveys to your blog, providing an interactive and enjoyable way for your readers to provide valuable feedback. While a default WordPress installation does not offer this feature by default, it only takes a few minutes to download and install a plugin for creating and publishing on-site surveys. In this guide, we will demonstrate how to use the popular WP-Polls plugin to display surveys on your WordPress blog, although there are several other similar plugins to choose from. Feel free to experiment until you find the one that suits your preferences.

1. Login to your WordPress administrator dashboard and access the “Plugins” section in the sidebar.
2. Navigate to the Plugins page and click on “Add New.” Type “WP Polls” into the search box and click on “Search Plugins.”
   
3. The WP-Polls plugin should appear at the top of the search results. Click on “Install Now” to install it. Confirm by clicking “OK” and activate the plugin once the installation is complete.
4. A new section called “Polls” will appear in the sidebar. Click on this section to manage and add surveys.
   
5. To add a survey, click on “Add Survey” and input the question and possible answers. Click on “Add Option” to include more choices. You can add as many options as you like. Customize the remaining settings according to your preferences, and click on “Add Survey” to save.
   
6. Access the “Appearance” page from the sidebar and select the “Widgets” section.
7. In the left-side column, locate the Polls widget and drag it to the desired widget area in the right-side column. The available widget areas will determine where the surveys will appear on your blog, and the options will vary depending on the WordPress theme you have installed.
   
8. Click on the Polls widget in the right column to customize it. Here, you can enter a headline for the survey and select which survey to display. To show multiple surveys, drag another copy of the widget and choose a different survey from the drop-down menu under “Survey to Display.” Click “Save” to save your changes, and the survey will be live on your website.