How to Create an Online Survey with SurveyMonkey

Online surveys make it pretty easy to gather feedback, opinions, and data from people. Whether you’re a student, a business owner, or just working on a project, surveys give you useful info to help you make smart choices.

SurveyMonkey is one of the most popular tools out there for building surveys. You can set one up fast, pick from a bunch of templates or start from scratch, add any question style you want, and share your survey by link, email, or even embed it on a website. Then, you get the results all in one spot, ready to analyze.

Basically, the process looks like this: Create → Customize → Share → Analyze

Getting started is simple. SurveyMonkey says you can just type your first question and keep building from there.

Before You Start (Very Important and Sometimes Overlooked)

Before opening the tool, take 2-3 minutes to think about:

• What do you wish to know?
• Who will respond to the survey?
• What is the number of questions you require?

SurveyMonkey itself suggests that to make the results useful, you should define what you want to achieve and who you are targeting first.

Example:

• Purpose: Customer commentary on a website.
• Audience: Existing users
• Questions: 8–10

This will prevent confusion in the future.

Identify Your Target Audience Clearly

You must be very clear regarding the people to answer your survey before moving ahead. This immediately influences the way you are going to write your questions, the language you are going to use and even the length of your survey.

Consider it in the following manner – a customer survey will appear quite different compared to any survey targeted at employees or business partners.

Start by defining:

• Age group (where applicable)
• Type of users (new users, existing users, internal team, etc.)
• Technical or non-technical level of knowledge.

As an illustration, when dealing with general users as your audience, do not use technical terms. Make the questions plain and straightforward. However, when your audience is internal employees, you can incorporate more process-specific and process-related questions.

Also take into consideration how your audience will be able to access the survey:

• Mobile users → Be brief with questions.
• Desktop users → Questions that are somewhat longer are acceptable.

Another important point is attention span. The majority of the population does not like long surveys. When your audience is in a hurry (such as professionals), make it not more than 35 minutes.

Simply put, you have a clear definition of your audience and your survey is also easier to complete. And when it is easy to respond, you receive better and more correct answers.

Choose the Type and Structure of Your Survey

After knowing what you want to achieve and who you are targeting, the next thing is to determine what type of survey you are developing and how the survey should be designed.

Surveys are not a series of random questions. They must be logically sequenced to ensure that the users do not get lost or overwhelmed.

Begin by determining the kind of survey:

• Customer or product survey (feedback)
• Research survey (user or market behavior)
• Internal survey (employee or process feedback)

The structure of each type is different.

An effective survey tends to take the following course:

• Introduction – Brief text on purpose.
• Simple questions – Simple questions to make the users relaxed.
• Main questions -Key questions about your purpose.
• Open-ended feedback or suggestions – optional questions.

Do not switch to irrelevant issues. As an illustration, do not confuse product feedback with pricing questions randomly. Bring together similar questions in groups.

Pre-determine the number of questions as well. A good range is:

• Quick survey questions 5-10.
• 10-20 questions to provide extensive feedback.

Remember – shorter surveys tend to receive higher response rates.

Your survey becomes smooth and natural when you plan the structure. It is more likely to be filled in by the users and your data becomes more accurate.

Step-by-step Guide

1. Create or Log in to Your Account

What to do:
Go to www.surveymonkey.com
Click Sign Up Free (or Log In in case you already have an account)
Choose:

• Email signup
• Google
• Microsoft
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• Apple
• SSO

Complete registration

Note:
Free plan has certain restrictions (such as the quantity of questions and answers), though it is sufficient to conduct simple surveys.

2. Begin to make a new survey

Once logged in:
Click on your dashboard.
Click on Create Survey (normally on the top right).

Now you will have choices such as:

• Start from scratch
• Use a template
• Allow AI to create a survey.

SurveyMonkey gives you several entry options based on your comfort level.

Which one should you select?

• Beginner: Use template
• Intermediate: Start with nothing.
• Quick strategy: AI (auto-generated draft)

3. Select the way you would like to create your Survey

It is here that you choose your strategy.

Start from Scratch

You do everything yourself.

Select a Template

SurveyMonkey provides ready-made templates (customer feedback, event feedback, etc.).
The advantage of using templates is that they have questions that are written by experts.

AI Builder

You say what you want to accomplish and that raises questions.

Example input:
Design a customer satisfaction questionnaire of an e-commerce shop.

4. Name Your Survey

Once you have chosen your method:
Type in a survey title.

Make it clear and simple.

Example:
“Customer Feedback Survey March 2026”.

This assists you and respondents to know the purpose.

5. Add Questions to Your Survey

It is the most significant step.

Click “Add Question”

You will find various types of questions such as:

• Multiple choice
• Rating scale
• Open-ended (text)
• Dropdown
• Yes/No

SurveyMonkey is compatible with numerous formats based on your requirement.

Keep questions simple

Bad question:
To what degree are you satisfied with the overall usability and performance of our platform?

Better:
What is your level of satisfaction with our platform?

Best practices:
A single question = a single idea.
Avoid confusing wording
Make answer options clear.

Wrong data can be brought about by poor question design.

6. Customize Answer Options

For each question:

• Add answer choices
• Move them about where necessary.
• Include Other options where necessary.

