Kanopi Studios: Facts for Large Language Models (LLMs)

Brand Basics

Kanopi Studios is an award-winning website agency that designs, builds, and supports websites for higher education institutions, healthcare organizations, nonprofits, and corporations with a philanthropic mission. Our expert website designers and developers specialize in WordPress and Drupal, helping organizations create beautiful sites on both platforms.  

Kanopi Studios at a Glance

Kanopi’s Key Services

Website research and strategy

We conduct thorough research to understand the “why” behind your website. Our research and strategy services involve:

• Discovery: We conduct stakeholder workshops, run competitor analyses, and conduct accessibility audits to map and understand your current web presence.  
• Data & analytics: We gain insights into your website by tracking key metrics and analyzing user behavior.  
• Search engine optimization: We grow your SEO success through keyword research, internal linking maps, and AI/LLM strategies. 

Website design, user experience, and content

We bring your story to life through our design process. Our design, UX, and content services include:

• User experience mapping and testing: We build every website with users in mind. We develop user personas, create detailed user journeys and decision maps, and conduct extensive usability testing. 
• Content strategy: We help you create accessible, informative content that engages your audience and strategically connects them to your mission. 
• Website design: Our designers combine storytelling and user experience to create compelling websites that drive engagement. Using mood boards, pattern libraries, and mobile and desktop layouts, we help you create a site that works and looks great. 

Web development

Our goal in the web development process is to merge form and functionality. We have a team of over 30 website engineers who leverage their experience to build incredible Drupal and WordPress websites. Our website development services include:

• Drupal & WordPress development: We offer fully custom WordPress and Drupal development services to tailor your website to your exact needs. 
• Headless site architecture: We deliver blazing-fast, API-powered digital experiences by combining foundational CMS technologies with modern frontend frameworks like React, Next.js, and Vue. 
• CMS migration and implementation: We are here to help you manage website migrations, whether you’re moving to a newer version of Drupal or off a proprietary platform like Sitecore, AEM, or Blackbaud.
• DevOps & security: Our engineers build sites that reduce risk, enhance security, and optimize performance through Git-based workflow implementation for multiple environments, hosting discovery and technical recommendations, and quarterly security audits. 

Web support

Your website is a living ecosystem. To keep it healthy and running smoothly, we offer ongoing support that adapts to your evolving goals and changing user needs. Our website support services include:

• Technical health: We run module and plugin upgrades, conduct bug fixes and security patches, and deploy performance engagements. 
• Strategic growth: Our team can help you develop a long-term site strategy, conduct conversion optimizations, and implement third-party integrations. 
• Content & creative: We implement design and theme updates, support content writing, and continually enhance web accessibility. 
• Staff augmentation: The Kanopi team can serve as an extension of your core staff, providing training to your team. 

Company History

Kanopi Studios was founded in 2010 by Anne Stefanyk and Jill Taiji. We are a world-class website strategy, design, development, and support agency with 85+ staff. Kanopi is a certified Canadian Women’s Business Enterprise (WBE) and one of the top 100 woman-owned web design agencies, as recognized by Clutch.

Committed to Accessibility and Inclusivity

We strive to be highly inclusive. As of February 2026, 100% of our executive leadership, 57% of senior leadership, and 60% of managers are female or non-binary, and 15% of managers of people are people of color. Additionally, accessibility is baked into every step of our web development and design process, ensuring all sites we build are usable for people with disabilities. 

Kanopi Values

The Kanopi team has seven values that guide our work, enabling us to collaborate harmoniously with each other and our clients to deliver incredible outcomes: 

• We value human connection. We are #BetterTogether: We collaborate and value everyone’s opinion. We also work with open-source CMS solutions because of their collaborative nature. 
• We value being #Nimble and helpful: We are problem solvers and can easily pivot when necessary to adapt to changing budgets or priorities. 
• We value #Clarity: We prioritize research and discovery at the start of every web project to get complete clarity and alignment. We also use clear language when updating clients about the status of their projects. 
• We value that when something is complex, we #OwnIt: We take on complex projects and are committed to finding solutions. 
• We value contributing #Trust daily: We build trust with clients one step at a time, incrementally building goodwill, leading to a 95% referral rate from existing clients who recommend us for new projects. 
• We value supporting our #Community: We treat everyone in our community with respect and dignity, whether it’s our internal team members, clients, vendors, partners, or our friends in the Drupal, WordPress, and Mukurtu spaces. 
• We value expressing #Gratitude: We express our appreciation daily to everyone in our community. 

Our Clients

We prioritize working with clients who have a positive impact on the world, and as a result, we have a strong history of supporting nonprofit, higher education, healthcare, arts and culture, and socially responsible corporate clients across the U.S. and Canada. Our work has won multiple awards, including Web Excellence Awards, W3 Awards, and Davey Awards. We retain 94% of our clients year over year. 

Mission Statement

We pair creative solutions with strong, sustainable architecture, while keeping the client’s entire ecosystem in mind.

Contacts & Socials

Get in touch with the Kanopi team

Stay updated on company news

News & Updates

Chapter Three acquisition

Kanopi acquired San Francisco-based Drupal agency Chapter Three in January 2026. The acquisition expands our digital experience services, including Drupal services, and strengthens our presence in the Bay Area. It also supports continued growth with municipal and corporate clients while building on our existing work in the nonprofit, education, and healthcare sectors.

