Optify Selected as 2011 OMMA Award Finalist

MediaPost’s OMMA Awards Recognize Optify’s St. Petersburg Times SEO Campaign Alongside Nikon and Cake.com

SEATTLE – September 1, 2011 – Optify (http://www.optify.net), the leading online marketing software and services provider for the real time web, announced that it was selected by OMMA as a 2011 OMMA award finalist in the “Search Marketing: SEO Campaign” category for its work with the St. Petersburg Times. OMMA’s annual awards program honors the year’s best in online media, marketing and advertising. Other category finalists include Nikon Camera and Cake.com.

The St. Petersburg Times, Florida’s largest newspaper, operator of Tampabay.com, and winner of eight Pulitzer Prizes since 1964, first implemented Optify’s Real Time Marketing software to improve its organic traffic, align its editorial teams, and track and share results. As a result, the St. Petersburg Times saw enormous traffic growth to its online edition, Tampabay.com. In fact, organic website traffic to Tampabay.com increased by 22 percent and Tampa DMA visits – which the St. Petersburg Time’s especially values – increased by 33 percent, both increases on the basis of millions of visitors.

This boost in traffic has also transpired into higher revenues for the organization. Since implementing Optify, Tampabay.com has reached 4 million visitors a month and has seen digital advertising revenue gains in excess of 20 percent from 2009 to 2010. In key areas of the site, digital revenues have grown by as much as 35 percent.

“All media publishers, even those with great content, face a highly competitive environment for attracting readers,” said Brian Goffman, CEO and co-founder of Optify. “Our SEO campaign work and results with The St. Petersburg Times captures our vision to enable online marketers and publishers to quickly and easily optimize their search engine and social media efforts, and measure and share results.”

As a finalist, Optify has advanced through round one of the OMMA judging period, which consists of the MediaPost editorial team reviewing and judging each of the 79 categories. MediaPost editors then handpick three finalists per category and then send the results to the 2011 OMMA Awards judges, who choose a winner for each category corresponding to their sector, as well as a “Best in Show.” This year’s 2011 OMMA Award winners will be announced on the first day of the OMMA Global Conference and Expo, taking place on Sept. 26 in New York.