SaaS (software as a service) websites must capture your visitors’ attention, answer their queries, and direct them on a journey to convert them from prospects to customers.
If your website fails at this, you could lose customers to competitors.
Thankfully, you don’t have to come up with a foolproof website design or marketing strategy yourself. You can simply apply SaaS website best practices from other successful companies.
What are they?
In this article, we’ll explore why SaaS websites are unique and the 10 best practices that you can adopt to keep visitors interested. We’ll also cover important structural elements, benefits, and successful SaaS website examples.
This Article Contains
- What’s Unique About SaaS Websites?
- 10 SaaS Website Best Practices
- Other General Website Best Practices to Follow
- Important Elements of an Ideal SaaS Website Structure
- The Benefits of a Well-Designed SaaS Website Structure
- 3 Examples of Fantastic SaaS Websites
Let’s dive in!
What’s Unique about SaaS Websites?
Since SaaS websites offer a glimpse into your service and software, the user experience (UX) you provide can make or break a sale.
They need to load fast and work well on any device, whether desktop or mobile. More importantly, SaaS website design needs to be intuitive and responsive to guide visitors along their customer journey.
They must impress visitors to gain a competitive edge since SaaS industry purchasing decisions aren’t as simple as e-commerce ones.
That’s why your website must:
- Highlight how the product meets user goals.
- Be transparent about how the product works.
- Build trust by resolving user doubts quickly.
Not sure how to do that?
Keep reading!
10 SaaS Website Best Practices
If you want to improve the buyer’s journey of each website visitor, you should follow these SaaS website best practices:
- Add an Above-the-Fold Value Proposition
- Offer a Live Chat Feature
- Include Product Videos and Pictures
- Offer Free Trials and Demos
- Highlight Your Product’s Functionality and Features
- Use a Compelling CTA
- Keep a Comprehensive Pricing Page
- Display Social Proof
- Keep a Blog
- Ensure Website Security
1. Add an Above-the-Fold Value Proposition
A value proposition is a short pitch to convey how your product benefits clients.
It should focus on what your software does best for your target audience and why it’s unique. But be careful not to get overly cute with it! Having a clear message is more effective than a clever one.
For example, Ahrefs’ value proposition, “Everything you need to rank higher & get more traffic,” shows users exactly what they stand to gain by using Ahrefs. Clear, simple, and sweet!
But simply creating a great value proposition isn’t enough.
You need to place it where it can stand out on your SaaS landing page or website. This is typically above the fold (the portion of a screen visible before scrolling down) on your SaaS homepage.
Check out how Ahrefs does this:
Pro Tip: You can try AB testing multiple value proposition copies to see what your customers prefer.
2. Offer a Live Chat Feature
What’s the simplest way to solve visitor queries?
Have a SaaS customer support team answer them through live chat!
Live chats let you address your visitors’ needs personally, boosting customer satisfaction. If you can hire a dedicated customer service team, you can have them handle any queries instantly. And, if you’re a startup or SaaS business with limited resources, you could have an AI chatbot do the job for you.
But here’s the thing:
71% of consumers in the 2019 CGS Customer Service Chatbots & Channels survey said they would be less likely to use a brand that doesn’t have human agents available.
So, hiring SaaS customer support agents to manage your live chat could enable a better customer experience than using an AI chatbot.
3. Include Product Videos and Pictures
As a SaaS company, it’s obvious that you should showcase your tool on your homepage.
That’s why you need to include videos and pictures of your product. They do so much more than words can, creating a better user experience.
How?
Pictures help visitors view and recall product design and features at a quick glance.
Videos make it easier to showcase more of your SaaS tool and for customers to absorb that information. Moreover, you can share these videos on social media to attract prospects.
According to Wyzowl’s 2021 Video Marketing survey, 84% of marketers say video has helped them generate leads.
Pro Tip: Include a call to action (CTA) at the end of your video to guide viewers to take the next step.
4. Offer Free Trials and Demos
A free trial or demo gives your visitors a firsthand experience of your SaaS solution, letting them see if it meets their needs. It helps convert them into customers.
Plus, visitors may be more inclined to explore your free trial or demo if there aren’t any strings attached. (Read: You don’t require credit card information.)
But you may wonder: How much of your software should you showcase?
