- 1 Find jobs people search for
- 2 Build a template for each job
- 3 Give each its own landing page
- 4 Visitor clicks "Use this template"
- 5 Sign-up opens with template loaded
A template gallery is a public collection of ready-made starting points built in your product: a project plan, an invoice, a content calendar, an onboarding checklist. Each template gets its own page that explains what it is for, shows a preview and offers a button to use it. It fits SaaS products where users create documents, boards, workflows, designs or forms, because a good template saves them the blank-page problem and shows the product in action.
Why it works
People search for templates when they have a specific job to do right now, such as “employee onboarding checklist template” or “social media calendar template.” That is high-intent traffic: they want to get something done, and your template offers a shortcut. Individual template pages can rank for those long-tail searches, often with less competition than broad category terms.
Templates also speed up activation. A new user who starts from a working example reaches value faster than one who opens an empty workspace, and the template quietly teaches them how the product works. Visitors who share a template with a colleague also bring that colleague into the product.
How to do it
- List the jobs your users do. Look at what customers build most often, common support requests and the use cases on your homepage. Turn each into a template idea.
- Check search demand. Use a keyword tool to see which template-related phrases people search for. Prioritise templates that match real queries and your product’s strengths.
- Build genuinely useful templates. Fill them with realistic example content, clear instructions and sensible structure. A template should work for someone with no prior knowledge of your product.
- Create one page per template. Give each page a descriptive title, a short intro on who it is for, a large preview, a list of what is included and tips for using it. Add structured headings so the page reads well and ranks.
- Make the “use” button do real work. When someone clicks to use the template, take them through sign-up and open the template in their new account, ready to edit.
- Organise the gallery. Group templates by job, team or industry with filters and search. Link related templates to each other.
- Invite community templates. Once the gallery has traffic, let users submit templates. Review them, credit the creators and feature the best.
- Maintain and prune. Update templates when the product changes and remove ones nobody uses. Review screenshots and previews each quarter so they match the current interface.
Example
Notion runs a public template marketplace. According to the page’s title, it lets people choose from more than 30,000 templates, including community-built ones, organised into featured collections across work and personal use cases. Each template page gives searchers a reason to land on Notion and a direct way to start using the product with work already set up.
A smaller hypothetical: a form-builder SaaS publishes 40 templates for jobs such as event registration, customer feedback and job applications. Each page ranks for a specific search, and clicking “Use this template” opens the form in a new account, ready to share.
Metrics to track
- Organic traffic to template pages. Shows which templates rank and attract searchers.
- Template-to-sign-up conversion rate. The share of template page visitors who create an account.
- Activation of template sign-ups. Compare how quickly template-started users reach your activation milestone versus other sign-ups.
- Template usage inside the product. Track which templates are opened and kept, to guide what you build next.
When it backfires
- Thin templates. Empty skeletons with little content disappoint visitors and rarely rank.
- Forced sign-up before preview. Hiding the template entirely behind a form frustrates searchers and limits ranking.
- Broken handoff. If clicking “use” leads to a blank workspace with no template, you lose the visitor’s intent.
- Duplicate pages. Dozens of near-identical templates for slightly different keywords can look spammy to readers and search engines.
Growth Marketing Academy
Learn the framework behind this tactic
These lessons explain the math and the mental model, so you can adapt the tactic instead of copying it.
- Track 2 · Acquisition Content and SEO Loops: Pages That Keep Bringing Users Build content, UGC and programmatic SEO loops, organise them into topic clusters, and measure throughput from page published to customer won.
- Track 3 · Activation Time-to-Value: Measure It, Then Shrink It Measure how long new users take to reach first value, read the distribution not just the average, and cut it with templates, sample data, smart defaults and concierge help.
Questions people ask
How many templates do I need to start?
Start with a small set that covers your most common use cases and search terms, done well. You can add more as you learn which pages attract traffic and sign-ups.
Should users be able to submit their own templates?
It can help a lot once the gallery has some traction, since community templates cover niches your team would never reach. Add a review step so quality stays high, and credit creators on each page.
Do I need to make templates available without signing up?
Let visitors see a detailed preview without an account, so search engines and people can understand the template. Ask for sign-up when they want to use or copy it.