Choose questions that change what you recommend
You'll choose what to ask by starting with the pages you want visitors to find. Ask a follow-up only when it changes where someone ends up.
The right question helps you send someone to a page, resource, or offer that fits them. Start with what you'd like to recommend, then ask only for the information you need to make that choice.
Start with your pages
Look through your own website and pick the pages you'd most like visitors to find. Write down who each page is for. The differences between those people tell you what to ask.
For example, WorkForge (opens in a new tab) has pages for agencies (opens in a new tab), consultants (opens in a new tab), and software teams (opens in a new tab). Asking "What kind of work are you managing?" separates software work from client projects. Only visitors who choose client projects need a follow-up about whether they work alone or with an agency team.
A visitor's main problem often tells you more about the help they need than their industry or job title. But if a page is only useful to a particular industry, ask about that first. There's no required question order. Start with the question that separates your pages into the biggest groups.
Give every question a job
Before adding a question, finish this sentence: "If they answer this way, we'll show or send them this instead."
If every answer leads to the same page, you don't need that question to make the recommendation. You might still want it for research, but that's a different reason to ask. A job title adds work for the visitor unless it changes what you recommend.
There's no universal ideal question count. Use the fewest questions that get each person to the right page. Add a follow-up only on an answer that still leaves more than one page to choose from. Most visitors can answer one question, and nobody needs to answer a question that doesn't change where they end up.
Make the choices easy to tell apart
A choice question asks about one category of information. Its answers become the segments someone can belong to. A Business Type question might have Software and Ecommerce answers.
Multiple choice and Yes / No answers create segments. A Long text answer keeps the visitor's words without creating a segment for every value. Use choices when you know which paths to offer, and text when you need an explanation.
Keep one decision in each question. "Which matters most right now?" is clearer than asking visitors to rank every concern in one answer list. Long wording and overlapping choices make people spend more time working out what you mean.
Use what you already know
An earlier answer, an Auto-Segment rule, or mapped data from an identified contact can save someone from answering again. The widget's Question handling setting decides whether known questions are skipped.
Connecting an email platform doesn't identify every browser, so keep a path for visitors you don't know yet.
When you can point from every answer to a useful next page, you're ready to write the question.