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How Canva wins SEO

Chess Move

The what: A TLDR explanation of the strategy

People looking to design something don’t search for an ‘all-in-one design solution’.

They start a business, decide they need a logo, and search ‘Logo Maker’.

A few sales meetings later, they search ‘Free Business Card Maker’.

Canva, maker of the world’s favourite ‘all-in-one design solution’, knows this.

Breakdown

The how: The strategic playbook boiled down to 3x key takeaways

1.  Capture high-intent traffic

Canva built hundreds of landing pages for specific design tools that prospects are actively searching for.

T-shirt design. Album cover. Name Tag.

If people design it, Canva has it.

Each landing page is an SEO goldmine, with fast-loading keyword-rich content that ranks Canva at the top of Google’s search results page.

Unlike their front page, which is probably swamped with low-intent evaluators, these utility-focussed lead magnets capture highly convertible leads wanting to land in-product as quickly as possible.

2. Overdeliver on core Job-To-Be-Done

Instead of an aggressive sales page, Canva provides value straight out of the gate:

• Free templates

• Design inspiration

• Simple video tutorials

• Easy-to-use design tool

But - Canva isn’t just a lightweight ‘Business Card Maker’.

It’s a powerful editor packed wth a rich featureset that other purpose-built competitors can’t match.

Users landing in a business card template are quickly delighted with the unparalleled array of fonts, icons, borders, palettes, frames, and illustrations freely available.

Plus, the experience is so easy, from the second you try the tool, you already know how to use it.

3. Product-led upsells

Throughout the onboarding journey, Canva subtly introduces users to the universe of premium design possibilities available on their platform.

Following the ‘Product-Led Growth’ playbook, users are invariably introduced to enticing tooltips, gated features, teamwork capabilities, and free AI credits.

All of which systematically funnel free users towards their paid offering.

Even if they don’t convert in that session, users designing a business card have a high chance of returning (and re-evaluating Canva) thanks to the templates for business letterheads or branded presentations they have seen along the way.

Rabbit Hole

The where: 3x high-signal resources to learn more

Detailed Canva SEO tear down, with specific tactics, content, and technical details ↗

[12 minute read]

If after reading this edition you’re thinking: “I need to do this for my business”, look no further.

This is the most detailed essay we found on how to actually implement Canva’s SEO strategy.

Down to details like job descriptions, HTML page structure, and email templates for backlink outreach.

Legendary Medium article written by founder Melanie Perkins↗

[43 minute read]

21 Questions, covering the highs, lows & lessons learned during Canva’s journey from just an idea to a $1 billion valuation.

Questions crowdsourced from the iconic Facebook Group ‘Sydney Startups’ (our stomping ground).

Honestly hard not to crack a smile at the early product screenshots, love story turned unicorn leadership, and unfiltered insights into how a hypergrowth startup actually grows.

Open Source CEO x Melanie Perkins - a deep dive ↗

[17 minute read]

Bill Kerr (@bill_kerrrrr) is a friend of the newsletter, and a ‘must-follow’ in the startup leadership space.

In this 4,000-word breakdown, he goes over the entire history of Canva, and the tactics/strategies/experiments/decisions that led them to 60 million monthly users and 85% penetration into Fortune 500 companies (!)

That’s all for today’s issue, folks!

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