Jul 13, 2025·8 min
How to Build a Website for SaaS Marketing Pages & Docs
Learn how to plan, build, and launch a SaaS website that supports marketing pages and documentation with clear structure, SEO, fast performance, and easy updates.
Learn how to plan, build, and launch a SaaS website that supports marketing pages and documentation with clear structure, SEO, fast performance, and easy updates.
A SaaS website that combines marketing pages and documentation has two jobs: convince new visitors to start, and help existing users succeed. If you treat it as “one site with one purpose,” you’ll usually optimize for only one side—and the other will quietly underperform.
Marketing pages should move a visitor toward a clear next step: start a trial, book a demo, or view pricing. Documentation should reduce friction after sign-up: answer questions quickly, guide setup, and unblock integration work.
Write a one-sentence goal you can repeat in every planning meeting, for example:
“Convert qualified prospects while enabling customers to self-serve support.”
Most SaaS sites serve multiple audiences, each with different intent:
If you can’t name the audience for a page, that page will drift into vague copy.
Outcomes keep your team focused on behavior, not page counts:
Pick a small set of metrics you’ll check monthly: marketing conversion rate, activation rate, docs search usage, top failed searches, and support ticket volume by topic.
Decide who writes, reviews, and publishes marketing and docs content. Clear ownership prevents stale docs and inconsistent product messaging—and makes launches smoother when multiple teams need updates at once.
Information architecture is how you make both journeys feel obvious—without turning your header nav into a junk drawer.
Most teams can cover “marketing + docs” with a handful of top-level areas:
Keep global navigation focused on what a first-time visitor expects to find. Everything else (security, status, changelog, partners, legal) can live in the footer or within the relevant section.
For most SaaS products, hosting documentation under /docs is the simplest choice.
Docs under /docs (same domain)
Docs on a subdomain (for example, docs.[your-domain])
If you already know your docs will be extensive and maintained by a separate team/tooling, a subdomain can be reasonable. Otherwise, /docs is usually the stable default.
Think in terms of common paths, then ensure the URLs and navigation support them.
Marketing journey example:
Support journey example:
Navigation roles matter:
URLs are promises. Changing them later breaks bookmarks, inbound links, and trust.
A practical approach:
When you do need to restructure, plan redirects from day one. A clean architecture plus stable URLs makes your SaaS website easier to navigate, easier to maintain, and easier to grow.
When you’re building a SaaS site that needs to sell and support users, the fastest path is to ship a small set of pages that answer three questions: What is it? Can I trust it? What do I do next?
Start with the essentials that visitors expect and that your team will reference constantly:
Keep each page focused on a single decision. You can always expand later.
Before users start a trial, they look for proof. Add lightweight credibility signals early:
Once the core pages exist, add pages that match your sales motion:
These pages should remove friction: clear form fields, expectations (“we reply in 1 business day”), and next steps.
Your documentation should help a new user succeed quickly:
Add these once the basics are stable: changelog (/changelog), optional roadmap, about, and careers. They help with transparency, hiring, and user confidence—without blocking your initial launch.
Your tech stack should match how often content changes, who publishes it, and whether the site needs app-like behavior. For most SaaS teams, the sweet spot is a marketing site + docs that feels fast, is easy to update, and doesn’t require engineers for every copy tweak.
An SSG (like Next.js static export, Astro, Docusaurus, Hugo) builds pages ahead of time. This is a great fit when your marketing pages and docs are mostly predictable.
Use a static approach when you want:
It’s also a clean way to keep docs in Markdown while still supporting search and versioned content.
A server-rendered setup (or a full app) is worth it when the website must behave like a product experience.
Choose this when you need:
You can still statically generate most marketing pages while rendering only the truly dynamic parts.
A CMS-driven site works well if non-technical teams publish frequently and need structured content (pricing tiers, customer stories, comparison tables) with consistency.
Markdown/MDX is ideal for docs: fast to write, easy to review in Git, and friendly for versioning. CMS fields shine for structured marketing content where consistency matters.
Set up three environments from day one:
That workflow keeps publishing safe even when marketing and docs ship changes weekly.
If you want to move even faster early on, platforms like Koder.ai can help you prototype the initial marketing + docs experience from a simple chat—then export the source code for a traditional pipeline once your structure, navigation, and core pages are validated.
Good design for a SaaS site has a split personality: marketing pages should persuade and guide people to a next step, while docs should reduce friction and help users succeed quickly. The trick is to make both feel like one product.
Before you build pages, define a small design system: typography scale, color palette, spacing rules, and a handful of core components (buttons, alerts, cards, tabs). This prevents your marketing pages from feeling “designed” while your docs feel “default.”
