Build a High Converting SaaS Website That Matches Your Stage

In this article, I will walk you through each stage of building a high converting website for your SaaS so you know where you are right now and what to focus on next.

Most SaaS founders treat their website like a one size fits all template instead of something that fits their exact situation. The truth is your website should change depending on the stage your SaaS is in.

After working on both early stage and growth stage SaaS websites, I noticed that each stage needs a different approach. Below I will break down each stage of a SaaS website and show you what actually works.

Why Copying Bigger SaaS Websites Does Not Work

Many founders secretly think:
“If I just copy what bigger SaaS companies do, my site will convert.”

On the surface it sounds logical. They are bigger, so they must know what they are doing, right.

The problem is that their website is built for their exact stage, with a big team, a bigger budget and very different priorities. When you copy that, you are building for a stage you are not in. That often creates extra complexity without better results.

So instead of asking:

• “Is my website good”

you should ask:

• “Is my website right for the stage my SaaS is in right now”

Your website should not look the same in the:

• Early validating stage
• Startup stage
• Scaleup stage

It needs to match your stage, your effort and your budget so it does the right job at the right time.

Let us look at what that means in practice at each stage so you can see where you are and what to focus on next.

Stage 1: Early Validating - The Waitlist and Product Market Fit Test

In the early validating stage, your website has one main job:

Validate product market fit and get people onto a waitlist.

If people will not even give you their email, that is a real problem. You need to focus on how to validate your product.

Think of email as a kind of currency here. If they give you their email, they are paying with attention and interest.

So what should the site look like at this stage?

• It should be simple.
• It still needs to look like a real product, not something thrown together in a minute.
• It should try to actually convince people to join the waitlist.

Even if the product is not built yet and you have not written a single line of code, the website should act as a test. This is often called a smoke test.

The first version of your site should test your positioning. You want to find out if people are interested enough to exchange their email for early access.

You can make it more attractive by offering:

• A special early deal
• A chance to give feedback during development
• Influence on the direction of the product

What To Ignore And Common Mistakes In Stage 1

At this point you do not need:

• A full website
• Blog posts
• About page
• Company story

You are just validating. Building a full company site now will cost you a lot of time, budget and energy that is better used elsewhere.

The big mistakes in this stage are:

• Overbuilding
  Creating a full, polished company website way too early.
• Underbuilding
  Putting up something so weak that people cannot see you care about the product.
• Not building a website at all
  If you hide the product, you are not really validating anything.

Many SaaS founders love solving problems. They build the product first and end up with something that nobody wants, because they never tested positioning or willingness to pay. That can be an email or actual money.

Once you have people on your waitlist, you have a real signal. That is when you can start thinking about stage two.

Stage 2: Startup - From “Good Idea” To Consistent Sales

Stage two is the startup stage. You are moving from:

• “Is this a good idea”
  to
• “Can we consistently sell this product to our target audience”

Now your website has a new job:

Build trust, positioning and messaging around a clear ICP.

Your ICP is your ideal customer profile. The more specific it is, the easier it is to speak to that person’s needs.

When people land on your site at this stage, they should think:

• “This is a real business.”
• “I can trust these people.”

What Your Website Should Look Like In The Startup Stage

You should move away from a simple validation page and into a real website that sells your offer.

Now you want:

• Clear positioning around your ICP
• A structure that can scale with your still unpredictable growth
• A focus on conversions, not just collecting emails

If you are not earning money, there is no long term business. So in this stage you need to start testing if people are willing to pay.

If you have any social proof from the validating stage, this is where you start to show it:

• Beta users
• Early testimonials
• Feedback you have collected

The reason the old waitlist version stops working here is simple. If you keep a basic waitlist style page in the startup stage, you might be losing money. People may be ready to buy, but if your site only lets them sign up for a waitlist, they cannot.

Classic Mistakes In The Startup Stage

Two common problems:

1. Trying to DIY everything
2. Letting AI generate a generic site with no real strategy

When your website is generic and there is no thought behind the structure and messaging, your results will also be generic or mediocre.

You should put real effort into what you create, whether you do it yourself or hire someone like me.

If you want help, you can always book a call with me and we can review your setup. Based on the stage you are in, we can see if it makes sense to work together.

Stage 3: Scaleup - Your Website Becomes Company Infrastructure

At some point you are no longer in the startup stage. You do not just want to look legitimate. You want to scale.

You want to:

• Attract talent
• Attract investors
• Support several teams inside the company

This is where your website has to grow up again.

In the scaleup stage, your website becomes a kind of company infrastructure. Marketing, HR and sales all need to use it or have setups that support their work.

It is no longer just about a single funnel. It is about a scalable system that can grow with your company.

What Your Website Should Do At Scaleup Stage

At this point, your site should support:

• Job posts for hiring
• Blog posts and content to build authority and drive traffic
• Sales pages designed for high conversions that plug into campaigns
  • Paid ads
  • Outreach
  • Email sequences

You also want a setup that lets you:

• Test and improve conversions over time
• Run A/B tests
• Build new sales pages for the sales team to try without breaking anything

The focus here is to build a setup that multiple teams can use.

You also want to double down on:

• Who you are
• What you offer
• Who you are building for

In the startup phase you might still be figuring out your ICP and testing different directions. At the scaleup stage, you want to focus on what is working and commit to that audience.

The biggest mistake in this stage is waiting until things are already breaking before you invest in a proper scalable website.

If you wait too long, your old setup slows everything down.

Putting It All Together

Now you have seen how your website needs to change from:

• Early validating
• Startup
• Scaleup

You might look at your current site and think:

• “This does not match the stage we are in.”

You can absolutely take this framework and implement it yourself.

But turning it into a website that:

• Matches your stage
• Fits your budget
• Supports your goals
• Fits on top of everything else you are doing

can feel overwhelming.

That is why I offer done for you website build and strategy offers.

How I Can Help

When I work with SaaS founders and leaders, I guide them through the full process:

• Clarifying your stage
• Clarifying your positioning
• Mapping out the site
• Designing it
• Building it for you

Instead of guessing, you end up with a website that is:

• Built for the stage your SaaS is in right now
• Able to grow with you as you move from validating to startup to scaleup

If you want to, you can book a quick discovery call session with me. It is completely free. We spend 20 to 30 minutes going through your situation and see if we are a match.

If we are not, that is fine too.

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