SEO-BOA™
An SEO'd Website and Back-Office Management System
Executive Summary
Imagine the marketing efficiencies in integrating your back-office inventory with your website and search engine optimization. Your back-office database, coupled to a simple yet powerful admin panel, automatically feeds keywords into every part of your website. You save money by organizing inventory, sales, and prospects, and you get more new customers by automatically integrating your website with top search engines, like Google and Yahoo. DISC has built such a system, and we call it SEO-BOA™, for “SEO’d Back Office Administration.” The “BOA” also suggests the intertwining of all your business and website functions.
DISC’s SEO-BOA™ is a leap in efficiency. The jump is from business process software, which has existed for decades, to worldwide marketing via the search engines’ free “organic” listings. It was only a matter of time until it dawned on marketing professionals that uniting these two technologies will produce a powerful competitive advantage. With DISC’s SEO-BOA™, that day has arrived.
DISC’s SEO-BOA™ is an extension of “CMS & Database SEO” (CMS = content management system, SEO = search engine optimization). For database-driven websites, CMS SEO is almost always the most cost-effective tactic in Search marketing. SEO-BOA™ applies DISC’s 11 years of SEO and SEM experience to an efficient software system for back-office inventory management.
SEO-BOA™ is fully secured, web-based, nonproprietary, open-source coded, and modular, so it adapts to almost any business’s requirements. Because the system is web-based, your team can manage your inventory and website from any internet connection. Using nonproprietary code, it does not lock you in with DISC -- any competent web programmer can manage and adjust the software. Being modular (using standard “MVC” or Model-View-Controller architecture), you can easily change any part of the system, including database, admin panel, reports, website display, and workflow sequences, without needing to change the entire system’s code. These qualities make SEO-BOA™ easily adaptable to any business, from art galleries to auto parts.
Details, Steps, and Pricing
CMS SEO for database-driven websites makes your website publishing system do as much SEO as possible automatically and in perpetuity. By integrating your back-office inventory system with your CMS and e-commerce systems and with a thoroughly SEO’d website front-end, you open your whole business to search engine penetration and Google's PageRank circulation. The result is maximum new business from the search engines.
We use the art gallery business as a model and example here, but you can replace all art-related language with the language of your business. DISC originally built and implemented SEO-BOA™ for an upscale Manhattan art gallery, and we are introducing it to other (non-competing) art galleries, but SEO-BOA can be easily adapted to any business with a database of products and a website. In the case of DISC’s client – Susan Sheehan Gallery (SusanSheehanGallery.com) -- the CMS extends from management of SEO’d content of the website into the management of inventory, clients, and prospects, so that all data entry related to the art inventory percolates up automatically into the website and search engines. DISC’s SEO-BOA™ automatically publishes to the website ideal, search-engine-optimized layout, code, meta-tags, page names, file names, URLs, and other stadndard SEO tactics. This integration is why SEO-BOA™ constitutes a major advance in the art of search engine marketing.
SEO-BOA™ Features
- DISC's SEO-BOA™ is fully secure.
It is much more secure to store program files and data on a professional hosting company's web server than on a server or computer in-house. Most businesses host their websites at remote locations, but many still store their back office management systems and data on computers and servers in-house. If the data exists only on a computer at the office, one hardware failure could wipe out everything. And even if the data is backed up on several in-house computers, it is still not secure against fire, flood, robbery, or other unforeseen incidents. With a web server handling everything, you are guaranteed that files are secure and regularly backed up.
In addition, our CMS system is always protected against intruders. For starters, SEO-BOA is secure against any access without a login and password. Moreover, the system has a customizable, user-level hierarchy that allows only a head administrator to see and edit sensitive data.
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- SEO-BOA™ generates self-perpetuating SEO: any new data entered creates more SEO'd web pages.
The public website comprises data entered via the back-office admin panel. The website is coded to automatically display this information in an SEO-compliant way. So every time you add a new piece of inventory or any other information, a new, SEO-optimized page is automatically created in the website. The more content you add, the larger and more SEO-efficient the site becomes, in perpetuity. And that means more top listings in the search engines and ultimately more business and profit.
