Businesses that want to generate leads online should focus on making their websites as a top destination for information with custom content. People use search engines and social channels to learn about items, check reviews and related details before purchasing, whether they're shopping for themselves or their businesses.

According to the 2014 State of B2B Procurement study from the Acquity Group, 94 percent of business buyers do some form of online research:

• 77 percent use Google search 
• 84.3 percent check business websites
• 34 percent visit 3rd party websites
• 41 percent read user reviews

The same behavioral patterns apply to individual consumers. At ClickZ Live San Francisco, Google Analytics Advocate Adam Singer said the average person consults 10.4 sources before finally making a purchase. This generally spans channels, is sparked by in-store visits and revisited with email messages, and continued across search and business websites.