Key Takeaways-
- Canva creates 7 different types of content, ‘Templates’ and ‘Create’ pages the most important ones for SEO.
- Both ‘Template’ and ‘Create’ are structured in a very product-led way with SEO-friendliness.
- Among all, Canva created the most content about ‘Color Knowhow’. But the most organic traffic award goes to ‘template pages’.
- ‘Create pages’ are the most backlinks pages, and also ranking for the most # of keywords.
- The ToFu-MoFu-MoFu funnelling is done precisely for the contents of different user groups. BoFu contents are getting more traffic than the other two.
- Throughout all contents, Canva did a very clever and intuitive product placement, leading them towards organic sign-ups.
Canva is a design tool valued at $26B in Q4, 2022.
Apart from being a GREAT product itself, one of the core reasons for its market capture is the organic SEO strategy.
Call it web architecture, content funnels, product-led content strategy or backlinks- they’ve nailed it at every department of SEO. And this earns them a whooping 148M+ organic traffic according to Ahrefs(the real traffic could be 2-5 times more).
In this teardown report, we’ll teardown every fold of their SEO content strategy, with actionable takeaways.
Let’s start-
What Types of Content Canva Create?
Templates
The design and video template pages drive Canva the most amount of SEO traffic.
Templates are tailored to specific purposes and have a handful of child templates under each of the template types. Alongside the parent templates, these child templates are designed to cater to very specific SEO searchers.
For example, here’s one of the most successful template groups of Canva is resume templates-
- Parent Template: Resume
- URL: https://www.canva.com/resumes/templates/
Overall SEO performances-
In total, this template family has got 219 child templates, while most of them are drawing 1.3M + SEO traffic for Canva.
And here’s some of the child template’s are getting-
| Child template | Ranking For- | Ranking At- |
| https://www.canva.com/resumes/templates/simple/ | simple resume template(6.8k searches/mo) | 3 |
| https://www.canva.com/resumes/templates/modern/ | modern resume template(4.8k searches/mo) | 1 |
| www.canva.com/resumes/templates/teacher/ | teacher resume template(2.7k searches/mo) | 3 |
Another perk of such a structured schema is sitelink appearance on SERP, which is possibly resulting in a better CTR than its competitors.
Create Page
If templates are bringing Canva the most amount of traffic, ‘Create’ pages rank at top when it comes to SEO traffic per page on average.
Unlike ‘template’ pages, ‘create’ pages are detailed articles that instruct on how to ‘create’ a design. These instructions only show how to create something USING CANVA, which is a big conversion factor.
Plus, it covers everything you need to know to create a great design. We’ll talk about that later in this article.
For now, most importantly, each of these pages has CTAs that lead to ready-made templates if you sign up.
Some big conversions might be happening there, we bet.
In total, the ‘create’ pages are drawing a whooping 6M+ traffic from SEO-
We found 283 ‘create’ pages in total that are been performing in SEO. Among them, here’s how much the top ‘create’ pages are fetching-
| Create Pages | Total Organic Keywords | Total SEO Traffic |
| https://www.canva.com/create/logos/ | 13907 | 628758 |
| https://www.canva.com/create/resumes/ | 6750 | 344503 |
| https://www.canva.com/create/posters/ | 6734 | 233659 |
| https://www.canva.com/create/cv/ | 4588 | 206652 |
| https://www.canva.com/create/gif-maker/ | 9623 | 148325 |
| https://www.canva.com/create/websites/ | 7840 | 138182 |
| https://www.canva.com/create/flyers/ | 3437 | 119555 |
| https://www.canva.com/create/infographics/ | 4769 | 115103 |
| https://www.canva.com/create/avatars/ | 3108 | 114198 |
| https://www.canva.com/create/cards/ | 20039 | 110023 |
| https://www.canva.com/create/memes/ | 10663 | 98415 |
Feature Explainer
The feature explainer page does two jobs at the same time-
- Educate on a photo or video editing chore
- Offers Canva’s tailored solution to get that chore done.
This goes across most of the features that Canva’s video and photo editor has. You’ll find both how-to guides, explainer texts and obvious product placements across these pages.
