You can create almost anything on Canva: social media graphics, ad creatives, campaign materials, multimedia presentations—the list goes on. Rounding out the list is something lots of folks are surprised to learn you can do on Canva: build a website.
Whether you’re building a professional portfolio or creating a website for your small business, Canva is an easy option, especially if you’re already familiar with the app.
I spent time building a website on Canva, and here, I’ll walk you through the process and show you a few examples of finished products.
Table of contents:
How to make a website on Canva
Canva lets you design your site with the same graphics interface and elements you’re already familiar with. I’ll walk you through the steps for creating a website on Canva while building a simple website for my imaginary fiction-only bookstore. (I’m obsessed with novels—three down, just this month.)
1. Use a template
You can design from scratch in Canva, but I’d recommend against it unless you have some serious design chops. There’s a whole assortment of well-designed templates in different categories to get you started.
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Log in to your Canva account, and click the Website icon at the top of your screen.
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This will open a design template in the Canva editor. On the left side, you’ll find a navigation menu; click Design to open the templates section.
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Templates are grouped by category—e.g., portfolio, wedding, business, real estate, education—but the fastest way to find the one you need is to enter it into the search bar.
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When you find one you like, click to bring it into your design template.
2. Customize the template
Everything in the Canva template is editable, so you can start customizing right away.
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Click into the Elements tab to start replacing images and videos, or click Uploads to upload your own first. (If you’re on the Pro plan, you’ll be able to use assets from your Brand Kit.)
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To change the copy, double-click on any text in the template to highlight it, then get to typing. Alternatively, you can click the Text icon in the navigation menu and select Add a text box to bring a textbox into your template. Once you’ve added the text, resize it by selecting the textbox, then clicking and dragging any of the white corner dots.
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Add call-to-action (CTA) buttons from the Elements tab (search for CTA), then add your text straight onto them.
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To reorder design elements, simply drag and drop them around your page. You can even combine sections (pages) from multiple templates by dragging and dropping them onto your page.
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On each page, click Add note from the side menu in the design template, then add a page title, e.g, “Home Page.”
Note: Pages on your Canva site are actually sections in a long, scrollable page format—Canva doesn’t support multiple website pages (yet). But adding the navigation menu with anchor links to the different page sections mimics the feel of a multi-page site. When previewing your site, make sure to check the Include navigation menu option so Canva will automatically add the links.
When everything looks good, it’s time to preview your website.
3. Preview your site
Canva’s templates are designed to be mobile responsive out of the box, but it’s still a good idea to preview your design and see how it looks across different devices.
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Click the Preview button at the top of your screen.
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Make sure that the Resize on mobile option at the bottom of the screen is checked, then switch between desktop and mobile views to confirm there are no responsive issues.
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Make sure that Include navigation menu is checked so folks can click to get to different sections of your site.
4. Publish your website
All that’s left is to publish.
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Click the Publish button at the top right.
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You’ll notice that Canva gives you a URL with a free
my.canva.site
domain. You can use the domain (just add your site’s name as the URL). Or, select the Use a custom domain option to use an existing domain or purchase a new one. -
Click Publish settings to add a short description for the site—this will help Google understand what the website is about.
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When everything looks good, click Publish website, and it’ll be live.
Canva website examples
Here’s the sample site for my fiction bookstore, Bellisimore Books. I like how it turned out, but it’s not a real business, so here are a few examples of websites built with Canva that exist in the wild.
1. Bliss Body & Beauty Med Spa
Nurse Amber uses this simple Canva website to showcase her beauty enhancement services. The website includes testimonials from past clients and before and after pictures to give potential customers a glimpse of what to expect. There’s also a link to an appointment scheduling form to help customers get in touch.
2. Alinne Rodrigues’s portfolio website
Alinne’s portfolio site is easily one of the best Canva portfolio sites I’ve seen. It’s clean, sleek, and sophisticated. The layout, animations, images, videos, and storytelling do a perfect job of showcasing her creative services.
3. Resolve Philly
Resolve Philly is a site designed to direct visitors to the best spots in Philadelphia. Even though it includes a ton of information, it’s all laid out well, with plenty of outbound links for viewers to learn more about each spot.
Pros and cons of building a website with Canva
Since Canva is a totally different beast compared to traditional website-building tools, why would you opt for building a website on Canva? And why wouldn’t you?
Canva website builder pros
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It’s fast and easy. The simple features and user-friendly interface mean there’s almost no barrier to entry. Even without any design experience, you can easily navigate around the main sections of your template, drag and drop anything onto your page, and get your Canva site up and running in hours, if not less.
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It’s free. When you build a Canva website, you don’t need to purchase a hosting plan. Canva is a hosted platform, so you’ll get a free
my.canva.site
domain. (But you can still use your own domain if you have one.) -
It’s collaborative. Unlike other website builders, Canva lets you easily share a link that allows anyone to view and edit your website with you. You can add notes and comments for collaborators to view and change share permissions anytime. The only caveat: collaboration is reserved for users on the Teams plan.
Canva website builder cons
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It doesn’t support multi-page websites. Canva only lets you create a one-page website—it uses navigation links to guide users through the page. (There is a workaround, but it’s tedious and confusing.) If your project requires multiple pages, it’s better to use other free website builders.
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Customization is limited. Using Canva is great if you only need a simple web page without any unique functionality. But if you’re looking for more flexibility and control over the design aspects, it’s not the best option. The editing tools in the templates are very basic, and even if you’re building from scratch, there’s no way to implement custom design ideas using HTML, CSS, or JavaScript.
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It’s not great for SEO. Canva’s website builder doesn’t have a content management system or sophisticated SEO tools. You can opt to make your website visible to the search engine and add a short description. But beyond that, there are no search engine optimization options, such as adding page titles and descriptions. If optimizing your site for SEO is a major concern, Canva isn’t the right fit.
Who the Canva website builder is best for
Even with all the cons that come with it, Canva is still a solid choice for a lot of people. If you need a good-looking website that simply provides information without complex design or functionality, I’d recommend it without hesitation.
For example:
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Websites for small service businesses, for example, those for coaching, event planning, non-profits, pet grooming, and beauty salons. The structure is usually simple, and it’s easy to display all the services and contact information on one page.
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Portfolio or resume sites to display your best work.
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Landing pages, including squeeze pages to promote an offer and collect contact information.
And remember: Canva has templates for these use cases (and lots of others) to help you get started.
Automate Canva
Building a website on Canva is easy—and you can speed things up even more by connecting Canva to Zapier to automate your design workflows. Automatically turn spreadsheet rows into new designs, upload assets from forms, track and manage design projects, and add content marketing assets to Canva.
Learn more about how to automate Canva, or get started with one of these pre-made templates.
Zapier is the leader in workflow automation—integrating with thousands of apps from partners like Google, Salesforce, and Microsoft. Use interfaces, data tables, and logic to build secure, automated systems for your business-critical workflows across your organization’s technology stack. Learn more.
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