A practical approach: choose 2–3 font sizes for body + headings, one primary brand color, and a neutral scale for borders and backgrounds. Then standardize spacing (e.g., 8px steps) so layouts stay consistent across landing pages and docs.
Create reusable page sections you can assemble like building blocks:
When these sections share spacing, typography, and button styles, your site feels cohesive even as content grows.
Docs UX is mostly readability. Use clear heading hierarchy, generous line height, and a content width that supports long sentences and wide code blocks. Allow code blocks to scroll horizontally rather than wrapping into unreadable lines. Keep pages scannable with short intros, “before you start” notes, and callouts for warnings.
Treat accessibility as a baseline:
On mobile, test two things early: the top navigation menu and the docs sidebar. If either one is hard to open, close, or understand, users will bounce—especially when they’re trying to solve a problem fast.
Good SaaS sites don’t just “describe” a product—they guide a reader from curiosity to confidence. That path is built with clear messaging, simple copy, and intentional calls to action (CTAs) that match what someone is trying to do on each page.
Before writing, decide what success looks like per page. Give every key page a primary CTA (the main thing you want) and a secondary CTA (a lower-commitment next step).
Examples:
Keep CTAs consistent in wording and placement so visitors don’t have to re-learn your site on every page.
Lead with outcomes the customer cares about, then explain how you deliver them. Replace vague claims (“streamline your workflow”) with concrete results (“reduce onboarding time from days to hours”).
Avoid jargon when possible. If you must use industry terms, define them in plain language. Short sentences win—especially for headings, subheads, and button text.
Add proof near key decisions (features, pricing, signup). Use numbers only if you can verify them, and show context:
Balance metrics with human proof: quotes, mini case studies, and real examples of workflows.
Confusing pricing blocks signups. List plan names, core limits, add-ons, and what happens when a user exceeds a limit. Include an FAQ that answers objections (security, billing, cancellation, support).
Where you describe a feature, link directly to the most relevant guide: “See how it works” → /docs/getting-started or /docs/integrations/slack. This builds confidence and reduces pre-sales questions—while keeping the reader moving forward.
Good docs feel “obvious” to use. The secret is a predictable structure and navigation that answers two questions on every page: Where am I? and What should I read next?
Build a docs sidebar with a small number of categories, labeled in plain language. Organize by tasks and outcomes rather than internal team names.
Common top-level categories:
Keep labels consistent with what your product calls things. If your UI says “Workspaces,” don’t call them “Projects” in docs.
On longer pages, include an on-page table of contents near the top so readers can jump to the right section. Add Next/Previous links at the bottom to encourage a smooth reading path—especially through setup and onboarding sequences.
Consistency is a feature. Use a single guide template like:
Problem → Steps → Expected result → Troubleshooting
That pattern helps readers scan quickly and makes it easier for your team to write new articles without reinventing structure.
Add lightweight feedback options on every page: a “Was this helpful?” control and a clear link to contact support (for example, /contact or /support). Feedback keeps the docs aligned with real questions, and it gives frustrated readers a fast escape hatch without hunting for help.
A SaaS site changes constantly: pricing tweaks, new features, docs fixes, and product announcements. The goal is to make updates easy for humans while keeping the site predictable for everything else—navigation, search, and SEO.
Treat every page type as structured content. If you use Markdown/MDX, define consistent front matter so pages can be listed, searched, and displayed correctly.
Common fields to standardize:
title (what shows in the page header)description (meta + cards)tags or category (grouping and filtering)last_updated (trust signal for docs)sidebar_position (docs ordering)Consistency here prevents “mystery pages” that don’t appear in menus or render wrong in listings.
A lightweight pipeline reduces mistakes:
Draft → Review → Publish
Drafts can be created in a branch (Git) or in a headless CMS. Reviews should check clarity, correctness, and whether links/CTAs still point to the right places (e.g., /pricing or /docs).
Avoid approving changes from pasted text or screenshots. Use preview links so reviewers see the page in context (navigation, mobile layout, and cross-links).
Typical options:
Write down decisions once: voice, heading structure, code/example conventions, and how screenshots should be captured and updated. This makes docs feel cohesive even when multiple people contribute.
Define who owns what:
Also pick a tie-breaker for shared pages (homepage, navigation labels) so changes don’t stall.
SEO gets easier when your marketing pages and docs live on one site: you can build authority, share internal links, and avoid splitting signals across subdomains.
Start with fundamentals on every indexable page:
Create a simple rule for URLs and links: always use relative paths (e.g., /pricing, /docs/api/auth). This keeps environments (staging, production) consistent and reduces accidental broken links.