The answer depends on who wants to review your SaaS solution. For individuals and SMBs, you can offer a limited free trial. However, enterprise clients often want immersive demos with a human touch.
So, as a SaaS provider, it’s important to customize this best practice according to the preference of your target audience.
5. Highlight Your Product’s Functionality and Features
Moving away from your SaaS homepage, you’ll want to add dedicated “How it Works” and “Feature” pages.
These pages illustrate the benefits of your SaaS product, helping prospects make an informed decision while considering whether to subscribe to your solution.
Plus, they work well for your website’s search engine optimization (SEO).
Once the visitors become customers, you can have customer success agents help them achieve their outcomes while using your SaaS application. This helps improve your customer experience.
6. Use a Compelling CTA
Call to action (CTA) buttons tell prospects what to do next. These buttons typically link to free trials, contact us pages, or purchase pages.
But how do you compel visitors to click on them?
The answer lies in your copy and website design.
Follow these tips when creating your CTA button:
- Use short, action-oriented copies that describe what happens when visitors click on the button. For example, Slack uses “Try for free” for their sign-up CTA.
- Add large buttons with bright colors and enough white space.
- Place the button(s) above the fold and at the end of your SaaS landing page. Alternatively, you could place CTAs at every stage you want the visitor to take action.
If you have multiple options for your CTA, another best practice would be to try AB testing them to see which copy works best for your customers.
7. Keep a Comprehensive Pricing Page
It’s simple: Customers want to know if your SaaS application will offer value that’s worth their investment.
But whether you explicitly state a price is up to you and your marketing strategy.
Still, as a SaaS provider, you need to create a comprehensive section of tiered plans with a list of features for different team sizes or price points.
Lastly, you could offer customizable plans without a fixed pricing model that can be tailored to the needs of enterprise-level organizations.
For example, Toggl Track has multiple plans, from free to customizable, covering different features and use cases.
8. Display Social Proof
Social proof shows visitors they can trust your SaaS tool to meet their needs. It’s more influential in boosting conversion rates than your feature page since it displays actual evidence of success.
After all, SaaS marketing content isn’t as reliable as customer satisfaction testimonials from users or businesses in a similar position.
Some of the best ways to display social proof are:
- Case study material
- Customer testimonial snippets
- Reviews and ratings
- User statistics
- Business customers or partner logos
These inclusions can help convince prospects that your SaaS product is worth more than its investment. Moreover, you can sprinkle them all over your site, from statistics on your homepage to a customer testimonial on your pricing page.
9. Keep a Blog
Blogs aid your content marketing and inbound marketing strategies.
They let you incorporate keyword research for search engine optimization benefits — increasing the likelihood of your site being discovered organically on search engines. It also enhances your authority as a service provider.
And if your blog provides valuable information to readers, your B2C or B2B SaaS company can become a reliable source for solutions related to that field. You could also get backlinks from other websites that source your information.
But that’s not all!
You can promote your own products in your blogs to convert readers who are looking for solutions.
10. Ensure Website Security
Nothing is worse for your reputation than a “Not Secure” warning from a visitor’s browser.
It makes your brand seem unreliable.
Why does this happen?
It can happen if websites use Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) instead of Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) to communicate between servers. This can make it vulnerable to attacks from cybercriminals.
As a SaaS company, you want every potential customer to know their data is secure and protected. That’s why it’s bad for your SaaS business and unsafe for your customers to host or send personal or payment data on an HTTP website.
But you don’t need to limit yourself solely to SaaS marketing practices.
Other General Website Best Practices to Follow
Aside from the above SaaS best practices, you can adopt some of these general website tips to ensure you create a smooth UX design:
- Optimize your pages to improve loading speed by compressing images, reducing redirects, etc.
- Use a responsive website design that works well on any device. You could even create a SaaS app for mobile users.
- Select a color scheme that complements your brand.
In addition to these best practices, it’s also important to use an optimal website structure.
Let’s see what that entails.
Important Elements of an Ideal SaaS Website Structure
Here are the essentials of structuring a SaaS website:
1. Primary Navigation
The primary navigation is the bar at the top that directs visitors to the most important pages on your website.
Why is it important?
Your visitors don’t want to spend their valuable time aimlessly. Without the primary navigation, they may feel lost about what they need to check out.
