Your sections

The good news is that for your first website you don't need a lot and it's all pretty standard. You need:

1. A hero section: that's what the start of the page, so the title, a description and then a call to action
2. Problem/solution section: that's where you propose your solution to the problem of the client
3. How it works: this is where you go into more details about what your tool does
4. Social proof: this is a very important section that you might not be able to fill. It's usually full of testimonials.
5. Final call-to-action
6. Footer

The hero section

This is the most important part of your website, because most people will only see this before leaving. It's a tough thing to admit, but most people don't care about what you're building. The see it's not for them and leave.

Your task is to keep things interesting for the people who might need what you're offering. You do that by going straight to the point and slowly adding more information. You can assume that the deeper they go, the more they want to know, so going into more detail with every section and every page is your goal.

So in order to get them to scroll on your page, you need to have a pretty compelling title for your page. It can't be about you, your website is never about you. It's about the problem the user is trying to solve.

A good example of this is HubSpot. Even though they are a huge, well-known company, they're not boring you with "We're an innovative company for marketers, we won various awards". Instead, they focus on the outcome of using HubSpot: you will grow if you use us.

It might sound stupid to explain this, but I see a lot of startups that talk about themselves as if they were important to the potential client. Remember: you do not matter to the client, they just want to have shit done quickly and well.

Another example is Clay. They also go straight to the point and tell you less about the outcome and more about the job you want to have done. This is also good: take a task or a project your client needs to do and make it better. Here a company needs to have a go-to-market strategy, but with Clay they can do it better: with data and insights.

Should you focus on the outcome or the job to be done?

At this point, choose what sounds better to you and what works when you talk with your potential clients. The biggest roblem with the outcome approach is that you probably don't have much data to back this up and you have to chill about making too many promises.

Description

Now let's talk a bit about the subheading and what you should put there. This is where you can go into more detail about what you actually do with your service or tool.

Clay uses: Bring AI agents, enrichment, and intent data together and turn insights into relevant, timely action.

This clarifies a lot about their value proposition. You start to get a better pictures about the possibile functionalities and you also find out you can use AI.

Example: Money-saving tool

So let's take the example from before: a tool that scans your accounts and tells you if there are any old subscriptions. We're going to do this for every type of client from the previous step starting from the 0% speed.

0% speed

This client doesn’t know they need to start getting their subscriptions in order. They feel that they have too many of them and there might be some fat to cut, but they’re too busy fundraising or calling clients to actually get to do it. They have not started looking at their spending.

So we need to address the problem in general terms, without going too much into the details, because the client is actively thinking about this problem.

I would go with something like: “Save on your unused subscriptions and fraudulent payments”, "Let's get rid of your unused subscriptions", “Fill the holes in your accounts, get rid of unused subscriptions” or maybe even "Savings that get you through the next quarter".

These headings make the visitor think about the problem they might be underestimating, they don't offer a detailed solution right away, they offer a general outcome: savings. They also vary the urgency of the situation. The last one says you might be losing enough money to last you a quarter, probably a bit of an exaggeration, but that would depend on the type of client you're speaking to and the budget they operate on.

Then for the subheading we could go with "CleanSave is a tool that helps you find fraudulent or unnecessary spending in your accounts, document every risky payment, and notify you about possibile savings."

Alternatively: "CleanSave's AI monitors your payments and finds unused subscriptions or fraudulent payments and alerts you in time to cancel them"

I personally lean towards the second version, but it is up to you to decide which messaging works best for your team. Remember that this message should be well-aligned with whatever you say on your sales calls. Try out sentences with potential clients and then put them on your website!

50% speed

If this is your ideal client, then you should get a bit more technical. They are already keeping track of their subscriptions and payments in general, but they are probably doing it by hand or with Excel. It's probably the same person doing it every time to keep things consistent and they have an algorithm in their head for doing this efficiently.

So how should you start?

