Why Rankings and Leaderboards Keep Members Coming Back
Every successful community has a core problem: how do you keep members returning day after day, week after week? Content helps. Discussion helps. But few things drive repeat visits as reliably as rankings and leaderboards.
Rankings tap into a fundamental human behavior. People want to know what is best, what is trending, and where they stand relative to others. When your community offers member-driven rankings, where the community itself decides what rises to the top, you create a reason for members to check in regularly, participate actively, and feel invested in the outcome.
Think about how often you check product rankings on review sites, top-ten lists in your industry, or trending posts on social platforms. That same pull works inside your community. When members can vote to rank tools, resources, content, or even other members’ contributions, they become active curators rather than passive consumers.
This guide walks you through setting up member-driven rankings on your BuddyPress community site using the Reign theme and WB Polls plugin. You will learn how to create ranking polls, display results as leaderboards, gamify the process, and run recurring ranking cycles that build long-term engagement.
How Rankings Drive Community Growth
Before getting into the setup, it is important to understand why rankings are so effective at driving specific community outcomes.
Rankings Create Repeat Visits
A static community gives members little reason to return once they have seen what is available. Rankings change constantly. New votes shift positions. New entries appear. Yesterday’s number-three item might be today’s number one. This dynamism creates curiosity that pulls members back to check on updates, much like checking a sports scoreboard during a season. If you are focused on building a community that members actually return to, rankings are one of the most reliable mechanisms.
Rankings Generate Discussion
Nothing sparks conversation faster than a ranking that someone disagrees with. When your community’s top-ranked item is not what a member expected, they are motivated to comment, argue their case, and rally votes for their preferred choice. This healthy disagreement drives exactly the kind of engagement that makes communities thrive.
Rankings Surface Quality
In any community, the best content and resources can get buried under volume. Member-driven rankings act as a collective filter, surfacing the items that the community collectively values most. New members benefit immediately from this curated quality, and experienced members feel validated when their contributions rank highly.
Rankings Build Authority
When your community produces authoritative rankings in your niche, whether it is the best WordPress plugins, the top photography techniques, or the most useful coding resources, those rankings attract visitors from search engines and social media. Your community becomes known as the go-to place for trusted, crowd-sourced recommendations.
Setting Up Ranking Polls with WB Polls
The WB Polls plugin provides the voting infrastructure you need to create member-driven rankings. Here is how to set everything up on your Reign-powered community site.
Step 1: Define What Members Will Rank
Start by identifying ranking categories that are relevant and interesting to your community. The best ranking topics meet three criteria:
- Members have opinions – The topic should be something members care about and have experience with
- Multiple viable options – There should be enough items to create a meaningful ranking (at least five to ten options)
- No objectively correct answer – Rankings work best when preferences genuinely vary
Here are examples across different community types:
- Tech communities: Best code editors, favorite programming languages, most useful libraries
- Photography communities: Best camera for beginners, favorite editing software, top landscape locations
- Fitness communities: Most effective exercises, best workout apps, top protein powders
- Business communities: Best project management tools, favorite CRM software, top business books
- Creative communities: Best design tools, favorite fonts, top color palette generators
Step 2: Create the Ranking Poll
Using WB Polls, create a new poll with each item as a voting option. For ranking polls, keep these best practices in mind:
- Use clear, specific option names – “VS Code” is better than “a popular code editor”
- Include brief descriptions – Help members who might not be familiar with every option
- Add images where relevant – Image polls are more engaging and help members identify options quickly
- Limit options to 10-15 maximum – Too many options overwhelm voters and dilute results
- Include an “Other” or “Suggest” option – This helps you discover items you might have missed
WB Polls displays ranking polls in an organized grid, letting members browse multiple categories and vote across different ranking topics from one central view.
