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Today’s edition is inspired by a simple but powerful notion:

“When people are looking for your product it would be crazy not to let them find it.” — Melanie Perkins, Founder / CEO of Canva

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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

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