How much would your business grow if you were able to convert just 10% of your web site visitors into customers?

What do your traffic reports tell you each month?

Do you know the value of your average customer?

on ROI

The reason that any business wants a web site is to generate sales, either directly or indirectly. Does your web site site have a strong call to action on every page? Have you optimized your check out process? Does the subscriber form for your monthly newsletter get confused with the IRS’s AMT form?

Were you thinking about return on investment (ROI) when you wrote your copy, told your developer to move that button to the bottom of the page or asked your designer to try purple instead of blue?

Web Design for ROI by Lance Loveday & Sandra Niehaus will open your eyes to all the opportunities you have with your web site to turn visitors into buyers and prospects into leads.

The biggest thing I took away from this book was that I should be thinking about ROI in everything I do. This email, my web site, my time on Twitter and being subscribed to 47 feeds in Google Reader all impact the success of my business.

What is your ROI on reading this post?

Don’t let anybody tell you otherwise. It just is, for your visitors and search engines.

With that, here are two resources that are quick to read and more importantly, provide guidance on how to write content that your visitors will actually read and love (it will also help your search engine rankings as well…).

How to Write Great Copy for the Web
by Donna Spencer.

Read this and you’ll…

“Learn about how writing web copy differs from other forms of writing, and how writing useful, functional and concise copy can both help persuade your readers, and also help with search engine optimization!”

Too many web sites fail to tailor their copy to the medium. Reading something on a web site is dramatically different from reading something in print. What you write and how you format that information needs to be different. With Donna’s help, you’ll be able to do that.

SEO Copywriting E-Book: The Unscary, Real-World Guide
by Ian Lurie.

Ian says…

“The book’s short, sweet and to the point: 30 pages, 6 rules for better SEO copywriting.”

I’ve been following Ian’s writing for years and I like the way he writes. You should also check out his blog. He recently wrote an informative and funny post on 19 ways to be a good marketing copywriter.

I hope that both of these resources will help you write great copy that generates sales as well as makes the search engines love your site.