Below are some essential links for SaaS websites to feature in their primary navigation:
- Product or feature pages
- Company information pages (including ‘about us’ and ‘contact us’ pages)
- Resources (can include blog, guides, ebooks, and more)
- Pricing
- Free trial and demo CTAs
- Sign in or register
Have a look at what Kajabi includes in their primary navigation:
2. Footer
The footer is the section right at the bottom of your webpage. You can use it to direct visitors to more pages, including ones less relevant to a first-time website visitor.
But what’s interesting is you can optimize your footer per your SaaS SEO keyword strategy to boost organic traffic.
Helpful links for your footer include:
- Support or help
- Legal
- Sitemap (for technical SEO)
- Resources
- Integrations
- Social media icons
- Company information or contact
Here’s a look at what DocuSign, a document management software service, includes in its comprehensive footer:
3. Resources
Resources encourage a potential customer to learn more about the product or service through informative pages. They also keep visitors on your site for longer and help your website’s SEO strategy.
SaaS resources can include several content marketing elements, like:
- Blogs
- Guides
- White papers
- Product information
- Case study content
That’s why it makes sense for SaaS marketers to include those elements in the primary navigation and footer.
4. URL Structure
A URL (Uniform Resource Locator) is a unique address to locate a resource on the internet.
Your URL structure helps users and search engines identify your page content faster, so it’s best to keep them SEO-friendly.
Good practices for SEO-friendly URLs include:
- Keeping URLs short and keyword-focused. For example, your “Contact Us” page could become: “https://yoursaaswebsite.com/contact”.
- Nesting pages within the same category. For example, listing each feature under the feature page. This could look like: “https://yoursaaswebsite.com/features/file-sharing/”.
- Avoiding numbers, symbols, or special characters (besides hyphens).
But why should you follow these web design and structural practices?
The Benefits of a Well-Designed SaaS Website Structure
SaaS websites with good structure and intuitive design elements enjoy numerous benefits. Below are some of the most important:
- Optimizes User Experience: A planned SaaS website design and structure enables easy navigation, helping visitors find what they’re looking for without hassle.
- Positively Impacts SaaS SEO: Good website structure can streamline the indexation of your pages and improve your website’s ability to rank for keywords. Intuitive web design also improves page speed, which aids your SEO strategy.
- Aids Conversions: Smart design elements, like a CTA button and navigation bar, guide visitors along their customer journey, improving conversions.
Next, let’s look at a few SaaS websites that do a great job of putting these strategies into play.
3 Examples of Fantastic SaaS Websites
You can find many successful SaaS website examples that you can use for design and structure inspiration. However, we’ll share a few from the SaaS industry that we feel are exemplary in how they apply the website best practices we’ve covered above.
1. Hubspot
HubSpot’s website incorporates a good mix of images, text, and stats to keep users engaged as they navigate the site.
Here’s how:
- HubSpot highlights its products and their features on the landing page. Plus, each product snippet includes a CTA to guide customers on the next step they should take.
2. The website addresses user queries with a live chat feature.
3. Provides an extensive footer with free resources.
2. Dropbox
Dropbox’s website focuses on building trust to convert visitors, showcasing case studies and integrations to tell users they can use Dropbox for various purposes.
Here’s how:
1. Displays social proof and key features proactively, right from the value proposition.
2. Includes social media buttons in its comprehensive footer.
3. Has a wide variety of pricing plans for various types of users.
3. Slack
Right from the landing page, Slack talks about how it boosts productivity. The website also offers extensive resources to educate users and address their needs.
Here’s how:
1. Displays a detailed value proposition that includes the tool’s benefit and purpose (see the image above).
2. Uses short videos throughout the homepage to highlight features.
3. Incorporates both chatbots and FAQs to address visitor queries.
Optimize Your SaaS Website to Convert Prospects
Now that you know the SaaS website best practices, you can implement what works best for your inbound marketing strategy.
Just be sure to stay true to your unique value as a company. After all, visitors want to know why they should choose you over others.
But if you need assistance with boosting organic traffic and conversions, contact Startup Voyager to leverage the knowledge of our SEO specialists.
We can help you 10x your organic search traffic through conversion-based content and SEO strategies!