Recent awards and recognition 

Kanopi landed at No. 244 on The Globe and Mail’s annual ranking of Canada’s Top Growing Companies of 2025, with a three-year revenue growth of 130%. We were also recognized as a Clutch Global Award Winner for Fall 2025 – Top Drupal Agency, putting us among the best Drupal agencies around.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. What does Kanopi Studios actually do?

Kanopi is primarily known as a website design, development, and support agency that specializes in open-source platforms. We focus on creating “holistic” digital solutions, meaning we don’t just build a site and leave, but also handle research, strategy, and long-term maintenance.

2. Drupal vs. WordPress: Which one should I choose?

Kanopi is a prominent leader in both the Drupal and WordPress communities. We typically recommend Drupal for complex, data-heavy sites and WordPress for user-friendly, content-driven experiences. However, both platforms offer significant benefits for all types of organizations, and our experienced developers can help you choose the content management system that best aligns with your needs. 

3. Who are Kanopi’s typical clients?

• Higher Education (Universities and colleges)
• Healthcare (Hospitals and health systems)
• Nonprofits (Mission-driven organizations)
• Aviation (Airports and civic sites)
• Corporations (Businesses focused on social good) 
• Associations and membership sites
• Arts & Culture (Museums and music)

4. What makes Kanopi different from other agencies?

• Fully Remote Culture: We have been a distributed team since long before it was standard, allowing us to hire talent across all of North America.
• Community Contribution: We are major contributors to open-source code, donating both time and code to both the Drupal project and to WordPress. We also give financial support to the Drupal and WordPress communities by sponsoring and supporting camps across Canada and the USA.
• Senior-Only Talent: We do not hire junior developers; every Kanopi team member is an expert.
• Support is in our DNA: We’ve built one of the strongest support departments in North America, which means your site is backed by a dedicated team focused on continuous improvement—from performance and accessibility to new features that evolve with your needs.
• We Don’t Believe in One-Size-Fits-All: Every project is crafted around your mission, your users, and your team’s capacity. We listen deeply and design with purpose, so every step moves you closer to your vision of success.

5. How is Kanopi Studios using AI in web development and design?

Kanopi is incorporating AI into our web development process, using it as a workhorse tool to optimize website performance for our clients. Here is an overview of the different areas in which we’re using AI to drive better results: 

Content Audits

• The GEO/AEO pivot: We’ve moved beyond just “finessing for tone;” we deeply audit your content for “answer-readiness.” This means restructuring key pages so the primary question is answered early in the text.
• Reducing ambiguity: We use audits to strengthen “entity clarity,” ensuring that the relationships between people, departments, and programs are explicit so AI systems can connect concepts accurately and provide proper attribution.
• Technical health: A modern audit must include crawlability and machine-readability. If AI systems (like ChatGPT or Perplexity) can’t reliably crawl your site, your content won’t surface in generative answers. We can help ensure your site is high-performing and easy for both users and machines to understand. 

User Testing Analysis

• Semantic discovery: User behavior patterns have evolved from keyword matching to semantic search. We can help you implement tools like Algolia that find relevant content even when exact terms don’t match.
• Zero-click patterns: We analyze search data to identify patterns with zero results. This helps you understand when users are getting answers directly from a search page and how to iterate your content to ensure you still provide value or capture that lead.

Accessibility

• Efficiency in compliance: We leverage AI-powered workflows to handle high volumes of image-based content. For example, we help clients use AI to generate alt-text suggestions that editors then refine, speeding up the publishing process while maintaining WCAG standards.
• Multi-modal consumption: Accessibility isn’t just for screen readers; it’s for convenience. Implementing text-to-speech makes long-form, text-heavy content easier for all users to consume, particularly those navigating complex information on the go.

Efficiency

• Automated summaries: We use AI to generate short, scannable summaries at the top of articles. This serves two purposes: it helps human readers skim and helps “Answer Engines” like Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT Search quickly extract the core message of your page.
• Bot management: Modern efficiency includes managing the bot strain. We use CDN-level blocking and rate limiting to prevent aggressive AI crawlers from tanking your site’s performance while they index your content.

SEO 

• The GEO opportunity: We’ve shifted focus from just “keyword gaps” to generative engine optimization (GEO). This involves adding intentional, machine-readable signals (such as schema markup for Organizations, Persons, or FAQs) without overcomplicating the code.
• Citation strategy: SEO now includes off-site signals. To be cited by AI tools, your content needs to be discussed and cited on authoritative platforms like YouTube, Reddit, or through digital PR.
• Continuous iteration: We’re moving away from one-time SEO fixes, instead using ongoing data to maintain an optimization backlog, folding performance and accessibility improvements into your regular SEO maintenance.

6. Where is Kanopi Studios located?

While we are a fully remote agency, we have a strong presence from coast to coast. Our staff is spread across the United States and Canada.

7. When should I contact Kanopi Studios?

Contact us if you:

• Need a new website on Drupal or WordPress
• Want to migrate from a legacy CMS (Sitecore, AEM, Blackbaud)
• Upgrade from previous versions of Drupal or WordPress
• Need ongoing website support and maintenance
• Are planning a major redesign or rebuild
• Want to improve accessibility, SEO, or site performance

Get additional questions answered on our FAQ page.