As a research and fieldwork option, surveying via the internet offers some key advantages:

• Email surveying can allow for large numbers of respondents to be quickly interviewed.
• Geographical location is not a barrier (although this can sometimes mean having to produce questionnaires in non-English languages).
• Response rates are still, on average, higher than for some other methods, although the high rates originally recorded due to the novelty factor have faded, especially in the face of spam and over-surveying.
• Significant cost savings can sometime be made, especially if the best alternative methodology is an expensive one, e.g. in-home, face-to-face interviewing.  However, when the costs of questionnaire programming are accounted for, interviewing a small sample by telephone may still sometimes be cheaper than the online option.

The best approach will always be based upon a combination of factors – time, questionnaire complexity, sample profile, and budget.

The methods available for online research vary, and can involve the following

Online questionnaires – emailed

This approach involves emailing a hyperlink to a database of respondents, accompanied with a carefully-written introduction to the survey and a request to participate.  As this approach requires respondents’ email addresses, it is most commonly used for surveying customers, staff, or subscribers.  If carefully done, it can also be used for surveying non-customers, if they already have some form of relationship with the client (e.g. if they have provided their email addresses for an online newsletter).

Online questionnaires – ‘pop-up windows’

This approach is ideal if you wish to survey anyone interacting with your website – customers or otherwise (note that the subject of the survey need not be wholly concerned with the website itself). A good ‘pop-up’ questionnaire will be presented to users at random, usually when leaving the website or a specific area within the site.  Steps should also be taken to ensure that frequent visitors to the website will not be asked to participate too often.

Key issues with online surveying

Online questionnaires must be as interactive and ‘intelligent’ as standard websites, if they are not to dissuade respondents. They must also be relatively short, and easily and enjoyably usable by the most novice users, to ensure good response rates and sample representativeness.  Honesty is also crucial, given the suspicion with which many view the web.  This means being open about whom the survey is for, what it will be used for, and how long it will take. Researchers with good online research experience will be able to anticipate and manage a number of other subtle issues.