There are 92 feature pages Canva published, harvesting 1.4M+ monthly SEO visitors for them-
And since they’re very action-driven, they cater to very relevant search queries as well. In fact, some of the keywords these pages are ranking for have been searched for years before Canva was born.
Examples-
| Feature Page | Ranking For- | Ranking At- |
| https://www.canva.com/features/jpg-to-pdf-converter/ | jpg to pdf(3.6M searches/mo) | 8 |
| https://www.canva.com/features/add-text-to-photo/ | add text to image(7.1k searches/mo) | 1 |
| www.canva.com/features/change-color-of-image/ | change color of image(7k searches/mo) | 2 |
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Blog Posts
The 4th most successful content group are the blog posts. And this is kind of obvious.
In the blog, Canva goes across the entire spectrum of user persona. Sometimes, it’s intended to drive conversions, and sometimes it’s just about helping the reader out with information(design-related or not).
These examples show you what I mean-
| Blog Articles | Target Audience | Product Relevance | SEO Traffic |
| https://www.canva.com/learn/30-inspiring-quotes-students/ | Students | 1/10 | 113k/mo |
| https://www.canva.com/learn/background-remover/ | DIY Designer | 9/10 | 52k/mo |
| https://www.canva.com/learn/the-ultimate-guide-to-font-pairing/ | Professional Designer | 6/10 | 21k/mo |
| https://www.canva.com/learn/canva-for-education/ | Teachers | 8/10 | 17k/mo |
| https://www.canva.com/learn/clever-advertising/ | Advertisers | 5/10 | 6k/mo |
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This goes on for all 765 blog posts that they’ve published so far. And together, they’re bringing 890k organic traffic per month.
Color Knowhow
The next class of contents on the line is something that Canva doesn’t show on the storefront. Eventually, it’s one of the most successful SEO content for them.
And it’s about different colors, their combinations, and palettes. Targeted towards design enthusiasts, these pages portray beautiful designs(as per the color in the subject), and are a handful of information.
They don’t do any custom product CTAs on these pages, which is a missed opportunity for them.
They have covered it in two major categories-
- Color meanings
Example- https://www.canva.com/colors/color-meanings/white/ - Color palette
Example- https://www.canva.com/colors/color-palettes/tasting-rainbows/
In together, they’ve published 2500+ color knowhows, which is all together giving them 1.6M+ traffic in total.
Others
Apart from the 5 major types of content, Canva has tons of other variations. We’ve made a list of the rest of the content types, along with their number and key SEO metrics.
Have a look-
| Types of Contents | Total Number | SEO Traffic | Average Backlink/page |
| Download App | 4 | 239k/mo | 992 |
| Tutorials | 239 | 52k/mo | 172 |
| Pro Features | 12 | 43k/mo | 120 |
| Solutions | 17 | 5k/mo | 30 |
| Team Use Cases | 18 | 2.7k/mo | 108 |
| Case Studies | 58 | 400/mo | 3 |
| Webinar Events | 95 | 380/mp | 4 |
| Pro Case Studies | 27 | 0 | 0 |
Anatomy of The Most Successful SEO Pages of Canva
Create Page
Create pages are standalone pages that hold a complete guide on creating a design using Canva.
The generic structure of these pages looks like-
- Hero section: Anova the fold with a Text and CTA at the right and a sample design at the left.
- Intro Text: Quick explainer of the design type, and their common uses.
- How-to Guide: Short and actionable step-by-step guide to creating the design, with a CTA at the bottom.
- Canva Value Proposition: A text section with a few sub-headings on why Canva is the best tool to create this design. FAQ adds up later on.
- Testimonials: 3-4 social proofs to back up the previous section, which conveys a sense of trust to the reader.
- Internal Link 1: To other ‘create’ pages.
- Internal Link 2: To other done-for-you ‘template’ pages of the design that the reader is looking for.
Looking at the structure of these pages, we can tell it’s really well-designed with multiple hooks to convert any reader to signing up for Canva as long as they need to get a design done.
