It’s been almost four months since we officially began upgrading the EpconCommunities.com website.  We’ve spent hundreds of hours building the Epcon Communities website into an enterprise level application that can compete with competitor websites. The first two months, we spent approximately 160 hours on debugging malfunctioning parts of the site. The last two months, we’ve spent approximately 140 hours upgrading the database, optimizing the website for search engines, and modifying the user interface.

Significant changes to the search engine optimization include:

• Proper title tags
• Proper description tags
• Site crawl ability (bottom footer links)
• Outside link additions. A community blog is written each day on the New Home Directory Home Buyers Blog with links to that community. To date, the NHD staff writer has written 91 different community blog stories.

Significant changes to the user interface include:

• The tab link to the newly developed Epcon.TV site
• Streamlining the Community Search path – Communities Tab. Now there is just one search instead of 4 ways to search (that didn’t work anyway☺)
• The display of Geo-Mapping on the specific state pages
• The customized Epcon mapping pin on the community map
• The display of community listings under the community map
• The addition of HD Video graphic for each community
• The display of a Google map on each Community Directions page
  

Significant changes to the database include added fields for:

• Address
• City
• Zip
• Phone Number
• Min-Max Bedrooms
• Min-Max Bathrooms
• Min-Max Square Footage
• Min-Max Price
• Latitude – Longitude for the mapping function
• The HD Video link
• Customized auto-responses for both email sign up forms
  

What all this means is that all critical SEO and content generation on EpconCommunities.com is completely commanded and controlled by the management console.  All parts of the website now work in sync with each other.  When a new community is added to the website, all parts of the website are updated with it including the location pins in the maps. The cost of maintenance has drastically dropped due to the added automation.

Epcon.TV now has over 120 HD videos representing each of the co-op participating communities.  Epcon Communities is leading the building industry in rich video content.  There is no other builder nationwide with a full-blown TV channel dedicated to video media. Congratulations!

If anyone has any questions about any of the modification made to the site, please contact me and let's chat.  The SEO still has a ways to go but getting the main pages listed in the Google search results is a start.  Very few of the pages were found prior to our work.  Now you can search State new homes (e.g. Ohio new homes) and the Epcon Communites state page is appearing on pages 2-3.  

Sincerely,

Jim Adams - CEO
New Homes Directory .com

The nation's number one for sale attached homebuilder has announced they've combined forces with the Susan G. Komen Foundation with "Condos for a Cure".

For every home sold in October, in the six participating central Ohio neighborhoods, Epcon Communities will donate $1,000 to the Susan G. Komen Foundation. The six participating Epcon neighborhoods include The Woods at Hayden Run in Hillard, OH, the Village of North Falls in Powell, OH, Cobblestone Village in Gahanna, OH, The Woods at Sugar Run in New Albany, OH, Canterbury Woods in Westerville, OH, and The Villas at Glenealy in Dublin, Ohio.

An open house will be hosted by Epcon Communities on Sunday October 25, 2009 from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at The Woods at Sugar Run located at 5545 Armstead Avenue, New Albany, Ohio.  Cancer survivor Kelly Daum will share her personal fight with the attendees. Not only will representatives from Komen Columbus be in attendance, but Tim Maurer of Mukha Salon & Day Spa will be present in order to discuss ways women can take care of themselves while undergoing chemotherapy and radiation treatments.   

“We are proud to join Susan G. Komen in their fight against breast cancer” said Vice President of Sales & Marketing, Nanette Overly.  Overly went on to say “it is difficult to find anyone whose life has not in some way by this disease; either by a friend, neighbor, spouse, mother, sister, daughter or coworker.  Condos for a Cure provide a way for Epcon Communities to help in this fight.

Nanette Overly, Vice President of Sales & Marketing for Epcon Communities said “We are proud to join Susan G. Komen in their fight against breast cancer. It is difficult to find anyone whose life has not in some way by this disease; either by a friend, neighbor, spouse, mother, sister, daughter or coworker.  Condos for a Cure provide a way for Epcon Communities to help in this fight."

Chase Blackburn, a native of Marysville Ohio and linebacker for the NY Giants has lead the effort to organize donations from his teammates of items to be auctioned at the October 25th event.  “Chase has gone out of his way to do whatever he can to support this event and raise money for the fight.   His generosity along with the generosity of the players is making a difference in the lives of those courageous champions touched by this disease” said Overly. 

In addition to the cleats, players have donated gloves, wristbands, hats and programs.  Each item has been worn during a game and autographed.  Items from pro bowlers Antonio Pierce, Shawn O’Haro, Osi Umenyiora and Zak Deossie are included in the auction.  The silent auction is from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. Here is a list of players participating in this event:

Chase Blackburn 2 pairs 2 gloves 1 hat 1 towel
Antonio Pierce  (pro Bowler)
Shawn O'Haro  (pro bowler)
Osi Umenyiora  (pro Bowler)
Justin Tuck
Domenik Hixon  (from Columbus, played at Akron)
Ahmad Bradshaw
Mario Manningham
Zak Deossie  (pro bowler)
Johnathan Goff
Clint Sintim
Hakeem Hicks
Will Beatty
Gartrell Johnson

If you need any more information about this event please contact Epcon Communities at 614-761-1010.

Fantastic work Nanette and Epcon Communities! I'll be participating in the silent auction.

Jim Adams - CEO
New Homes Directory .com