Pay-per-click advertising doesn’t just generate conversions to online sales, it also will help increase your in-store sales as well. RevTrax, a retail marketing firm, did a study that showed “for every $1 of e-commerce revenue generated from paid search, marketers can expect to see approximately another $6 of in-store revenue.”  That’s a 6:1 ratio of e-commerce vs. in-store sales!  Read more here.

When it comes to getting customers to your website, marketers say SEO is the number one source of leads, beating PPC and Social Media in 2011.  While it is important to have a strong social media presence, it may be the wrong strategy to continue increasing your budget in this area until you can measure the results effectively.

• Your website should see at least 60-75 percent of traffic coming from search engines, whether organic or from PPC.  If you are below that level, you need to look at optimizing your site.
• Another good benchmark to look at is the percentage of new visitors coming to your site.  You want this number to also be in the 75-80 percent range, which means a healthy number of new visitors are finding your site from keyword searches.
• And lastly, look at the length of time visitors spend on your site.  If it is low, then your site isn’t engaging your target audience and you need to find new ways to do that.

Read more here.

Both Google and Yahoo are showing local business listings prominently in their search results now, so if you aren’t listed, chances are you are missing out on a lot of traffic to your site.  Eye tracking studies on Google show that users focus heavily on local results.  If you haven’t claimed your free business listing on Google or Yahoo, make sure you do and optimize the listing with your targeted keywords.  Also, make sure to see how your results are coming up on mobile devices and consider adding your business to the popular Foursquare.com GPS location site for customers to check in when they arrive.  Read more here.

Google Analytics is making it harder to tell which keywords are leading to your site because they are no longer tracking keywords for users who are signed into their Google accounts while searching.  This is a big change in the way Google reports keyword information.  Adwords customers, however, will continue to receive all keyword data.  Read more here.

We think this is a cool way for a business to use an iPad.  Customers at this Atlanta restaurant use an iPad to order their drinks and food, which eliminates the need for a server.  Click here to read more.

Google+ launched at the end of June this year.  Since then:

• Over 10 million people have joined Google+ (as predicted)
• Over 1 billion items have been shared and received in a single day
• The +1 button is used on average 2.3 billion times a day

Facebook should be concerned with numbers like these.

Ever wonder what is an average amount of time people spend on a website, or the number of people who leave a site or “bounce off” after landing there, or even the number of page visits?  Well wonder no longer because Google Analytics has released a new Benchmarking newsletter and the results are in.

The benchmarking results for the United States are as follows:

11/1/10 – 2/1/11

Pages/Visit 4.5

Bounce Rate 47.0%

Avg Time on Site 5:23

This should help anyone out there who is wondering how their website’s statistics compare with the rest of the U.S.

Two of the top three reasons people fan your company’s Facebook page have to do with promotional information, not for general or brand information.

-40% want to receive discounts or promotions.
-39% want to show support for a company.
-36% want to get a freebie, such as a coupon.

What this indicates is you should make your social media content, not only engaging, informative and even entertaining, but also most importantly, very worth while.

Read the full article here.

GroupE has completed a website redesign for Dr. Joseph Stiglitz and Dr. Floyd Young of St. Francis Dental Center Wisconsin.  The new site has a clean, modern look with custom photography surrounded by the practice, and convenient Request an Appointment and Schedule a Reminder forms.

A Pay-Per-Click campaign is also highlighting Drs. Stiglitz and Young as distinguished family dentists in the Milwaukee area.  Click here to visit their site.

Some good advise for timing your email or Facebook posts by business category:

• Entertainment:

  Tip: Take advantage of the weekend.

• Media:

  Tip: Weekends and avoid Monday.

• Automotive:

  Tip: Capitalize on Sunday.

• Business and Finance:

  Tip: Monday through Friday but peaks on Wednesday.

• Retail:

  Tip: Target shoppers on Sunday.

• Food and Beverage:

  Tip: Monday through Friday, but peaks Tuesday.

• Sports:

  Tip: Increase your post volume on Sunday.

• Travel and Hospitality:

  Tip: Get these eyeballs at the end of the week.

  Read more here.