Myriad factors contribute to a startup’s success. Once a company has achieved product-market fit, the ability to scale often comes down to marketing. While marketing can encompass many different channels, SEO can be one of the most important efforts for increasing brand awareness, pipeline, and revenue.
We recently analyzed the marketing campaigns of 20 top startup unicorns to find out which ones are having the most success with SEO.
Why does this matter?
For aspiring startups, understanding which startup companies have risen to the top of the SERPs and what strategies they’re implementing can be valuable knowledge. Additionally, from an economic point of view, 2022 was a rough year. While many aspiring startups failed to rise, others were able to raise millions of dollars of venture capital during this frothy market.
At the time, investors valued growth over profitability. And as a result, much of the money was allocated to marketing channels such as paid advertising that are more predictable than other marketing channels. Putting $X in Google and Facebook ads and receiving $Y in return sounds like a safe bet when you need to maintain a certain growth rate.
But as the stock market declined in early- to mid-2022, technology stocks and VC-backed startups saw their valuations fall precipitously. Interestingly, companies that put SEO as their main marketing focus could weather the downturn. They could still acquire new customers efficiently and survive the difficult market.
We’re seeing this play out with well-funded startups, such as Hopin, an all-in-one events management platform. Even though Hopin has acquired five startups (gathered over $1B in venture capital), and was valuated at $7.3B, in March 2022, they had to lay off 29% of its workforce. And if we look closer at their traffic history, the layoff happened around the same time they experienced a huge drop in traffic. Is this a coincidence? We don’t think so.
After failing to move to more sustainable customer acquisition practices, Hopin has already laid off a third of its workforce, and still, there’s no telling whether or not the layoff will keep coming.
And just like Hopin, Fabric—a retail technology company focused on “unlocking insights to place local inventory in the right place, at the right time”—laid off 40% of its workforce, despite being a $1.5B valuation startup.
In early 2022, Fabric saw a heavy drop in traffic, going from 60K to 3K monthly visits today, meaning a 94% dropped in traffic.
And Daily Harvest, a frozen vegan food delivery service valuated at $1.1B, announced a 15% employee layoff on August 8th. Similarly, they’ve been experiencing a drop in traffic since January 2022.
Comparing these three unlucky companies with businesses that invested heavily in SEO, the story is different. They didn’t do a massive layoff and successfully warded off the economic blow. What are these companies? And what SEO strategies did they use? All of these questions will be discussed below.
Methodology
To maintain consistency, we gathered and analyzed the data collected from Ahrefs. The average year-over-year growth is meant to ensure the rankings do not favor startups that have been around longer, and therefore, have had more time to gain traction with SEO.
Note: This data was pulled on 6 May 2022
| Overall Rank | Company | Domain Rating | Organic Keywords | Organic Traffic | Traffic Value | Non-branded Page 1 Ranking | Referring Domains | Do-Follow Links | YoY Growth (Average) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Canva | 92 | 4.9M | 98.4M | $31.2M | 147.3K | 252K | 12.7M | 116% |
| 2 | Grammarly | 89 | 1.1M | 19.7M | $4.9K | 82K | 68K | 13.2M | 66% |
| 3 | Instacart | 84 | 3.7M | 5.9M | $6.7M | 434K | 30K | 17.4M | 66% |
| 4 | Stripe | 93 | 466K | 2.1M | $4.5M | 7.4K | 491K | 17.8M | 36% |
| 5 | Zapier | 91 | 1.6M | 1.7M | $2.9M | 71.6K | 68K | 37.9M | 58% |
| 6 | Fanatics | 79 | 829K | 3.2M | $1.4M | 169K | 22K | 8.1M | 16% |
| 7 | Klarna | 92 | 125K | 783K | $238K | 3.9K | 8.9K | 880K | 332% |
| 8 | Faire | 84 | 650K | 695K | $288K | 57.5K | 13.9K | 100K | 234% |
| 9 | Xiaohongshu | 84 | 295K | 291K | $19K | 4.6K | 15.3K | 8.5M | 621% |
| 10 | Revolut | 81 | 169K | 2M | $457K | 345 | 18.6K | 1.5M | 48% |
| 11 | SpaceX | 83 | 101K | 718K | $485K | 2.3K | 43K | 1.5M | 56% |
| 12 | Databricks | 80 | 218K | 393K | $566K | 4.7K | 19.3K | 481K | 83% |
| 13 | Chime | 75 | 129K | 832K | $1.3M | 3.9K | 11.6K | 172.7K | 13% |
| 14 | JTexpress | 70 | 28.4K | 1M | $1.5K | 463 | 928 | 111K | 225% |
| 15 | Checkout | 76 | 26.5K | 37.9K | $25K | 487 | 4.9K | 676K | 15% |
| 16 | FTX | 80 | 18.6K | 131K | $9.3K | 279 | 2.3K | 6K | 448% |
| 17 | ByteDance | 81 | 2.3K | 52.8K | $3.8K | 10 | 5.6K | 4K | 16% |
| 18 | Nubank | 77 | 924 | 29K | $83K | 7 | 903 | 1.7K | 201% |
| 19 | Sensetime | 73 | 1.8K | 20.5K | $36 | 19 | 4K | 210K | 72% |
| 20 | Global Switch | 68 | 1.1K | 2.6K | $17K | 23 | 582 | 2.9K | 10% |
Our methodology in this analysis was really simple. First, we collected all relevant data (as shown above) from all 20 companies and ranked them from 1 (being the lowest) to 20 (being the highest) for each KPI.
