If you need to direct survey respondents to an external website for additional information but don't want them to actually exit your survey you can do this easily with a little HTML.
- Click Add New Text / Media on any page where you'd like to add the link/button. (You can also add it as part of your question title if you'd prefer.)
- Select Text / Media.
- Enter the text for your link and any other instructions you wish to include with the link.
- Highlight the text you want to be clickable and click the Full Mode button on the editor toolbar. Not seeing this option? The editor might be turned off in your account. Learn how to Turn the HTML Editor Back On.
- Click the Link button on the editor toolbar.
- In the link editor place the URL to the website you would like to link to in the URL field.
- On the Target tab of the link editor select New Window (_blank) from the dropdown. This will open the document in a new tab or window (depending on the respondent's browser settings) and will prevent them from navigating away from the survey unexpectedly.
- Click OK and Save.
- Test out your link to ensure it is working.
This example will NOT create a pop-up automatically on your website when a visitor arrives or navigates away from the page. If you're looking for that functionality you can use our Website Popup share option.
If you are looking for a method to link to an a document within your survey, visit our tutorial on Creating a Hyperlink to a Document.
Building a Link Using HTML
There are a couple of places within SurveyGizmo where you might want to put a hyperlink where the editor that makes it really easy is not available e.g., answer options. This does not mean that you cannot create a link! It just means you'll need to use some HTML code to do so. We'll walk you through the steps below; it's not scary, we promise!
We recommend constructing your link in a plain-text editor. Then, you can paste it where you want it within SurveyGizmo.
- Start by pasting the URL you wish to link to in your plain-text editor.
- Next, put quotes around your link followed by open and closing carets.
- Inside your opening caret add: a href=
- After the closing caret add the closing a tag: </a>
- Inside the first closing caret and second open caret, enter what you wish your link to read. For example, "Click here." You can also just place the URL here again; this will display the URL as clickable.
- If you wish to have this link open in a new tab so the survey respondent doesn't navigate away from your survey you'll need to add an attribute to follow your link. This will look like so:
- Now you can take this link that you constructed and place it where you'd like in SurveyGizmo, such as answer options.
Admin
— Bri Hillmer on 02/10/2016
@Drrumsey: That is something that would be best tracked within the external website code using something like Google Analytics.
Bri
Documentation Coordinator/Survey Sorceress
SurveyGizmo Customer Support
— Drrumsey on 02/10/2016
If you have a link to an external website in your survey, is it possible to track whether or not that link has been clicked for a given survey respondent?
Admin
— Bri Hillmer on 08/03/2015
@Casiopusat: Thanks for taking a look at our documentation! Here is the tutorial that covers how to get an embed code to embed a survey on your website:
http://help.surveygizmo.com/help/article/link/embed-a-survey-on-your-website
Bri
Documentation Coordinator/Survey Sorceress
SurveyGizmo Customer Support
— Casiopusat on 08/01/2015
i am just a beginner blogger. i read your article and i just to understanding. how the effect code into my blog casio pusat http://casiopusat.blogspot.com/. thank you sir
Admin
— Bri Hillmer on 07/02/2015
@Lisa: Thanks for taking a look at our documentation! Sometimes the HTML editor toolbar gets turned off at the account level. This article walks you though turning it back on:
http://help.surveygizmo.com/help/article/link/turn-off-html-editor
I've also updated the article with a tip regarding this; my apologies for the confusion!
Bri
Documentation Coordinator/Survey Sorceress
SurveyGizmo Customer Support
— Lisa on 07/02/2015
I'm not seeing a tool bar in the text or instructions box. I can't get to the next step of selecting "full mode".
Admin
— Dave Domagalski on 05/20/2015
@Kelly: Thank you for taking a look at our documentation and for your comments! You bring up a very good point as clicking on an external link from a mobile device does behave quite differently than doing this on a computer. On mobile devices, even when the link opens in a new window, it may not always be obvious to the user that the original site is still open in another tab on their mobile browser.
I will be opening a ticket with you as I would like to get the specifics of your situation. You'll receive an email shortly!
David Domagalski
Survey Explorer
SurveyGizmo Customer Support
— Kelly on 05/19/2015
We had problems on a survey because on at least some mobile devices, there is no "opening in new window." It just takes them to the link, and kicks them out of the survey.