There is a lot of news out there for small business owners to read covering everything from government grants to management techniques. We know you don’t always have a chance to read it, so we’ve picked five that you can’t miss.  Read a story that isn’t on here? Leave us a comment below with YOUR best stories from this week.

1. Getting Beyond Myths: Government Small Business Loans, Grants Explained Do you know what government-backed business financing is and what it isn’t? Read this story from Small Business Trends to learn more.

2. Treasury Report: More Employers Eligible for HIRE Act Tax Breaks In this BusinessWeek piece, we learn about tax breaks for employers who hire unemployed workers this year (after Feb. 3, 2010 and before Jan. 1, 2011). They can qualify for a 6.2-percent payroll tax incentive, in effect being exempted from their share of Social Security taxes on wages paid to these workers after March 18, 2010. In addition, for each worker retained for at least a year, businesses may claim an additional general business tax credit, up to $1,000 per worker, when they file their 2011 income tax returns.

3. Conversion Optimization 101 Conversion rate optimization (CRO) is the process of fine tuning your website so that you increase the amount of leads and/or sales on your website while reducing your bounce rate (the rate at which visitors leave your site).  Check it out on ClickZ.

4. How to Measure SEO for Maximum Impact While volumes of quality links and content will result in top search engine results page (SERP) rankings for your site, the ultimate goal of SEO is to increase your traffic and conversions.  This article from iMediaConnection talks about the importance of creating content that is based on the needs and wants of your prospects, so you can convert more of the visitors that arrive at your site.

5. Technology Basics for Business The Wall Street Journal wrote about some very cool software, Web applications and equipment that allow you to manage inventory, track customers’ purchases, process invoices, manage payroll and communicate with staff.