Second, we compared the KPIs of every company to each other and averaged their position across all KPIs. As a result, we had a list of companies that occupied the first to the twentieth rank based on all measured KPIs.
For example, Canva is at the top of the list because, across the board, it ranked the highest for almost all KPIs.
For full disclosure, here are some of our considerations when collecting the data:
- Domain Rating (DR) is a metric that shows the relative strength of a website’s backlink profile.
- Instead of taking into account the total number of backlinks, we analyzed the number of referring domains (as external links from a small number of domains are less valuable and more easily manipulated than links from a wide variety of websites) and do-follow links (which are the type of links search engines take into account).
- Traffic value is the estimated monthly cost to purchase the equivalent of a website’s organic traffic via ads. Ranking for many valuable keywords means a company can reduce ad-spend and use the budget in other marketing channels.
- Although the number of keyword rankings is a good indicator of SEO success, only non-branded keywords attract people who haven’t been exposed to the company or product before, increasing brand awareness and lead generation – crucial indicators of positive return on investment.
- We calculated the year-over-year organic traffic growth to level the field between the newest and the oldest startups on the list.
So, what are the results? We found the following six companies have the biggest win through SEO optimization.
6 Startups That Win BIG in Search Engines
| Overall Rank | Startup | SEO Score | Valuation | Total Funding | Years in Business |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Canva | 100.0 | $40B | $572.6M | 10 Years |
| 2 |  Grammarly | 90.3 | $13B | $400M | 13 Years |
| 3 |  Instacart | 90.0 | $39B | $2.9B | 10 Years |
| 4 |  Stripe | 87.1 | $95B | $2.3B | 12 Years |
| 5 |  Zapier | 86.1 | $5B | $1.4M | 11 Years |
| 6 |  Fanatics | 70.9 | $27B | $4.2B | 20 Years |
There’s no gain if we don’t take a closer look at the strategies and efforts these companies are making.
Let’s explore these six startup unicorns and find out how they got the most out of their SEO investment.
1. Canva
| Valuation | Organic Traffic | Traffic Value |
| $40B | 4,900,000/mon | $31,200,000 |
Canva is an online design and publishing tool launched in 2013 that allows designers to create visuals for social media, websites, and print. From our list, Canva is the one that brings in the most traffic, ranking for the highest number of keywords, and has the greatest traffic value of all at a whopping $31M. For context, the second-highest traffic value is from Instacart at $6M – which is 81% less than Canva.
As a design tool, Canva creates landing pages for each of its product features and use cases. The company has built a learning hub with content covering product marketing for their software and graphic design in general.
Here are Canva’s top 5 pages in the US:
- https://www.canva.com/create/logos/ at 144k visits/month
- https://www.canva.com/templates/ at 104k visits/month
- https://www.canva.com/colors/color-wheel/ 98k visits/month
- https://www.canva.com/pricing/ at 89k visits/month
- https://www.canva.com/create/ at 78k visits/month
It’s worth noting that two of the pages are “free” tools/resources. The templates page has 100 templates from which users can use or draw inspiration, and the color wheel page is a free tool that allows users to create color pallets quickly. These two pages not only did bring in traffic but also earned approximately 10k backlinks.
The Canva team has also created over 50 language versions of their website, diversifying their overall global traffic.
2. Grammarly
| Valuation | Organic Traffic | Traffic Value |
| $13B | 19,700,000.00 | $4,900,000.00 |
Grammarly is a writing assistant that uses natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning to help users avoid misspellings and improve written communication. Grammarly has the second-highest organic traffic at 19M searches per month and has the third-highest traffic value in the list.
