Sales originate through traffic. Google is the number one source of traffic, accounting for up to 80 percent of total traffic on e-commerce sites (organic, paid, and shopping). Does Google like your site? And, most importantly, does Google like and deliver traffic to your product page, on which the “add to cart” button is located? We analyzed the top 20 e-commerce sites (Internet Retailer Top 500 Guide 2010) and here’s what we found. While most sites do a good job optimizing their pages/URLs, many sites have ignored their user-generated content (UGC), which is unfortunate, because that content is often the most valuable in Google’s eyes.

25 to 35 percent of traffic for large e-commerce sites is organic search (SEO).

The highest converting SEO traffic is traffic that lands directly on your product page.

Google favors fresh UGC (user/customer-generated content) in its search results.

The UGC on the product page is customer reviews - ubiquitous on the Web, proven to drive conversion, and consumers’ number one social tool in the buying process.

Google indexing customer reviews directly on your product page is absolutely required to optimize your product page for SEO.

65 percent of the top e-commerce sites do not have customer reviews indexed on their product pages.

Amazon’s reviews on its product pages are indexed by Google. Staples, Apple, Sears, SonyStyle, NewEgg, and Grainger also have reviews indexed by Google, rounding out those in the top 20.

Below is what an Amazon and Staples product page looks like to Google. In gray, under the retailer logo, you’ll see the Amazon/Staples product page as consumers see it. Under the Google icon next to each consumer view, you’ll see the same page as Google sees it, highlighting indexed UGC in green.

See more at www.clickz.com