On top of that, there are lots of internal links at a place with ready-to-use templates, which are most likely to lure the reader in to explore more resources and eventually sign up for Canva.
Templates
As discussed before, Template pages of Canva come as a pillar-cluster layout with proper on-page optimization and internal linking.
Each group contains a pillar page(parent template), and a handful of cluster pages(child templates). And the internal link takes place in the form of-
- Pillar to other pillar pages
- Pillar to its own cluster pages
- Cluster to cluster of the same template group.
This way, they’re able to form a great silo-structure for their templates, giving them a solid boost in SEO.
The overall map of Canva’s template pages can be understood from this image below-
Now if we look at one single child template page, the structure looks like this-
- Hero Section: With page title and short, welcoming description
- Template Collection: All templates, split into pages, with options to filter from
- Internal Link to Other Clusters: With button CTA
- H2 Text Section: Contains some discussion on the essence of the templates.
A similar structure is found for the parent template pages as well, where it links to the child templates right after the hero section, and links to other parent templates under the template collection section.
The SEO Outcomes
We’ve seen SEO performances of different kinds of content Canva creates. Combining them all, the overall SEO outcome looks like this as per Ahrefs-
Traffic data-wise, it is miles ahead of all of its organic competitors, which means they’re capturing every lead possible via SEO in the design space-
We tried to split this massive SEO success into types of contents they create, and the outcome looks like this-
| Type of Content | Total Assessed | Slug Prefix | Total Traffic | Avg Total Keywords | Avg Total Traffic | Avg Total Backlinks |
| Download App | 4 | /download/ | 239708 | 3906 | 59927 | 992 |
| Create Page | 280 | /create/ | 10926440 | 4374 | 39023 | 1582 |
| Feature Explainer | 80 | /features/ | 1321360 | 2069 | 16517 | 72 |
| Video Templates | 31 | /video-editor/ | 451143 | 1389 | 14553 | 348 |
| Logo template | 98 | /logos/ | 824768 | 983 | 8416 | 107 |
| Templates | 1461 | /templates/ | 11312523 | 1152 | 7743 | 137 |
| Blog Posts | 571 | /learn/ | 1776639 | 1210 | 3111 | 395 |
| Tutorials | 289 | /designschool/tutorials/ | 233512 | 111 | 808 | 172 |
| Color Knowhow | 2211 | /colors/ | 1579642 | 64 | 714 | 32 |
| Pro Features | 12 | /pro/ | 8184 | 203 | 682 | 31 |
| Solutions | 17 | /solutions/ | 5219 | 435 | 307 | 30 |
| Team Use Cases | 18 | /for-teams/ | 2790 | 116 | 155 | 108 |
| Case Studies | 58 | /case-studies/ | 464 | 30 | 8 | 3 |
| Webinar Events | 95 | /events/ | 380 | 7 | 4 | 4 |
| Pro Case Studies | 27 | /pro/case-studies/ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
This might look overwhelming looking at all of them at once. Here are the interpretations of the SEO performances of different types of content-
- The largest amount of content they have created is the ‘Color Knowhow content’. In total, there are 2211 contents of this type.
- Templates are getting the most organic traffic in total for them. It’s responsible for 11.1M+ monthly traffic, which is about 8% of the total traffic of Canva. The runners-up in this list are the create pages.
- Interestingly, Download pages are at the top of the list when it comes to the most average traffic per page. There are just 4 of them, with 59k+/mo organic traffic. Next in the line is the ‘Create’ pages.
- When it comes to an average number of keywords per page, ‘Create’ pages top the list. Each page ranks (1-100) for 4.3k+ keywords on Google.
- In terms of the most backlinks done per page, ‘create’ pages also are at the top of the list. On average, a ‘create’ page got 39k+ backlinks.
The Impact of Backlinks
A very important part of Canva’s SEO success is its gigantic backlink profile. It has got 2698 DR 50+ referring domains, leading them to the path of a whooping DR 92.
With such a link strength in place, Canva is literally able to outrank any website that comes in its way to SERP.
