SEO ROI CALCULATOR
Measure The Return Of Your Organic Strategy
My SEO ROI Calculator estimates the net revenue over a period of 12 months, the average monthly return (after 12 months), ROI, and your break-even month based on your monthly search volume, CTR and conversion rate. This tool helps you understand if your SEO budget is spend wisely, and the value it could bring your business.
Why Use This Calculator?
Calculate ROI on your SEO efforts
Calculate an estimated ROI on your website’s monthly search volume, CTR and conversion rate.
Plan your budget with data
Support your SEO budget justification with estimated business returns.
Check net revenue estimate after 12 months
Not only your ROI will be calculated, also your monthly net revenue after a 12-month period will be estimated.
Results
This SEO ROI calculation is an estimate based on the information provided and industry average assumptions. Results shown are not guaranteed and may vary depending on factors such as competition, search intent, website quality, conversion optimization, market conditions, and search engine algorithm changes. Default values for CTR and conversion rate are based on blended industry benchmarks and scenario assumptions. This tool is intended for informational purposes only and should not be considered financial or business advice.
Why Measure SEO ROI?
Keeping track of your ranking positions for various of your keywords, your website’s traffic, and sales and conversions on your website is is important. But actually knowing how much money you generate from your SEO investment is even more empowering.
It’s difficult to set up an SEO budget if you haven’t done the calculations on the return on that investment. Without the right calculations you won’t have a clue if the investment is even slightly worth it. That’s why I created this calculator, to give you an estimate what the return on your SEO investment will be.
Keep in mind that measuring SEO ROI isn’t exact science. There are multiple variables you don’t have control over, and SEO is a long-term process.
Here’s in example for an e-commerce website, which will target:
- Monthly Search Volume: 8.000
- Average Order Value: €80
- Monthly SEO Budget: €500
How To Use This SEO ROI Calculator (Step-By-Step)
- Choose the niche/industry you’re working in.
- Enter your website’s average monthly search volume. (Summation of the most important keywords that you’ll actively improve)
- Change the average CTR if it’s different from the industry benchmark.
- Change the conversion rate if it’s different from the industry benchmark.
- Enter the average order value or lead value (this can be lifetime value).
- Enter your desired monthly SEO budget.
- Click the “Calculate ROI” button.
Understanding SEO ROI Results
This SEO ROI tool estimates the potential revenue of your SEO investment based on search volume, average CTR, average conversion rate, average order or lead value and monthly SEO budget. SEO is a long-term strategy. Results won’t be heavily visibile after 1 or 2 months, results will show depending on the competitors after 3 months, 6 months, or even 12 months. That’s why I added the average monthly net revenue after 12 months.
In the results section, you’ll see:
- Net revenue (based on your investment and return over a 12-month period)
- Average monthly net revenue after 12 months (when you’re most important pages are ranking top 3 in search engines)
- ROI (in %)
- Break-even month (the first month where your income is equal to your monthly SEO budget)
You’ll also see these three scenario’s, as each niche, competition level and website may differ:
- Realistic (100%): The most likely result based on industry benchmarks.
- Optimistic (120%): For when your website and SEO performs a little better than expected.
- Conservative (80%): A realistic lower limit if everything goes according to plan and your website still needs to grow.
The scenario multipliers are applied on the final-CTR and -conversion rate, after the CTR-growth over time will be applied. This ensures a realistic accumulation of results.
SEO ROI Benchmarks
SEO performance varies widely between niches. By using realistic values, this tool can provide a credible estimate of what you can expect from organic search.
This calculator uses benchmarks as editable default values. These default values are based on industry averages. This means you can adjust the average for your business and customize the numbers, to make it more realistic for your business. The used benchmarks are average performance values for:
- CTR (Click-Through Rate): The percentage of searchers who click your result.
- Conversion Rate: The percentage of visitors who become leads or customers.
The benchmarks are calculated with the format that 20% of your keywords are in the top 1-3, 35% between position 4-7, and 45% of your keywords between position 7-10. So, make sure your search volume is adapted to the keywords you actually want to rank for on the first page. Do thorough keyword research to check which keywords you’ll target. You can check the average monthly search volume with Google Keyword Planner.
Industry benchmark vlaues used in this SEO ROI Calculator:
CTR
- E-commerce: 10,1%
- Local Services: 11,49%
- Healthcare: 11,69%
- Real Estate: 12,68%
- Construction: 10,1%
- Other: 11,32%
Conversion Rate
- E-commerce: 2,25%
- Local Services: 5,5%
- Healthcare: 5%
- Real Estate: 3,5%
- Construction: 5%
- Other: 3%
FAQ
Frequently Asked Questions about my SEO ROI Calculator
This calculator estimates the financial return of investing in SEO by projecting organic traffic, conversions, revenue, costs, and ROI over a 12-month period. It focuses on direct revenue impact, not vanity metrics like rankings or impressions.
No. The results are estimates, not guarantees. SEO performance can vary due to competition, search intent, website quality, conversion optimization, market conditions, and search engine algorithm updates.
The calculator uses industry benchmark data and scenario-based assumptions to provide realistic projections. Accuracy improves if you replace default CTR and conversion rates with your own historical data.
Organic traffic is calculated using:
- Monthly search volume
- Average CTR (adjusted per scenario)
- CTR growth over time
CTR does not start at 100%. Instead, it builds gradually over 12 months to reflect how SEO actually works.
The calculator includes the monthly SEO budget you enter. It does not automatically account for internal costs such as in-house salaries, development work, or content production unless you include those in your monthly SEO budget.
Net Revenue represents:
(Revenue generated from SEO) – (Total SEO costs)
This shows the actual financial impact of SEO after costs, not just top-line revenue.
ROI is calculated as:
(Total Revenue – Total Cost) ÷ Total Cost
The result is shown as a percentage to help compare SEO against other marketing channels.
The break-even month is the first month where SEO revenue equals or exceeds your monthly SEO budget. From this point onward, SEO becomes cash-flow positive.
Absolutely. SEO often continues to grow beyond 12 months. This calculator focuses on the first year to keep projections realistic and comparable, but long-term ROI can be significantly higher.
ROI (Return on Investment) in SEO measures how much revenue SEO generates compared to what you spend on it. A positive SEO ROI means your organic search revenue exceeds your SEO costs.
In most industries, SEO reaches break-even between 3 and 9 months, depending on competition, website quality, and budget. Highly competitive niches may take longer, while local or niche markets can see faster returns.