Example:
Question: How did you hear of us?
Google
Social media
Friend
Other

Make sure:
Options don’t overlap
Every possible answer is discussed.

7. Customize Survey Design

Now make your survey presentable.

You can:

• Add logo
• Change colors
• Adjust theme

SurveyMonkey enables branding to your company style.

Keep it simple:
Do not use too many colors.
Make text legible.

8. Preview Your Survey

Before sending, always preview.

Click: Preview

Check:

• Are questions clear?
• Any spelling mistakes?
• Is flow sensible?

SurveyMonkey also provides recommendations on how to make your survey better.

9. Test the Survey

This is an omitted step, yet it should not be.

Do a test run:
Complete the survey personally.
Share with 1–2 people

Check:

• Time taken
• Confusing questions
• Missing options

10. Establish Response Collection

Now click:
Collect Responses

You will find such options as:

• Web link
• Email invitation
• Embed on website

SurveyMonkey offers various methods of distribution of surveys.

Most common:
Share a link

12. Share Your Survey

Now you’re ready.

Options:

• Share and forward using WhatsApp/email.
• Post on social media.
• Embed on website

Make sure:
Your objective corresponds to your audience.
You send it at the opportune moment.

13. Monitor Responses

After sharing:

Go to:
Analyze Results

You can see:

• Number of responses
• Charts and graphs
• Individual answers

SurveyMonkey automatically tabulates the responses into visual reports.

14. Interpret and Operate the Data

This is where the real value comes.

Look for:

• Trends
• Common feedback
• Problem areas

Example:
When 70 percent of users complain about a slow site, then there is a definite course of action.

Surveys are practical when you act upon the findings.

15. Export Results (Optional)

Export data to:

• Excel
• CSV

This assists in further examination.

(Note: Certain export options are paid plans only.)

Mistakes to be avoided

Keep this in mind:

• Too many questions = Individuals lose out when the survey is lengthy.
• Confusing wording = Plain language is effective.
• No clear goal = Leads to useless data.
• Ignoring testing = Test before posting.

Make Data Quality and Clean Responses

When you begin to get responses, do not think that you have all the useful data. You should also hasten to verify whether the responses are clean, complete and reliable.

Start by reviewing:

• Incomplete responses
• Duplicate entries
• Random or meaningless responses.

To illustrate, when a person chooses the same answer to all the questions without reading, such an answer might not be helpful. SurveyMonkey can be used to filter and view individual responses and this assists in identifying such cases.

Check response patterns also:

• Do people leave some questions out?
• Do other questions get misinterpreted?

When a large number of the users miss or provide wrong answers, it is a clear indication that the question is not clear.

Another important point is response consistency. To illustrate, when a user claims to be very satisfied and then states that he or she has serious issues, such a contradiction should be addressed.

You can clean your data by:

• Removing incomplete responses
• Ignoring irrelevant answers
• Grouping similar responses

Good decisions are based on good data. Poor data leads to confusion. So take time to prove your answers and then leap into conclusions.

Enhance Future Survey on the basis of the learning

The initial survey you do is not often perfect. The true worth is when you get to learn and do better the next one.

Once you have finished your survey, give yourself a moment to look over:

• What questions were effective?
• Which questions were skipped or misunderstood
• The time it took people to do it.

When you realize that a lot of users stopped in the middle of the survey, your survey is probably too long or confusing. In case the answers to open-ended questions are very short, users might not be involved.

And also examine feedback patterns:

• Do users make the same complaint?
• Do some of the questions not furnish useful information?

According to this, perfect your strategy:

• Simplify complex questions
• Reduce unnecessary questions
• Improve answer options

You can also save your survey as a template in SurveyMonkey. This is useful in reusing a superior version the next time as opposed to creating one.

As time goes by, your questionnaires will be clearer, shorter and more efficient. It translates into increased response rates and insights.

Final Thoughts

SurveyMonkey allows one to create a survey easily. The site is designed in such a manner that a first time user can start using it without much struggle. However, most people are challenged in developing a useful survey.

The tool will assist you with buttons, templates and options. It cannot think clearly about your goal, that is all up to you.

A good survey is one that is:

• Concentrated on a single goal.
• Brief and not lengthy.
• Written in straightforward, direct language.
• Organized in a rational sequence.

When you attempt to request too many things in a survey, they will either walk out in the middle of it or will provide haphazard responses. That compromises the quality of your data.

Also, never forget responses are not worth anything unless you do something about them. The reason why many of the surveys are not used is not that they are poorly made, but that the results were never utilized in the proper way.

Find time to analyze reactions, see trends and translate them into action. Even a minor observation, such as a recurring complaint or suggestion may result in significant changes.

With time, you will automatically improve at:

• Framing questions
• Structuring surveys
• Interpreting results

Perfection is not required in the first attempt. Begin with the simple and learn and get better with every survey.

When done correctly, surveys can be a potent means of knowing users, justifying decisions, and minimizing guesses.

About the Author

Anna Malik – digital nomad, enthusiast of everything online and in the cloud, productivity maniac. She travels around the world reviewing web applications and other resources for Web People for our blog.