Salt Lake City, Utah – (The Hosting News) – January 21, 2009 – Search engine, Google, has selected Extra Space Storage Inc., as one of four nationwide companies to win, in the search engine’s ‘Website Workout’ contest. The other winners included Colonial Candle, Outrigger Hotels and Resorts and Team in Training.

Andrew Gomez, Product Marketing Manager of Google noted, ”We congratulate Extra Space Storage for demonstrating a firm grasp of the contest’s concept and taking an innovative approach to build an effective website that we fully expect will have a significant impact on their conversion rates and subsequently, their sales.”

Companies entered the contest to have their website optimized for free by Google’s team of consultants to boost sales, sign-ups or leads. The Website Optimizer is a free Google tool designed to allow companies to develop experiments and analyze the best possible combination of page design, copy and graphics.

Extra Space Storage focused on increasing the number of people doing ‘proximity’ searches for their storage facilities. By highlighting the search function on its website, Extra Space was able to increase the number of searches without reducing their conversion rate.

Although a self-storage company may not come to mind when thinking of technology, Extra Space Storage is committed to finding cutting-edge ways to enhance the customer experience while providing strong business support for their local facilities, according to Scott Jensen, interactive marketing manager at Extra Space Storage.

Mr. Jensen added, ”We saw this contest as an opportunity to take a fresh look at our website. Since the web is often the first point of contact for our customers, we want our online experience to be as effective and efficient as possible. Google has been a great partner in this endeavor and has provided tremendous support and insight.”

Wider Funnel Marketing, a global leader in conversion rate optimization, acted as a consultant on this project and will work with the four winners to increase site performance.

Chris Goward, CEO of Wider Funnel Marketing added, ”It has been great working with Extra Space Storage. They have been dedicated to building the best possible website and have worked in an open, collaborative manner to do just that.”

Extra Space Storage Inc., headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, is a fully integrated, self-administered and self-managed real estate investment trust that owns and/or operates 684 self-storage properties in 33 states and Washington, D.C. The Company’s properties comprise approximately 468,000 units and over 50 million square feet of rentable space. The Company is the second largest owner and/or operator of self-storage properties in the United States.

With the largest index of websites available on the World Wide Web and the industry’s most advanced search technology, Google Inc. delivers the fastest and easiest way to find relevant information on the Internet. Google’s technological innovations have earned the company numerous industry awards and citations, including two Webby Awards; two WIRED magazine Readers Raves Awards; Best Internet Innovation and Technical Excellence Award from PC Magazine; Best Search Engine on the Internet from Yahoo! Internet Life; Top Ten Best Cybertech from TIME magazine; and Editor’s Pick from CNET. A growing number of companies worldwide, including Yahoo! and its international properties, Sony Corporation and its global affiliates, AOL/Netscape, and Cisco Systems, rely on Google to power search on their websites. A privately held company based in Mountain View, Calif., Google’s investors include Kleiner Perkins Caufield Byers and Sequoia Capital.

To learn more about Extra Space Storage Inc., please visit: www.extraspace.com.

For more information Google, please visit: www.google.com.

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