A good assessment of its strength is Canva’s ranking at 1-3 for 4.7k+ keywords that don’t include the brand name itself. This list of keywords includes-
- ai image generator (393k volume, 90 KD)
- photo editor (253k volume, 94 KD)
- color palette generator (78k volume, 93 KD)
- free QR code generator (99k volume, 93 KD)
To understand the distribution of backlinks across all of the pages, we’ve tried grouping up the core content types and their link metrics-
| Type of Content | Total Assessed | Slug Prefix | Total Dofollow Links | URL Rating | Referring Domains | Dofollow |
| Create Page | 295 | /create/ | 156350 | 27 | 99 | 530 |
| Blog Posts | 917 | /learn/ | 61439 | 23 | 40 | 67 |
| Templates | 1528 | /templates/ | 45840 | 20 | 23 | 30 |
| Color Knowhow | 181 | /colors/ | 12670 | 21 | 55 | 70 |
| Feature Explainer | 139 | /features/ | 3753 | 19 | 19 | 27 |
| Tutorials | 89 | /designschool/tutorials/ | 6586 | 18 | 21 | 74 |
A notable finding is, while Canva prioritized the ‘create’ pages as the most linked pages, the other kinds of pages aren’t left behind. They ensured a balanced and even distribution of backlinks across all of their important pages.
This graph shows what we mean-
Is There A Funnel Mechanism in Place?
Canva’s content marketing is built on one of the well-put-together sales funnels that we’ve seen so far. For most of their content, they target a very specific audience, and eventually create content for every phase of ‘Purchasing Consciousness’.
Let’s see a couple of examples to clarify this-
As a DIY design tool, Canva caters to a wide range of target audience demographics. The list includes teachers, students, job seekers, authors/publishers and so on.
For each of these demographics, Canva’s created a mix of blog posts, templates, create pages, events and tutorials to touch all of the three funnels- ToFu(top of the funnel), MoFu(middle of the funnel), and BoFu(bottom of the funnel.
Let’s pick up the ‘Students’ as first demographics and look at the Funnel distribution-
| Top of The Funnel | |||
| Content URL | Total Keywords | Total Traffic | Total Backlinks |
| https://www.canva.com/learn/30-inspiring-quotes-students/ | 27245 | 113888 | 1610 |
| https://www.canva.com/learn/10-techniques-to-help-you-win-the-student-council-election/ | 1548 | 1063 | 86 |
| https://www.canva.com/learn/10-ways-to-market-your-student-club-on-campus/ | 231 | 84 | 104 |
| https://www.canva.com/learn/how-to-raise-money-for-your-student-project/ | 45 | 5 | 3 |
| https://www.canva.com/learn/17-study-tips-to-help-you-stay-focused/ | 1056 | 1961 | 249 |
| https://www.canva.com/events/foster-student-collaboration-with-canva-for-education/ | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Average | 5021 | 19500 | 342 |
| Middle of The Funnel | |||
| Content URL | Total Keywords | Total Traffic | Total Backlinks |
| https://www.canva.com/learn/how-to-make-your-assignments-look-more-professional/ | 80 | 90 | 14 |
| https://www.canva.com/learn/20-eye-catching-ideas-study-notes/ | 670 | 1740 | 159 |
| https://www.canva.com/learn/students/ | 494 | 10113 | 368 |
| Average | 415 | 3981 | 180 |
| Bottom of The Funnel | |||
| Content URL | Total Keywords | Total Traffic | Total Backlinks |
| https://www.canva.com/certificates/templates/student/ | 374 | 3134 | 241 |
| https://www.canva.com/business-cards/templates/student/ | 69 | 302 | 15 |
| https://www.canva.com/student-portfolio/templates/ | 80 | 656 | 0 |
| https://www.canva.com/templates/s/student/ | 23 | 675 | 0 |
| https://www.canva.com/planners/templates/student/ | 162 | 476 | 0 |
| https://www.canva.com/templates/s/study/ | 152 | 978 | 12 |
| Average | 143 | 1037 | 45 |
Which Funnel Is Most Successful for Them in SEO?
