9 SaaS Website Best Practices

In this post, we discuss SaaS website best practices. A few best practices include having clear customer-centric content, sharing pricing, case studies, and placing above-the-fold CTAs on your homepage.

The number of SaaS apps has increased tenfold since 2015, and it’s expected that 85% of business apps will be SaaS-based by 2025.

While the SaaS industry is incredibly profitable right now, it’s also becoming extremely competitive. All of these new companies coming into play give your prospects options when it comes to finding a solution like yours for their business. Having a well-thought-out B2B SaaS website is one of the easiest ways you can set yourself apart from the pack.

Here, we discuss SaaS website best practices to implement in order to increase conversions and why website design is important to your business’s success.

Why SaaS Websites Need a Specific Site Architecture

Aside from helping you differentiate your company from a growing list of competitors, your B2B SaaS website often serves as your first impression for potential customers. Think of it as a 10-second elevator pitch, considering most users leave web pages after 10-20 seconds.

While you may have a user’s attention for up to 20 seconds, it only takes an average of 50 milliseconds for them to form an impression of your site. This is why website design and architecture are so critical.

Your site architecture refers to the hierarchical structure of the pages on your website, including how they link together. This influences where users look first, how they navigate between internal pages and their overall user experience.

A website’s architecture includes elements such as:

• Your site’s layout
• Your calls to action (CTAs)
• Placement of media, buttons and text
• Your main menu and footer menu
• Use of headings, bulleted lists and other formatting choices

The flow of your website can quickly give your potential customers an opinion on your credibility, technical skills and whether your SaaS product will be easy to use. In fact, 75% of consumers admit that they make judgements about a business’s credibility based on the overall design of its website.

Your SaaS website should provide a positive user experience from the second a prospect lands on your page by being easy to navigate and understand.

B2B SaaS Website Best Practices to Increase Conversions

1. Clearly Communicate Who You Are and What You Do

Perhaps the most important best practice for SaaS websites is to make it easy for potential customers to know what your software does and who it’s best suited for. This information should always appear “above the fold” of your site, meaning it should go at the top of your home page so users can easily view it without having to scroll.

Oftentimes, this information is placed in the page’s header image or graphic, which makes it pop visually to ensure it’s the first information your prospects see.

We recommend keeping it short, such as including a brief summary phrase as an introductory header followed by 1-2 sentences that sum up your product and how it makes your customers’ lives easier. This is also a great place to incorporate an effective value proposition to help keep users on the page.

2. Create User-Centric Content

Another important best practice for B2B SaaS websites is to keep the focus on your customer instead of using sales-oriented copy. This can be as simple as switching around the wording of your copy from starting with “we” to beginning with “you.”

For example, if your company is selling a timekeeping solution for remote workers, you might change sentence #1 below to sentence #2 to keep the focus on your customer’s needs.

1. “We give businesses the technology they need to hold remote employees accountable for their work.”
2. “You need a transparent way to keep employees accountable for their work while giving them the flexibility to work from home.”

Both sentences communicate the same message, but the second version speaks directly to your customers and shows that you understand their pain points.

3. Use Clear and Actionable CTAs

Once you’ve provided users with top-level information about how your solution can best support their needs, it’s important to make clear exactly what you want them to do next. The best way to do this is through the use of direct, actionable CTAs.

Your B2B SaaS website’s home page should be sprinkled with buttons that give clear instructions for next steps, such as:

• “Start Trial Today”
• “Request a Demo”
• “Schedule an Intro Call”

These instructions should be based on the accompanying copy and where your prospects will likely be in their sales journey when they come across it.

For example, if your demo includes a link to a specific landing page at the end, the users who end up there will likely already know what your solution does. At that point, it would make more sense to ask them to sign up for a trial than to schedule an introductory call.

4. Include Pricing or Pricing Calculators

In line with giving customers easy access to the information they’re looking for, we recommend including a pricing tab in your main menu. This saves both you and your prospects time and resources instead of getting halfway down the sales pipeline only for you both to realize that your solution isn’t within budget.

If your solution doesn’t have clear, tiered pricing based on general factors, consider adding in a pricing calculator that prospects can use to get a sense of what your solution might cost in their particular situation.

5. Use Media to Show Your Product in Use

Another SaaS website best practice is to let your solution do the talking. Including images, graphics, videos and/or animations that show your product in action can not only be effective sales tools to keep prospects moving through your buying journey – it can also improve your user experience.

Just be sure to keep examples as general as possible. If you showcase a video of how your solution can be used in a specific industry, for example, it may turn away prospects from other industries who suddenly think your solution isn’t relevant to them.

6. Write Relevant Case Studies

Nearly half of SaaS companies say that case studies are very effective at boosting sales. Any tool that has the potential to significantly increase conversions has a reason for being included on your site.

Case studies can be short by simply explaining the problem, how your solution addressed it and the end results for your customer. Consider including a case study for each industry you commonly work with to showcase your expertise across the board.

Case studies can also be used as lead-generating tools by asking users to enter basic information (such as their name, email, phone and company) before they are able to download the relevant case study that interests them.

7. Determine an SEO Strategy

A beautiful website doesn’t do you much good if your prospects can’t find it. Developing a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy helps ensure your content is being placed in front of the right eyes in online searches, making it more likely to convert visitors into customers.

A comprehensive SEO strategy can also help you optimize your content by uncovering the best pillar and secondary keywords to increase your website’s search ranking.

8. Create Content that Supports Each Stage in the Buying Journey

When it comes to SaaS website best practices, it’s important to remember that not every prospect comes to your site at the same stage in the buying process. For example, potential customers could fall into any of the following buckets:

• Have never heard of your solution and have no idea who you are.
• Customer has heard of your solution by word of mouth and want to look into it further.
• They’ve already had an introductory call with your team and scheduled a demo, and they’re looking your site over again before making a purchase decision.
• May have already purchased your solution and are interested in upgrading or adding additional services.

Prospects who fall into one of these buckets may be looking for completely different information than those in other buckets, so it’s critical to make sure your site speaks to prospects no matter where they are in their purchasing journey.

9. Incorporate a Customer Support Page or Chat System

Part of providing a good user experience on your SaaS website is assisting your customers even after they’ve purchased your solution. This way, they’ll continue to:

• Recommend your solution
• Stay loyal to (and renew) their contract
• Consider any additional solutions or services you offer

One easy way to accomplish this is to incorporate either a customer support page or automated chat bot that can help them solve simple bugs or figure out what they may be doing wrong when a problem arises. These tools may include features such as:

• Commonly asked questions and answers
• Step-by-step problem-solving guides
• Setup instructions via pre-recorded videos
• Information on how to receive live support via phone or chat
• Other contact information, including an email address or tools that exist within your product’s portal

The Bottom Line

The SaaS industry is growing exponentially and shows no signs of slowing any time soon. By following these B2B SaaS website best practices, you’ll be better positioned to increase conversions and come out on top of your competitors.

Motion Tactic is a B2B website design agency that specializes in creating strategy-based, customer-centric websites for clients in the SaaS industry. Start increasing conversions for your SaaS website – get in touch today!