Step 3: Position the Poll for Maximum Visibility
Where you place ranking polls matters as much as the polls themselves. Consider these placement strategies:
- Activity feed – Post the poll as an activity update so it appears in everyone’s feed
- Group-specific polls – Create ranking polls inside relevant BuddyPress groups where interested members are already gathered
- Pinned content – Pin active ranking polls to the top of your community’s main feed or sidebar
- Dedicated rankings page – Create a page that aggregates all current and past ranking polls
Displaying Results as Leaderboards
Raw poll results are informative, but presenting them as visual leaderboards makes them dramatically more engaging. Leaderboards add a competitive visual element that draws members in and encourages them to participate.
Real-Time Vote Displays
WB Polls shows vote counts and percentages in real time. As members cast votes, the results update immediately. This live updating creates a dynamic experience where members can watch items climb or fall in the rankings as new votes come in.
The visual progress bars in WB Polls naturally present results in a leaderboard format, with the highest-voted items displayed with the longest bars. This instant visual feedback makes the ranking status clear at a glance.
Building a Rankings Archive
Over time, your ranking polls build into a valuable archive. Create a dedicated page or section on your site that displays:
- Current active rankings (polls still accepting votes)
- Recently closed rankings (final results from the past month)
- Hall of fame (all-time highest-ranked items in each category)
- Trending rankings (items that have moved the most in recent voting cycles)
This archive becomes one of the most visited sections of your community because it aggregates genuine crowd-sourced recommendations that members and visitors trust.
Category-Based Leaderboards
Organize your rankings by category so members can quickly find what they are looking for. For example, a tech community might have separate leaderboards for:
- Development Tools
- Learning Resources
- Hosting Providers
- Design Software
- Productivity Apps
Each category has its own ranking poll (or series of polls), and the results display on category-specific leaderboard pages.
Gamifying Rankings with Points and Rewards
Rankings become even more powerful when you add gamification elements. Gamification transforms passive voting into an active, rewarding experience. If you are running a paid membership community, gamified rankings add tangible value to the membership experience.
Reward Voters
Encourage participation by rewarding members who vote consistently:
- Participation badges – Award badges for voting in a certain number of ranking polls (“Voted in 10 rankings,” “Voted in 50 rankings”)
- Voting streaks – Track consecutive weeks or months of voting activity
- Top voter recognition – Highlight the most active voters on a separate leaderboard
- Points system – Award points for each vote cast, redeemable for community perks
Reward Contributors
Members whose suggestions or nominations make it into ranking polls deserve recognition too:
- Credit the member who suggested a top-ranked item
- Award bonus points when a member’s suggestion climbs into the top three
- Feature “Tastemaker” badges for members whose suggestions consistently rank highly
Seasonal Competitions
Create competitive ranking events tied to seasons or milestones:
- “Best of 2026” awards across all ranking categories
- Quarterly ranking resets where items compete for top positions again
- Special event rankings tied to industry conferences, holidays, or community milestones
Curating “Best Of” Lists from Ranking Data
Your ranking polls generate valuable data that extends far beyond the polls themselves. Use this data to create curated “Best Of” content that serves your community and attracts new visitors.
Community-Endorsed Recommendations
Transform your ranking results into authoritative recommendation posts:
- “The 10 Best Project Management Tools, Ranked by Our Community”
- “Top 5 Cameras for Beginners, According to 500+ Photographer Votes”
- “Community Picks: The Best Books for Aspiring Entrepreneurs”
These posts carry more weight than generic “best of” lists because they are backed by real community votes. Include the vote counts and comment highlights to showcase the authentic community input behind each recommendation.
Comparison Content
When two items are closely ranked, create detailed comparison content:
- “VS Code vs. Sublime Text: Why Our Community Ranks VS Code Higher”
- “Lightroom vs. Capture One: How 300 Photographers Voted”
This comparison content drives search traffic for high-value keywords and positions your community as an authority in your niche.
Trend Analysis
When you run the same ranking polls periodically, you can track how preferences change over time:
- Which tools or resources are rising in popularity?