Maybe by underlining that this is an automatic way of keeping track: "One tool to keep track of all your payments",

Or you might want to underline the time they'll save: "Stop wasting 4 hours a month chasing old subscriptions"

You might even go with something more general, but you need to get their curiosity by adding a way in which your solution is superior, for example: "CleanSave actually finds the invoices your shouldn't be paying".

The subheading here can be more specific, because these people already know the problem. They live it. So you can say things like: "CleanSave automatically scans your bank feeds, flags unused subscriptions, and catches fraudulent payments before they go through. No more spreadsheets, no more manual checks."

You see how this is more detailed? That's because the 50% speed client doesn't need to be convinced the problem exists. They already feel it. They need to be convinced that your solution is better than the Excel sheet they've been nursing for 8 months.

80% speed

This client is already using a competing tool. They know the problem, they know the solution category, and they're somewhat happy with what they have. So getting their attention is harder.

Your heading needs to call out the specific gap in what they're currently using. What does your tool do that the others don't?

Maybe something like: "The subscription tracker that catches fraud too" or "The AI solution for thorough payment monitoring"

There is little space to be vague here, you need to get very specific very quickly. The 80% speed client will scroll past anything generic because they've seen it all before. They need to read something that makes them think "wait, my current tool doesn't do that."

The subheading for this audience can stack your differentiators: "Most tools are limited to finding unused subscriptions. CleanSave also monitors for fraudulent charges, duplicate payments, and price increases you never approved. All while you sleep soundly"

The CTA button

Every hero section needs a call-to-action button. It's actually best to have two for better conversions, but at this moment you will probably only need a button to let people book a demo with you.

The CTA is the one action you want the visitor to take. The text on this button matters more than you think. "Learn more" is the worst possible option, because it tells the visitor nothing about what will happen when they click. They don't know if they'll see a video, start a trial, book a call, or get a call from grandma.

Be specific about what happens after the click:

• "Book a 15-min demo" instead of "Get started"
• "Try free for 14 days" instead of "Sign up"
• "See it in action" instead of "Learn more"

The visitor should know exactly what they're getting into. Removing uncertainty is how you get clicks.

The problem/solution section

Right after the hero, you have a chance to go deeper into the problem your client is facing. Think of this section as the moment you sit down with a potential client and say "I know what you're dealing with, let me explain."

The structure is simple: describe the problem, then show how you solve it. Let's look at some examples to understand the full spectrum of this section, beucase it can be done in various ways.

The problem part should be specific enough that your ideal client reads it and thinks "that's exactly my situation." Don't write "managing payments is hard." Write "your finance team spends the first Monday of every month going through 200 line items trying to figure out which subscriptions are still active."

Then flip it. Show what life looks like with your product. Same situation, different outcome. "CleanSave checks those 200 line items automatically every day. When something looks off, you get a Slack notification. That Monday morning? It's just a 5-minute review."

Payflow follows a very traditional approach to this section by using text that first presents the problem and then describes how the tool solves it. This will probably be the best bet for you.

Clay.com does this section a bit differently, it jumps straight to "How it works", but signals the problem throughout the section. "Every data point imaginable" means there is usually a problem of data points missing. "In one place" suggests this data is usually fragmented between tools. And this is exactly the problem Clay solves: sales people can connect many different data sources and use Clay as a bridge for automations.

This is a bit tougher to pull off well, but some people don't like this section to be too text-heavy, so try what works best for you. Don't overcomplicate things: a few sentences for the problem, a few sentences for the solution. The hero already did the heavy lifting. This section just adds depth.

The "How it works" section

This section isn't about how your product actually works. It's more about what the user will do and what they will get back from your tool.

Break it down into 3 steps. Three is the magic number because it's enough to explain the flow without overwhelming anyone. If your product actually has 14 steps, group them into 3 logical blocks.

