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Are you looking to learn more about your website visitors? If so, Google has your back. Google Docs is an excellent free online tool that allows you to create forms (surveys) for the purpose of capturing data from your online community. Google Docs allows you to create very professional looking forms, with over 60 different themes to choose from. You can customize the questions you want to ask and the answer choices you want visitors to choose from. Once the form is setup you can easily embed the form in your website or e-mail it out to a list. Feedback is captured automatically and reports can be charted and graphed for accurate analysis. Sound good so far? Let’s dig into how the process works.
All you need to access Google Docs is a Gmail account. You can setup a Gmail account by going to Gmail.com, filling in the required information, and confirming the new account. It’s a very easy process. Once you have a Gmail account setup you can simply navigate to docs.google.com to get started creating your form.
When you’re ready to create a form using Google Docs you can click ‘Create New’ which will display a drop-down menu, whereby you can then select ‘Form’. A new window will open and you can begin creating your form. Within the form template you’re able to:
Once you’ve created your first question you can either duplicate it or create totally new questions. Continue the process above until you have completed your new form. To review your form simply click ‘Save’ in the upper right corner then scroll to the bottom of the page and you will see text that says, ‘You can view the published form here’. Click the link provided next to that text to view your current form.
Google Forms allows you to solicit responses for your form in 2 ways: via e-mail and by embedding the form within your website or blog. To e-mail your form simply:
To embed your form in your website you can:
Reviewing Form ResponsesGoogle Forms allows you to easily review all of your responses both via charts and graphs, as well as, in a spreadsheet. These options allow for you to easily create reports and see how what answer choices are most and least popular. The spreadsheet function allows you to break your responses down to a more granular level, while also displaying any text responses that you may have collected. Once the data has been captured and analyzed you can then begin making strategic business decisions based on the information you’ve received.
Google Forms is a really great tool for capturing feedback from your target audience. It’s free to use, easy to setup, and provides wonderful reports for easy analysis. The next time you’re thinking about paying big bucks for a fancy survey tool, be sure to first checkout if Google Forms can help you accomplish your survey goals.
If you’re anti-Google, don’t have a Gmail account (and don’t feel like setting one up), OR are simply looking to compare Google Forms to other free survey tools out there, below is a list of other great online survey tools on the market:
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Ryan Taft is a twenty-something entrepreneur with a passion for helping small businesses use online marketing tools to reach more customers and prospects, build relationships with those folks, and ultimately grow sales.
Saturday, January 21st, 2012 14:00
I think here is missing polldaddy, great service which allows you to create up to 5 quizzes, surveys, polls or ratings with 200 responses for each with free membership. Polldaddy allows you to customize templates and create language packs – important for international users.
Friday, October 14th, 2011 15:03
Great intro article and thank you for the list of other survey services. The list is bookmarked.
Sunday, September 25th, 2011 01:25
The problem I have here is that once the form is created and embedded – to go back and edit the form (for whatever reason) Google docs wants to open it as a spreadsheet, rather than a form?
Any ideas, here???
Saturday, September 24th, 2011 22:41
Hi,
Thanks for this great article. I’m trying to figure out how to customize the template so I can resize it for my blog – suggestions?
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Debbie
Saturday, September 24th, 2011 22:41
Hi,
Thanks for this great article. I’m trying to figure out how to customize the template so I can resize it for my blog – suggestions?
Paul
Sunday, September 25th, 2011 01:25
The problem I have here is that once the form is created and embedded – to go back and edit the form (for whatever reason) Google docs wants to open it as a spreadsheet, rather than a form?
Any ideas, here???
Jan Kasal
Friday, October 14th, 2011 15:03
Great intro article and thank you for the list of other survey services. The list is bookmarked.
Bojan Živković
Saturday, January 21st, 2012 14:00
I think here is missing polldaddy, great service which allows you to create up to 5 quizzes, surveys, polls or ratings with 200 responses for each with free membership. Polldaddy allows you to customize templates and create language packs – important for international users.
Bojan Živković
Saturday, January 21st, 2012 14:00
Polldaddy link http://polldaddy.com/