How Webflow Does User-Generated Programmatic SEO

Have you seen Webflow's user-generated template library?! 🔥🔥🔥

They get >100,000 traffic/month with some simple SEO tricks.

And it must be a HUGEEEEE win for:

⚡ Customer acquisition

⚡ Product activation

⚡ User retention

Here's the deets behind the search win.

Background

For those who don't know @webflow, they're a no-code website builder.

And, I'm not joking when I say they've got the BEST free help materials & courses out there.

- Hilarious 'how to" videos

- Active community forums

- And now I find this...

Programmatic SEO, let's dive in.

OK OK OK...

We all know programmatic SEO from greatest hits such as:

"this is what's wrong with the internet"

and

"great, more spam"

But Webflow has done it RIGHT.

🔥 User-first 🔥 Activation-driving 🔥 Funnel-targeted 🔥

1/ The website template library

All programmatic SEO needs a database.

For Webflow, it's their template library that's "built by the community".

It's jam-packed full of components, designs, little bits of javascript.

All are built by incredible no-code devs the world over.

As a Webflow user, when you're stuck. This is where you go for ideas.

Each template is:

- Rated by the community

- Tagged with features like "navbar", "gallery" and "forms"

That last part is important.

Tags = categorization of the templates.

2/ Optimizing for search

When building my site, I head to Google regularly.

Example: Yesterday, I didn't want to build a navigation menu from scratch.

The interactions are finicky. And, I've learned that other people are 100x better than me.

My search: "webflow navbar ideas"

Guess what?

This search pulls up Webflow's template library.

But specifically, only the templates useful for me.

e.g. all those tagged "navbar".

I can instantly grab 100s of ideas and reuse them.

Their library template adapted to my needs:

A new "navbar" filter appeared

> This is important for meeting search intent quickly. I felt reassured, and stayed to browse.

A new, clean URL structure: /made-in-webflow/navbar

> This shows the results were intentional

And, this isn't a one-time win.

Almost every component has its own page and gallery.

From slideshows → videos.

There are tons and tons of examples.

Webflow has created a category within their template library for all in-demand searches.

Webflow developers (the users who build the templates) also win.

It's a lucrative business being a WF dev.

You can sell your templates or do custom work for brands.

Their search-optimized library drives discoverability for devs AND users.

This strategy is creating 3 enormous wins:

1/ It helps me get more out of the product

> I get more value

> I stay a customer for longer

> I fanboy Webflow

✅ Activation + Retention

2/ Anti-competition

They appear for all "branded" keywords. Fending off alternatives (ง'̀-'́)ง

3/ It drives new acquisition

Top-ranking keywords for their template library also include non-branded stuff.

They rank top 3 for:

> "timeline websites"

> "scrolling animation"

> "pricing slider"

And a whole bunch of other website-y terms.

For prospects in consideration phase, it provides:

- examples

- easy ways to get started

Keywords like:

"webflow websites"

"webflow examples"

"webflow templates"

Show off their best capabilities.

Conclusion

This is all super smart stuff by Webflow.

They've tapped into their community to meet search demand.

SEOs often over-focus on the acquisition funnel...

But this is a perfect example of customer-focused SEO.

Great search strategies meet the target audience in the search results where THEY need you. Not where you need them.

Source

This was originally a Twitter thread by me, Ben Goodey.