For our example:

1. Connect your accounts - Link your bank feeds or upload your transaction files
2. CleanSave scans everything - The system checks every payment against your active subscriptions and flags anything suspicious
3. Review and act - Get a clear dashboard with recommendations. Cancel, dispute, or approve with one click.

Each step gets a short title and one line of explanation. That's it. If you need more space to explain, that's what a features page is for (but you don't need a features page right now).

A tip: use language that makes the process sound easy for the user. Notice how step 1 and 3 are the user's actions (simple ones), while step 2 is where the product does the heavy lifting. This pattern makes the visitor feel like they barely have to do anything.

Social proof

This is where things get real. Social proof is the section that turns your sales calls into much nicer conversations. Of course, if you're early-stage, you don't have a wall of testimonials from Fortune 500 companies. That's okay.

Use what you have. And be honest about it.

If you have beta users: A single real quote from a real person with their name and title is worth more than ten anonymous reviews. "We saved 3 hours a month in the first week" from "Maria Rossi, Head of Finance at TechCo" is solid gold at your stage.

If you have one client: Put their logo. One logo is fine. It says "someone real is using this." That's enough for now.

If you have numbers: Even small ones work. "23 companies use CleanSave" is better than nothing. "€47,000 in savings found in the first month of beta" is great.

If you have literally nothing: This happens. You just launched. In this case, you can use a different kind of proof. Are you part of an accelerator? Put that. Did you get into Y Combinator or Techstars? Obviously put that. Did a respected person in the industry give you feedback? Ask them if you can quote them.

The one thing you should never do is fake it. Don't put logos of companies that aren't your clients. Don't invent testimonials. People find out, and when they do, you're done.

If you genuinely have zero social proof, skip this section entirely. A website without a testimonial section is fine. A website with fake testimonials is not.

The final call-to-action

Your visitor has scrolled all the way to the bottom. They've read your headline, understood the problem, seen how it works, maybe read a testimonial. Now is the moment to ask them to do something.

Repeat the same CTA from the hero. You can add a sentence or two to make it easier for them to start: "No credit card required", "Setup takes 2 minutes", "Cancel anytime."

Don't introduce a new action here. If your hero says "Book a demo" and your final CTA says "Start a free trial", you're creating too many flows for you to understand what's working. Pick one action for the entire page and stick with it.

The footer

Keep it minimal. You don't need four columns of links. You need:

• Your company name
• A contact email
• Links to your social profiles (if you have them)
• Legal stuff if required (privacy policy, terms)

That's it. Nobody reads the footer looking for exciting content. They look at it to find your contact info or to make sure you're a real company. Give them that and nothing more.

What NOT to put on your website

This is just as important as everything above. Every section you add that doesn't serve a purpose dilutes the ones that do.

A blog with zero posts

A blog section with nothing in it (or one post from 6 months ago) tells visitors that you started something and gave up. If you don't have at least 5 articles ready to go, don't add the blog. Add it later when you have content.

An "About us" page

You're 2-3 people. A full page about your team doesn't impress anyone, it just highlights that you're small. If your team's background is relevant (domain expertise, previous exits), mention it in one line on the main page. You don't need a dedicated page for it.

A pricing page you're not sure about

In general you should have a pricing page. Unless your pricing changes every week because you're still figuring it out. "Let's talk about pricing" or "Book a call" is perfectly fine.

A team page with 2 photos

It's the same problem as the About page. A grid of two headshots with LinkedIn bios doesn't build confidence. Wait until you're at least 5-6 people, or skip it.

One page is enough

If you're early-stage, a single landing page is almost always the right call. You don't have enough content to fill 8 pages without some of them looking empty. And a site with empty pages communicates "we just started and don't really know what we're doing" much louder than a single page that's clean and focused.

When should you add more pages? When you have real content for them. A detailed case study with numbers. A blog with actual posts. A pricing model that's stable and tested. Until then, one page.

Now that you know what goes on the page, the next step is learning how to write the actual text.