Grammarly’s blog brings around 8.5M monthly searches (half its overall traffic), providing educational content around writing. Some of its most successful pages are:
- https://www.grammarly.com/blog/adjective/ at 356k visits/month
- https://www.grammarly.com/blog/how-to-write-a-report/ at 189/ visits/month
- https://www.grammarly.com/blog/adverb/ at 167k visits/month
Although native English speakers are also users of Grammarly, some of Grammarly’s most visited pages are aimed at individuals that speak English as their second language.
Grammarly has also created pages to target long-tail branded searches, demonstrating how SEO and brand marketing can complement one another.
Just like Canva, Grammarly offers a set of free-to-use tools on their website to attract relevant traffic and earn backlinks.
This grammar checker brings around 1.7M monthly visits and has 2.16k referring domains.
3. Instacart
| Valuation | Organic Traffic | Traffic Value |
| $39B | 5,900,000/mon | $6,700,000 |
Instacart offers retail enablement solutions for over 750 grocers across more than 70,000 locations, making it easier for consumers to access fresh and high-quality local food. From our research, Instacart has the highest number of non-branded page 1 keywords ranking at 434k.
Unlike Canva, Instacart doesn’t rely on educational content hubs, since the tool isn’t meant for creative work. Instead, it focuses on creating a simple process for grocers and retailers to use their products. They have landing pages for each location, store, product, and vertical they serve.
Here are Instacart’s top 5 pages:
- https://www.instacart.com/grocery-delivery at 57k visits/month
- https://www.instacart.com/store at 54k visits/month
- https://www.instacart.com/company/contact-us at 40k visits/month
- https://www.instacart.com/costco at 30k visits/month
- https://www.instacart.com/aldi at 30k visits/month
By keeping search intent at the core of their strategy, Instacart has grown their site traffic. They created pages that satisfy the specific needs of their target audience – which in this case includes buying goods from local stores. In fact, most pages bringing traffic to the site are store and location pillar pages.
4. Stripe
| Valuation | Organic Traffic | Traffic Value |
| $95B | 2,100,000/mon | $4,500,000 |
Stripe is a payment service provider that makes it easier to accept online payments. The company is known for providing the infrastructure that makes it easier for software developers to build complex solutions faster. It has the strongest Domain Rating at 93, the second-highest number of do-follow links, and the most number of referring domains at 491k.
Stripe’s search visibility boils down to site authority and a strong brand. Stripe has positioned itself as THE online payment processor. Of their total of 466k organic keyword rankings, only 7k are non-branded keywords, and their blog surprisingly only brings around 8k monthly visits.
Here are Stripe’s top 5 pages:
- https://stripe.com/docs/testing at 44k visits/month
- https://stripe.com/docs/api at 18k visits/month
- https://stripe.com/contact at 15k visits/month
- https://stripe.com/issuing at 13k visits/month
- https://stripe.com/atlas at 11k visits/month
Most of their traffic comes from the different language versions of the homepage and pillar pages. In other words, Stripe’s search success comes from its strong brand positioning rather than from top-of-funnel content marketing.
5. Zapier
| Valuation | Organic Traffic | Traffic Value |
| $5B | 1,761,326/mon | $2,968,200 |
Zapier is a no-code automation tool that connects different apps to automate complex processes without a single line of code. Although their traffic is significantly less than the top startups on the list, Zapier has the highest number of do-follow links at 37M and the third-highest number of referring domains at 68k.
Zapier has an advantage over other tools when it comes to SEO: their large library of integrations. Every app has its own landing page showing the different combinations users can work with, piggybacking from other companies’ brand authority, and catching existing search demand.
However, Zapier’s biggest traffic source is their blog, which brings around 1.1M organic searches per month by targeting every topic around process automation, productivity tips, and remote work.
Their top 5 pages are:
- https://zapier.com/blog/best-url-shorteners/ at 71k visits/month
- https://zapier.com/blog/best-todo-list-apps/ at 51k visits/month
- https://zapier.com/blog/best-note-taking-apps/ at 33k visits/month
- https://zapier.com/apps/office-365/integrations at 28k visits/month
- https://zapier.com/blog/best-calendar-apps/ at 27k visits/month
As you can see, listicles and articles around productivity apps are at the top of their most searched pages. In fact, these five pages are followed by several “best-of” listicles bringing +10k visits/month each.
The key takeaway from Zapier’s approach is that you need a clear understanding of your audience and their pain points to create content that gets traffic to your site.
