SEO for Dhaka SaaS Startups: The 2026 Founder's Playbook

Dhaka has quietly become one of the most interesting SaaS startup cities in South Asia. The talent is world-class, the cost structure is unbeatable, and the local digital economy is finally large enough to support real venture-scale companies. But almost every Dhaka SaaS founder I talk to underestimates how SEO works at their stage — they treat it as 'something to do later' until a competitor with worse product but better SEO eats their lunch. This is the stage-specific playbook.

What should a Dhaka SaaS startup do for SEO at each stage?

Pre-product / under $100K ARR: nothing fancy — a fast site, clean Organization + Person schema, 5 cornerstone content pages targeting your buyer's exact pain. $100K–$1M ARR: ship 20 pillar pages, start docs, get 3 attorney/expert bylines on trade pubs, build a Wikidata + Crunchbase + LinkedIn entity stack. $1M–$5M ARR: invest in AEO (FAQPage schema everywhere, Person schema for authors, third-party citation density), comparison pages vs incumbents, weekly Echo-loop tracking. Above $5M ARR: full programmatic + comparison + integration coverage, dedicated content + dev team.

Why Dhaka SaaS founders under-invest in SEO

Three reasons I see repeatedly: (1) the Bangladeshi venture community over-indexes on paid ads and outbound for early traction; (2) most Dhaka founders don't have local SEO talent in their network and underestimate what good SEO looks like; (3) the cost-quality ratio confuses people — SEO done well in Bangladesh is genuinely 5–10× cheaper than in the US, but only if the person doing it knows what they're doing.

Stage 1: Pre-product to $100K ARR

Don't run an SEO program. Do ship: a fast site (LCP under 2.5s, INP under 200ms), Organization + WebSite + Person schema with sameAs to founder profiles, a homepage that includes a 50-word quotable description of what you do, 3–5 cornerstone pages targeting your buyer's most painful problem, and a /docs section that's actually useful. That's the entire SEO playbook at this stage. Spend the rest of your time talking to users.

Stage 2: $100K–$1M ARR

Build the SEO foundation properly. 20 pillar pages targeting buyer-intent keywords. Real docs. FAQPage schema everywhere. Founder/team Person schema with sameAs to LinkedIn, Crunchbase, AngelList. Wikidata entry. Crunchbase profile. Get founders publishing on Indie Hackers, Hacker News (genuinely, not promo), and 2–3 industry trade publications. Budget: $1.5K–$3K/month with a single specialist consultant or one in-house generalist.

Stage 3: $1M–$5M ARR

AEO becomes a real workstream. Add FAQPage to every priority page. Build 5 'X vs competitor' comparison pages. Build 5 high-priority integration pages. Push founder/exec entity authority hard — bylines, podcasts, conference talks. Track citations weekly across ChatGPT/Perplexity/AI Overviews on 30 buyer-intent prompts. Budget: $4K–$8K/month combined consultant + internal.

Stage 4: $5M+ ARR

Programmatic AEO at scale. Full integration page coverage. Full competitive comparison coverage. Multiple credentialed authors with full entity stacks. Quarterly original research / data studies for backlink generation. Dedicated content + dev resourcing. Budget: $10K–$25K/month combined.

What Dhaka founders ask me most

'Should I target Bangladesh or global?' — almost always global. The unit economics work better and the cost-quality leverage is your edge. 'Bengali or English content?' — English-first if buyers are global; bilingual only if you have meaningful domestic revenue. 'Should I hire local or remote?' — hire local for cost and timezone overlap; supplement with one experienced remote consultant for senior strategy. 'How do I find good Bangladeshi SEO talent?' — there are maybe 50 truly excellent practitioners in Bangladesh as of 2026; recruit hard and pay well.

The single biggest mistake to avoid

Treating SEO as a cost center instead of a flywheel. The Dhaka SaaS founders who break out internationally treat content + SEO as the second product — properly resourced, properly measured, properly compounded. The ones who don't end up paying 3–5× more in CAC two years later because organic never showed up.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is SEO even worth it for Dhaka SaaS targeting global markets?

Yes — overwhelmingly. Global SaaS buyers don't care where the team is based. They care that the content answers their question and the product solves their problem.

Should I write in American or British English?

American English for global SaaS — it matches the dominant buyer cohort. Stay consistent across the site.

What's a realistic CAC payback from SEO at $1M ARR?

12–18 months. Below that the program isn't mature; above that, well-built SEO becomes the lowest-CAC channel by year 2.

Should I hire an agency or a freelance specialist?

Below $1M ARR, freelance specialist almost always. Above $5M ARR, a small agency or in-house team. The middle is contextual.

How does this apply to Chattogram or Sylhet startups?

Almost identically. The playbook is location-agnostic for global-facing SaaS.

Can you help with this?

Yes — most of my SaaS clients are at the $500K–$5M ARR stage. Reach out via the contact page.