Having DISC use SEO-BOA to build your CMS and back-office database system in tandem with a website (re)design will ensure that every aspect of your operation will be finely tuned for SEO. Our SEO Recoding and Site Design and Redesign pages explain in detail how DISC can make your CMS and website more SEO-friendly. Naturally, all the techniques described on those pages are incorporated into SEO-BOA.
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- SEO-BOA™ is nonproprietary (open source).
Our system utilizes the MVC (Model-View-Controller) architectural pattern - the long-established standard in traditional software development that is becoming the standard in web applications. Basically, MVC separates all database connectivity or business logic code from the user interface, which makes the application much simpler to maintain. By using nonproprietary MVC, DISC has ensured that SEO-BOA is easily understood, maintained, or amended by any programming team, not just the original coders. DISC believes in earning loyalty, not forcing it.
Many problems can arise when applications combine data access code, business logic code, and presentation code. Interdependencies between all of these components tend to cause strong ripple effects whenever a change, however minute, is made. The more complex the application, the more of a problem this is. Such intricate applications are often so cryptic that only the person who built it can make any sense of it. The site owner is thus tied to the developer for the lifetime of the software. This actually happens quite often, since many website owners are not savvy enough to ask such specific questions about what coding model will be used. Also, unscrupulous development teams will often purposely code applications in a cryptic style so the owners have to come back to them any time they need something changed, no matter how small. DISC absolutely condemns such practices. Again, we earn loyalty, never force it.
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- SEO-BOA™ handles all back office inventory and sales records.
SEO-BOA provides a secure, web-based CMS for the business owner to manage the entire inventory, with separate sections for adding, editing, and deleting pieces of inventory, artists, buyers, sellers, etc. The database is built to be as "normalized" as possible - meaning that related database tables are linked together so that there is no redundancy of information. This makes the database operate more quickly and efficiently, but also makes the CMS more user-friendly: once something is entered, it never has to be re-entered. For example, a single artist, buyer, or seller can be linked to any number of individual pieces of inventory, and online exhibitions can be built by simply selecting already entered pieces of inventory.
The interface, workflow, and reporting preferences of SEO-BOA is highly customizable. Its basic function is to present data in an as intuitive a manner as possible, and provide the ability to easily add, sort, edit, and delete records.
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- SEO-BOA™ is web-based, and therefore accessible from any internet connection.
No software needs to be installed on your computers. You can access SEO-BOA from any computer or device with an internet connection, so you don't need to be at the office to manage your business (though we don't recommend managing the data from a clothing-optional beach in Aruba).
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- SEO-BOA™ has one database that controls everything from back-office to website and online ordering.
Many businesses maintain two separate databases -- one strictly for the website, and a more official back-office database that may have both website- and non-website-related data. In such cases, when anything related to the website is changed in the back-office database, the website database also needs to be updated if the website is to display correct information. Having to update the same information in two separate databases not only creates more work, but is more error-prone. With DISC's web-based CMS and Website package, you have only one database, thus reducing your data entry time and ensuring that your website remains up-to-date and accurate.
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- SEO-BOA™ has intuitive navigation.
A properly built navigational system can save countless hours of tedium by directing you where you'd expect after performing a task, and by minimizing the number of steps required. Managing data can be a huge nuisance if the system isn't programmed so that you flow easily through it. DISC ran SEO-BOA through an exhaustive testing process to ensure it is as intuitive as possible.
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- SEO-BOA™ has advanced searching and sortable columns.
Each screen of SEO-BOA contains a search box that allows you to easily find whatever you're looking for. You can search by exact match, look for a phrase that contains a certain word, find a last name that starts with a certain combination of letters, etc. You can also do advanced searches that involve multiple columns. The columns themselves are all sortable, with data arranged alphabetically or reverse alphabetically.
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- SEO-BOA™ creates printable, Avery-compatible PDF reports.