- Which once-popular items are falling out of favor?
- Are there emerging options that are gaining ground quickly?
Publish these trend analyses as regular content. Members find this data fascinating, and it drives conversations about why preferences are shifting.
Running Weekly and Monthly Ranking Cycles
One-off rankings are useful, but recurring ranking cycles create sustained engagement and richer data over time.
Weekly Quick Rankings
Fast-paced, low-commitment rankings that keep the community active:
- “Tool of the Week” – Members vote on a featured tool or resource each week
- “Best Post This Week” – Members nominate and vote on the best community contribution
- “Quick Pick” – A simple “this or that” ranking between two options
Weekly rankings take minimal effort to set up and maintain, but they create a regular touchpoint that brings members back to your site.
Monthly Deep Rankings
More comprehensive rankings that require more thought from voters:
- Category rankings – Full rankings of 10-15 items in a specific category
- “Member’s Choice” awards – Community-voted recognition for top contributors
- Resource rankings – Comprehensive voting on the best resources in a particular area
Monthly rankings build anticipation and give members something to look forward to on a regular schedule.
Creating a Rankings Calendar
Plan your ranking schedule in advance and share it with your community. A rankings calendar might look like this:
- Week 1: New monthly ranking opens for voting
- Week 2: Mid-month progress update and reminder to vote
- Week 3: Weekly quick ranking plus last chance to vote in the monthly ranking
- Week 4: Monthly ranking results announced, next month’s ranking previewed
This predictable rhythm trains members to check in regularly and creates natural content hooks throughout each month.
Advanced Strategies for Community Rankings
Tiered Rankings
For categories with many items, use a tiered ranking system:
- Nomination round – Members suggest items for the ranking (open poll or forum thread)
- Qualifying round – The top 20 nominations advance to a WB Polls voting round
- Final ranking – The top 10 from qualifying compete for the final ranking positions
This tournament-style approach generates sustained engagement across multiple rounds and ensures the final ranking includes only genuinely popular options.
Expert vs. Community Rankings
Create side-by-side rankings that compare expert opinions with community votes:
- Invite industry experts or experienced community members to submit their own rankings
- Run a parallel community poll using WB Polls
- Publish both results and highlight where experts and the community agree or disagree
This format generates rich discussion and gives members a reason to defend their community’s collective judgment. The flexibility of WordPress as a community platform makes it uniquely suited to these kinds of multi-format ranking experiences.
Cross-Community Rankings
If you run multiple communities or partner with other community sites, organize cross-community ranking events:
- Each community votes independently
- Results from all communities are compiled into a combined ranking
- Communities can compare how their preferences differ from others
This cross-pollination introduces your community to new audiences and creates unique content that none of the individual communities could produce alone.
Measuring the Impact of Your Rankings
Track these key metrics to understand how your ranking efforts are performing:
- Vote participation rate – What percentage of active members vote in each ranking?
- Return visit frequency – Do members who participate in rankings visit more often?
- Discussion generated – How many comments and conversations do rankings spark?
- Content value – How much traffic do your “Best Of” posts generated from rankings attract?
- Member retention – Are ranking participants more likely to remain active long-term?
- New member acquisition – Do rankings-related content bring in new signups?
Use these metrics to refine your ranking topics, timing, and promotion strategies over time.
Start Building Your Community’s Rankings Today
Member-driven rankings are one of the most effective, low-effort strategies for building a community that members return to again and again. They transform passive members into active curators, generate valuable content, and position your community as an authority in your niche.
With the Reign theme handling your community’s look and feel and WB Polls providing the voting mechanics, setting up your first ranking poll takes just minutes. Start with a single ranking in your community’s most popular topic area, promote it actively, and watch how quickly members engage.
The rankings your community creates will not only keep current members engaged but will attract new visitors who are searching for trusted, crowd-sourced recommendations in your niche.
Ready to create member-driven rankings? Get WB Polls and let your community decide what deserves the top spot.
