Product-led SEO: Inside Canva's Strategy for Organic Growth

How understanding Jobs To Be Done helped Canva build a 700M+ monthly visitor platform.

Just like my morning coffee, as a solopreneur, I use Canva like an addict every single day. From designing my client's banner landing page to creating thumbnails for this newsletter, it's one of those products in my life that I couldn't imagine myself without.

Before AI comes into the picture, Canva is one of the tools that makes me feel like a magician.

So, I couldn't help but be curious about the monthly traffic that Canva collects.

I was shocked with what I found 🤯

Source: SimilarWeb.

700M+ total visits per month!

Can you imagine? That's 2x more than Adobe's monthly traffic.

Mind-blowing, right?

My curiosity didn't stop there. I went for the traffic sources.

Source: SimilarWeb.

Did you notice that 25% of their traffic comes from Organic search? You know what this means? This shows Canva doesn't rely on paid advertising to generate traffic and revenue.

Instead, they leverage a secret weapon: Product-led SEO.

Let me break down some specific SEO techniques that make this possible:

• Optimizing template names for common search terms (like "wedding invitation template" or "business card design")

• Using descriptive alt text for their millions of templates

• Creating dedicated landing pages for each design category

But here's what makes their SEO strategy work - it's not just about technical optimization. It's about deeply understanding what brings people to their platform in the first place.

This strategy allows Canva to use their core features to generate high-intent traffic from Google searches, attracting and converting users organically.

To understand how this works so brilliantly, let's break down their approach step by step.

💼 Jobs To Be Done (JTBD)

Before we get into the weeds, here's something interesting to think about:

"Nobody wakes up in the morning thinking, 'I need Canva today.'" 🤷

What they're actually thinking is:

"I need to make my Instagram posts look cooler than my friend's last trip in Tokyo"

"I need to create a presentation that won't put my team to sleep"

"I need to create my resume so I can apply to new jobs"

These are what we call "jobs to be done" - the actual problems people are trying to solve. And here's the genius part: Canva knows exactly what these jobs are and shows up right when people are desperately searching for solutions.

We call these people high-intent traffic.

SEO/Organic User Funnel - Canva

High-intent traffic drives Canva's user growth.

Notice how all this leads to Product-led SEO?

Here's how these concepts work in real life:

Meet Jack. He's been scrolling through job listings all morning and realizes his resume is outdated. His "job to be done" isn't just "update my resume" - it's to create a resume that will catch a recruiter's eye and lands him that dream job.

This specific need drives him straight to Google, typing "resume template" - this is high-intent traffic in action. Jack isn't just browsing for fun; he's got a clear goal and he needs it done yesterday.

Boom! He lands on Canva's resume templates page. No generic marketing fluff - just a gallery of professional templates available for him to choose from.

Here's where the magic happens: Jack spots a template that catches his attention and clicks "Edit this template." Without even creating an account, he's already inside Canva's editor.

He's getting real value before committing to anything!

Only after perfecting his resume does he hit that moment of truth - to download his new resume, he needs to sign up. But guess what? He's already spent time crafting his perfect resume, so signing up feels like a no-brainer rather than a barrier.

Within 15 minutes, Jack had:

• Customized a professional template

• Added his unique branding

• Generated both PDF and LinkedIn-optimized versions

This right here is the beauty of Product-led SEO: it's not about pushy marketing. It's about showing up exactly when people need you most and letting your product's value speak for itself.

Let's break down this genius strategy:

1. "Jobs to be done" help you understand the real problems your users are trying to solve (not just what features they need)

2. These problem-aware users create high-intent traffic - they're actively searching for solutions on Google

3. Product-led SEO connects these searchers with immediate value, making conversion feel natural instead of forced

Why is this brilliant?

This entire system runs 24/7, bringing in users who are already primed to fall in love with your product. No hard sell needed.

🔑 Key Takeaway

Product-led SEO success comes from understanding user intentions (JTBD) and creating direct paths to solve their problems, not just ranking for keywords.

But remember - Canva didn't build this system overnight. They started by deeply understanding their users' fundamental needs, then systematically created content and features to meet those needs.

Ask yourself: What are the top 3 "jobs to be done" that bring users to your product? Are you showing up in their moment of need, or are you waiting for them to discover you?

Pro Tip: Start by examining your most successful customers. What were they trying to accomplish when they found you? That's your first clue to building your own Product-led SEO strategy.

Here's a bonus for you who have read this far about Product-led SEO by Canva's CPO himself, Cameron Adams!

Until next week! 👋