You can have SEO-BOA export your data in a number of ways. One particularly useful example is a report that prints data to perfectly fit on whatever Avery mailing labels you use. For instance, a report can print all mail-list addresses 10 x 10 on a page to match the Avery mail labels. SEO-BOA is easily customized to however you want to display and print from the database. You'll have access to this functionality through your intuitive admin panel, and you'll easily create and print the reports yourself anytime.
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- With SEO-BOA™ you can easily edit website text, color schemes, etc., without damaging the HTML code.
DISC believes you shouldn't have to go through the hassle of contacting (and paying) your webmaster for simple text and color changes to your website. In SEO-BOA, all of the website's content, including text, images, and style attributes, is stored in one database. The CMS and website are tied together by this database, so that you can use the CMS to edit the website.
The CMS includes an area where various aspects of the website are intuitively laid out for your safe editing. This content is completely separate from the code that makes the website function, so there is no risk of damaging the site when making these edits. Any authorized person, even someone with absolutely no HTML knowledge, can easily edit any text on the site, and can experiment with different color themes and images.
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- SEO-BOA™ can include a secure shopping cart.
All website data, including the products you sell, are in the common database. If you choose to have DISC build shopping cart functionality into the website, the products are of course fully editable through the CMS. The shopping cart is fully secure, and it functions like any other online good shopping cart, with the major difference that the product pages that compose the cart are all finely tuned for SEO. The more extensive the product list, the more SEO'd pages your site will present for search engine listings and subsequent new business.
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- SEO-BOA™ is integrated with Google Map.
Google Maps has quickly become the most popular way to get directions online, due to its improvements over similar systems. Using the Google API (Application Programming Interface), you can embed a small Google map into your site. The map can be customized in many different ways. For example, DISC's website utilizes a very basic modification of the Google Map on our Directions page. This feature helps close the gap between "I want it" and "bought!".
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- SEO-BOA™ contact forms automatically add submissions to your database.
Yet another advantage to using the same database for the back office and the website is that SEO-BOA automatically and permanently saves any user-submitted information, such as contact form submissions, email list subscriptions, and orders. This information can be used to keep in contact with past visitors, and to up date them on your new and exciting offerings. Building a good client and prospect list like this is key to success in "permission-based marketing" and long relationships with the people in your target markets.
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SEO-BOA Pricing
The core software license costs $10,000. This grants you complete ownership, and the right to have non-DISC people alter the code as needed, though of course we believe that DISC will prove that we are best qualified and most cost-effective in making any future alterations.
Implementation and Customization costs vary by case, but expect between $5000 and $10,000. Art Galleries will need much less customization because SEO-BOA was first developed for art galleries. However, its modular architecture is easily adapted to any business.
In most cases, you will benefit from conjoining SEO-BOA with some of DISC’s other web marketing services, which are priced throughout this website. For example, although SEO-BOA produces CMS SEO automatically, you would likely get high returns from having DISC implement some SEO keyword research and SEO copywriting on a few static, infrequently changed pages, like your home page, your About Us page, and a few main category pages. Many websites need some redesign according to established usability rules. Or you might consider Pay-Per-Click advertising in Google and Yahoo, which requires no site changes, and which brings highly targeted prospects to your web site cost-effectively.
DISC's proposals and phone conversations will provide more details and answer all your questions.
DISC offers rock-solid proof of our years of superb results in all of our services, in the form of detailed ROI reports delivered to actual clients. We need a signed NDA in most cases, so we offer this proof only to people who have received a proposal and remain interested in DISC’s services.
DISC's estimates in our proposals are firm. We do not exceed them unless you add more work. If you have us do work that is not specified in contracts, it is billed at these hourly rates:
- $75 per hour for HTML programming
- $100 per hour for graphic design
- $150 per hour for database work and non-HTML programming
- $150 per hour for SEO, PPC, and other SEM
- $150 per hour for general consulting and training
- To learn about DISC’s pricing philosophy and practice, and our account management structure and workflow, please see our Prices and Procedures page.
For a list of all of DISC's service prices, without descriptions, please our "Sell Sheet."
Please click here to request a proposal. The RFP form takes less than 3 minutes to fill out. Thank you!
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