How to create a client backend?

[David.Pagotto]

Hi Guys,

I am interested in adding a client back end to a SEO services website.

Basically so the client can login and see the progress of there package, view reports with fancy graphs, and view by graph the ranking over time of there desired keywords.

I have no idea where to begin. Has anybody had any experience with this?

I want a self hosted solution that integrates easily into a website.

Thanks in advance.

[ralph.m]

I was going to suggest something like BusinessCatalyst, but that's not self hosted. But I also wonder if something as simple as Google Analytics is all you need? You just sign up for free and paste a bit of code into your pages. It gives you all kinds of stats on what pages are being visited, what keywords are working etc.

If that's not enough, then there are lots of good CMSes out there that may do what you require—even if some kind of add-on is required.

[David.Pagotto]

Hi Ralph, I already use Google Analytics for my own pages and information. However I would like to create a backend system that my clients could log in to and see the progress of there orders with us, we can send them reports, and so on. More of a CRM system built with the web designer/seo firm in mind.

[oddz]

I would recommend looking into some CMSs first. Though if you go the CMS route you will need to rebuild the existing sites. The other route is custom programming which would be very difficult task to take on and get right without server-side and programming knowledge. Creating admin UIs fom scratch from is probably one of the most difficult tasks when it comes to web programming…

[David.Pagotto]

Thanks Ralph and Oddz.

I think I will handball this job to someone with a bit more experience than me.

[behati]

If you do end up coding it yourself fully, you should try to get someone with a bit of experience look through the code for security flaws / holes, especially if the clients sensitive data (full name, address etc) is being stored.

I've created a few back-ends and I based them on a CMS - Drupal in PHP and Umbraco in ASP.NET. It depends on how "big" your backend will be, is it just a single page with a data-form or the like? If so then a CMS is likely to be overkill and a waste of resources.