Usually, we know for a fact that ToFu content gets the most amount of visitors from SEO. But with Canva, they’ve got an advantage of the HUGE SEARCH audience who searches for ready-made design templates.
By all means, this is the single best leverage they’ve got in SEO.
And that’s why, across all of their demographics, they’re fetching more SEO traffic with BoFu content (mostly).
Here is a glimpse-
For Teachers-
Top SEO Contents Across All Funnels-
- ToFu: https://www.canva.com/learn/30-inspiring-quotes-for-teachers/
SEO Traffic: 26k/mo - MoFu: https://www.canva.com/designschool/tutorials/canva-for-teachers/
SEO Traffic: 5k/mo - BoFu: https://www.canva.com/create/class-schedules/
SEO Traffic: 50k/mo
Funnel traffic at a glance-
For Job Seekers-
Top SEO Contents Across All Funnels-
- ToFu: https://www.canva.com/learn/cover-letter-examples/
SEO Traffic: 3.8k/mo - MoFu: https://www.canva.com/learn/resume-fonts/
SEO Traffic: 6.2k/mo - BoFu: https://www.canva.com/resumes/templates/
SEO Traffic: 111k/mo
Funnel traffic at a glance-
For Publisher/Creators-
Top SEO Contents Across All Funnels-
- ToFu: https://www.canva.com/learn/canva-book-creator-partnership/
SEO Traffic: 230/mo - MoFu: https://www.canva.com/learn/book-cover-ideas/
SEO Traffic: 3.2k/mo - BoFu: https://www.canva.com/create/book-covers/
SEO Traffic: 36.3k/mo
Funnel traffic at a glance-
Among 4 demographics we looked at, the only exception was found with the students, where the order of most SEO traffic goes from ToFu, to MoFu to BoFu-
For Students-
Top SEO Contents Across All Funnels-
- ToFu: https://www.canva.com/learn/30-inspiring-quotes-students/
SEO Traffic: 113k/mo - MoFu: https://www.canva.com/learn/20-eye-catching-ideas-study-notes/
SEO Traffic: 1.7kk/mo - BoFu: https://www.canva.com/certificates/templates/student/
SEO Traffic: 3.1k/mo
Funnel traffic at a glance-
About Canva’s Clever Product Placement
Canva does many things right when it comes to content marketing.
But one thing that turns their content marketing into conversion is their CTA(call to action).
Canva is drawing 920k+/mo SEO traffic via 771 blog articles so far. To convert this ToFu/MoFu audience into prospects, they stick to some particular product placement tactics.
Here is a breakdown-
Done-for-you Solutions
When Canva explains the steps of removing background from a photo, it doesn’t just talk about any tool. They specifically show how it could be done ‘using Canva’.
Plus, they make sure to make it look easier than all other alternative options.
Contextual Placement
Not all of their product placements are flashy banners with lucrative CTAs. They sometimes channel user’s attention towards their landing pages within the paragraph texts.
And those CTAs are very action-driven and intuitive, promoting both their use cases and premium tier benefits all the way.
Plug-n-play Usables
This is one of the most effective product placements, which puts users just one click away from what they are possibly desiring. They ensure these templates are what the users might be looking for right now.
Actionable items on the Header/Footer
Across the over-the-fold section, the sidebar, and the footer, Canva puts eye-catching banners and buttons with very intuitive CTA texts on them. This is impactful for desktop users, who are, in fact, Canva’s largest use case.
Landing Pages with Niche Intent
Canva embraced a ‘do(create)’ and ‘discover(template)’ intended landing pages that let the user create a design, or explore templates consecutively.
In total, there are hundreds of these landing pages, catering to thousands of long-tail search intents.
Almost No Entry Barrier
Lastly, Canva’s been very smart in lowering the entry barrier. To get into designing anything on their given template(within their ToFu/MoFu posts), you don’t need to create an account. You can create a design and download it without an account.
They’ll only pop up with an account opening offer to let you save the design, and get more out of Canva. The same goes for the transition from the free tier to the premium tier.
What I loved the most was how Canva is being confident about the product, and letting the user taste it before they jump in. The low entry barrier might be giving them tons of recurring users.
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