Note: Most of the companies partnering with Zapier have a page promoting their Zapier integration, so Zapier has no shortage of high-authority backlinks.
6. Fanatics
| Valuation | Organic Traffic | Traffic Value |
| $27B | 3,200,000/mon | $1,400,000 |
Fanatics is a global digital sports platform that facilitates the purchase of licensed sports merchandise online, in stores, and at events. From our startup unicorn list, it has the second-highest number of non-branded rankings on page 1 and the fourth-highest organic traffic.
Their website is structured primarily as an eCommerce platform, providing options based on sports, teams, players, and products.
However, these numbers for Fanatics are a little tricky because sport-related keywords are seasonal. In high-traffic periods, Fanatics might get more traffic and ROI than during other periods throughout the year
Fanatics’ top 5 pages are:
- https://www.fanatics.com/nfl/o-3572+z-953036859-1253393850 at 33k visits/month
- https://www.fanatics.com/mlb/o-8987+z-80725673-162114610 at 28k visits/month
- https://www.fanatics.com/college/o-27+z-9314487535-1329600116 at 27k visits/month
- https://www.fanatics.com/international-clubs/paris-saint-germain/o-42210222+t-25313604+z-7-3626376317 at 21k visits/month
- https://www.fanatics.com/nba/o-23 at 21k visits/month
All of these pages are high-level category pages ranking for more than 500 keywords each.
Something that also stands out to us is their URL structure. Comparing their URLs to SEO best practices, it’s recommended to create URLs that are short, easy to read for users, and avoid special characters.
Fanatics’ URLs don’t check all of these conditions, but this is just one piece of the SEO puzzle. We can get away with it as long as it’s functional, consistent, and don’t hurt the user experience.
Wrapping Up: Organic Growth is More Important Than Ever
For far too long, startups have focused on growth over profitability, relying on quick-to-scale but expensive channels like paid advertising and aggressive hiring to ensure their goals are met. This led to high cash burn rates that seemed sustainable during a bull market.
However, as we’ve seen in 2022, this model can’t survive during a market downturn, resulting in large layoffs across tech startups this year.
Although every company has a different story, and there are many factors that make startups go from 100 to layoffs, there’s also an important lesson to learn: organic growth is more important than ever!
Companies that use marketing channels like SEO to scale their customer acquisition process are in a way better position to cut corners on other expenses instead of having to let go of personnel.
Many startups grew aggressively during COVID, as everyone in lockdown looked for solutions to make their lives easier. However, once the demand started to normalize as cities started to open, startups without a strong organic strategy couldn’t keep the traffic flow coming and lost their leverage.
Because we know organic growth is crucial for your startup’s success, here are three SEO tips to help your startup weather an economic storm or even take advantage of growth opportunities during a recession:
- Find new search trends and capitalize on them.
As a recession hits, customers will behave differently depending on their financial situation. This means you’ll need to rethink your total addressable market (TAM) and understand how you can serve them during these times. Depending on how the market behaves, you can find new solutions to offer (within your service area) that align with their new needs.
For example, a great area to consider is pricing. If your TAM is currently concerned about the pricing, your messaging and value proposition should change to reflect that you’re still the best solution. In SEO, that translates to a change in content strategy to go after those budget-related queries and changing the messaging in important pillar and category pages.
- Optimize your top-of-funnel content to create a reliable, nurturing campaign.
Instead of trying to convert visitors right away, create an email list you can use to get to know your potential customers and nurture them into paying customers.
During a recession, it’s harder to convert, and you don’t want to lose new visitors forever by trying aggressive conversion tactics. In addition, an email list will provide even more value after the recession is over.
Top-of-funnel content also helps your business stay visible during the downturn and will put you in an even better position post-recession.
- Create competitor-targeting content.
During a recession, customers are more willing to consider new options, making it a great opportunity to attract unsatisfied customers from your competition.
A great way to start a campaign like this would be to research what your competitors’ customers are complaining about online and create pages highlighting how your solution accommodates better to their needs.
For example, ScraperAPI built a ScraperAPI vs. ScrapingBee page designed to show how much users would save by switching to a ScraperAPI account, highlighting not only price but the number of extra features they would enjoy for the same price point.
2022 had been a rocky year for startups. Declining valuations and more cautious VC firms had led to staff layoffs, with a potential recession on the horizon.
Startups that can acquire new customers efficiently through organic marketing channels, such as SEO, are the ones that are most likely to have a path to profitability and an ability to navigate a down market.
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