When should you make a new version of your survey?

After your survey has been running for a while, you may want to update it. Maybe there are some questions that could be phrased better, or maybe you no longer need a question, or you want to add new questions. This is the time when you need to decide if you should make the changes to your current survey, or if you should create a new version of your survey. Which is better depends on the changes you are planning to make.

What is a survey version?

Before we get to the comparison, you may need an explanation of what a survey version even is. When you create a new survey version, you not only get a copy of the old one, ready to be changed, but all the questions are connected between the versions. That means that when you are looking at your data, you can select a time period that spans both versions and therefore be able to see the data for both versions at once. For example, if you have one version for 2021 and one version for 2022, you can still see your ratings for both 2021 and 2022 in the same chart. We have an article that explain how to navigate survey versions when looking at your data too.

However, sometimes you may change a question too much for the results to be comparable between the versions, and in those instances, you can remove the connection.

Using versions allows for continuous measuring of your KPIs (and other questions) while being able to change the rest of the survey if you need or want to, and you won't have to jump between surveys to follow the development of your KPIs.

When to create a new version

You are always able to edit the current version of a survey, and that includes adding and removing both questions and options, as well as rephrasing. Besides being technically able to, most changes can be done to the current version without causing issues later on. But there are two instances when you want to create a new version instead:

The new version of a question is not comparable to the old.
You want to keep a record of survey updates.

Let's start with number one. If you have made a spelling mistake or feel you need to clarify a question, those changes are totally fine to do without creating a new version. However, if you completely rephrase a question or change the alternatives, you want to create a new version.

The question to ask yourself is "Are the results from these two versions comparable?". If the answer is "Yes", update the current version, and if the answer is "No", create a new version.

Changes you should't make to the current version

Change from single-choice to multiple-choice, or the opposite. This change requires not only a new version, but also, the two versions of the question should not be connected. The differences between results for a single-choice and a multiple-choice (even with exactly the same question and options) is too great, and they are not comparable.
Change the meaning of a question. Say your current survey asks what articles your visitors are interested in during this specific visit, and you then want to change the question to ask what articles they are generally interested in instead. Although the options may be exactly the same, and maybe you only added a word or two, you are asking about something completely different from before and the questions are therefore not comparable.
Change the options. For example, you may have updated the structure of your website and have new headings the the main menu. The survey should be updated to reflect this change, but as the options are different, the results are not comparable. (Note, if you've just changed the name of a heading, that change is fine within the same version, as the respondents would have given the same answer before the change.)

Using versions to keep record of updates

When in doubt, create a new version. Apart from being able to decide which questions should be connected, one benefit of creating a new version is that you will remember when you updated the survey, and you will be able to compare the previous version to the current (if you forgot which changes you made).

A tip is to also name the versions after when they were active, such as "General survey Sep 2021 - May 2022" and "General survey May 2022 - ongoing". That way, you can easily find the right one depending on the time period you are interested in.

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