The biggest risk with combined sites is repeating the same explanation in multiple places (e.g., “How SSO works” on a feature page and in docs).
When overlap is unavoidable:
Add schema only when it’s accurate:
Build clusters where blog posts answer broad questions and guide readers toward the next step:
This structure helps both rankings and conversions—without forcing docs to sound like sales copy.
A SaaS site that mixes marketing pages and docs needs to feel instant and dependable. Small regressions (a heavy script, a new font, an oversized screenshot) add up quickly.
Set a few measurable goals and check them on every release:
Optimize what users download first:
font-display: swap, and consider self-hosting to reduce third-party requests.Also consider caching and delivery: serve static assets with long cache headers, and use a CDN if your hosting doesn’t already.
Collect only what you need. If you can answer questions with fewer tools, do it.
Add lightweight monitoring and link to a status page if you have one (for example, /status). If not, at least provide an incident update path (footer link to your support page) so users know where to check when something breaks.
A SaaS site with marketing pages and docs is never “done.” The fastest way to improve it is to watch how people actually use it: what they search for, where they get stuck, and which pages drive signups.
Start with a basic site-wide search that covers both marketing pages and documentation. Even a straightforward solution is better than none—especially for docs-heavy products.
Once it’s live, review search behavior regularly and tune based on evidence. The biggest early win is fixing “no results” queries by adding missing pages, synonyms, or better headings.
Docs search is different from marketing search. People are task-driven and impatient, so small UX features matter:
Pageviews alone won’t tell you what’s working. Track events that map to decisions:
Make sure marketing and support can trust the data. Keep naming consistent and document it in a simple internal page (for example, /docs/analytics-events).
Set up lightweight dashboards for two audiences:
Then close the loop: turn recurring support tickets and common searches into doc updates, new examples, or improved troubleshooting sections. Over time, your docs becomes a self-healing system that reduces support load and increases conversions.
A good SaaS website launch isn’t “publish and hope.” It’s a controlled release with checks that catch embarrassing issues (broken pages, missing metadata, dead signup links) before customers do—and a maintenance rhythm that keeps marketing pages and docs from drifting out of date.
Before you announce anything, do one full pass that focuses on integrity and indexing:
If you’re migrating from an old site, make a simple spreadsheet mapping old URL → new URL, then store it alongside your repo so future changes don’t overwrite the original plan.
Don’t just click around randomly. Test “jobs” that connect marketing and docs:
Treat these as release blockers. If any flow fails, you’ll feel it immediately in conversions and support volume.
Redirects aren’t only for migrations. SaaS sites evolve constantly: you rename features, restructure docs, and rewrite product pages.
Create one rule: never delete a URL without either (a) redirecting it or (b) intentionally returning 410 for content you truly want gone. For docs, redirects are almost always the right choice.
Also agree on a forward-looking URL policy (for example, avoid version numbers in URLs unless you truly version docs). That keeps future refactors smaller.
Launch day should have a lightweight plan:
If possible, keep a “hotfix window” open with the team for the first 24–48 hours.
A simple cadence prevents slow decay:
A website is a product surface. Treat it like one: ship improvements continuously, and measure the impact.
Start by writing a one-sentence goal that includes both outcomes, like: “Convert qualified prospects while enabling customers to self-serve support.” Then assign each page a primary job:
Most combined SaaS sites serve at least four groups:
If you can’t name the audience for a page, rewrite the page scope until you can.
Use a small set of top-level sections, then keep the rest in the footer:
Global nav should stay marketing-focused; docs navigation belongs in the docs sidebar (Getting started, Guides, API, Troubleshooting).
For most SaaS products, hosting docs under /docs is the best default:
Choose a separate subdomain only if your docs need different tooling, permissions, or a separate maintenance workflow that would otherwise slow everyone down.
Treat URLs as promises:
/docs/sso)/docs/integrations/slack)Plan URL conventions early, especially if you might version docs later.
Ship the pages that answer: What is it? Can I trust it? What do I do next?
Minimum marketing set:
Minimum docs set:
Pick based on who updates content and how often:
A common hybrid: Markdown/MDX for docs + CMS fields for structured marketing content.
Give each key page a primary and secondary CTA, and keep wording consistent:
Use a predictable docs structure and templates:
Standardize a template such as Problem → Steps → Expected result → Troubleshooting so every page feels familiar.
Track behavior that maps to outcomes, not just pageviews:
Review monthly, then turn recurring searches and tickets into doc updates, new troubleshooting entries, and better internal links (e.g., from features to /docs/getting-started and back to ).
Place proof (logos, testimonials, case studies) near decision points to reduce hesitation.
/pricing