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

New report from GroupM and comScore indicates that search engine marketing and social media combined has a huge impact on consumers’ purchasing decision online. It’s worth reading the entire report to understand how SEO and social are interdependent in driving conversion rates. GroupM and comScore looked at consumer behavior associated with purchase decisions in the electronics/telecommunications and consumer packaged goods categories. While a whopping 86 percent of consumers say search engines are very important in their buying process, social media plays an equally critical role in influencing their decision.

Forty percent of consumers who use search in their path to purchase are motivated to use social media to further their decision making process.

More than a quarter of those surveyed (28 percent) said sites such as YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter help them learn about new brands and products.

Thirty percent said they used social media to eliminate brands from contention.

Two most important influentials in social media affecting purchases are user reviews and category blogs, rather than Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. Read more at www.livingstonbuzz.com

Fifty-two percent of Twitter users say content that becomes repetitive or boring over time is a reason to stop following a brand on the site, according to [pdf] a new report from Exact Target and CoTweet. Data from “The Social Break-up” also indicates 41% say the need to clear a crowded tweetstream is a reason to stop following a brand.

Four in 10 (41%) Twitter users report they have stopped following a brand, and 47% who have created a Twitter account no longer use it. However, in good news, 56% of active Twitter users follow at least one brand, 64% of active Twitter users check their account at least once per day, and 48% check it several times per day.

Fewer than one in five (17%) online US consumers has a Twitter account, and only about one in 10 (9%) has an active account. Five percent of all online US consumers follow at least one brand on Twitter.

Fifty-two percent of formerly active Twitter users who no longer use their account say they left because it is pointless. Thirty-eight percent said it got boring, and 23% said it got too chaotic (more than one answer permitted).

Demographic analysis of Twitter usage clearly shows younger adults tweet at much higher rates than older adults, according to a recent study from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Fourteen percent of internet users age 18-29 use Twitter, double the 7% of internet users age 30-49. The oldest internet users (65-plus) have the lowest tweet rate (4%). Read more at www.marketingcharts.com

Over the last few months, I’ve bookmarked and read hundreds of posts. And, like many of you, have catalogued the myriad of social media stats that come our way each day.

There’s almost too many social media stats–but a few of my favorite posts with aggregated stats are this one from B2B Social Media and this one from Danny Brown.

But, instead of giving you yet another post with stats that support this digital marketing claim or that, I thought I’d share a few that really raised an eyebrow for me over the last few months.

* 75 percent of Brand ‘Likes’ on Facebook come from advertisements. (Mashable)

* More than 250 million people use Facebook Connect every month. (Facebook)

* Since April, Twitter has gained 40 million users and a 62 percent increase in mobile use of the platform (Source: ClickZ)

* From December 2009 to December 2010, users with a biography listed on Twitter increased from 31 percent to 69 percent. (Pew)

* The average American Internet user watches 30 minutes of video online per day [40 percent increase over 2009] (comScore) Compared to 5 hours of television per day

* 22 percent of Fortune 500 companies now have a public-facing blog that has at least one post in the past 12 months (comScore) Read more at www.arikhanson.com

What do small business owners view as the most important promotion tool for their small business? Sorry, social networks. It’s not you–yet. According to a Fall survey from Constant Contact, small business owners look primarily to their website (93 percent) and e-mail marketing (92 percent) campaigns to get the word out about their businesses, with more than 90 percent of SMBs saying they use both. The news wasn’t all grim for social networks, however. Facebook took the third spot with 63 percent, while other social media like blogs, Twitter and LinkedIn came in at 33 percent, 31 percent and 29 percent, respectively.

See more at smallbiztrends.com