SEO ROI calculator
This SEO ROI calculator turns Google’s own search figures for your trade and area into visits, enquiries, customers and a return on what SEO costs.
- Pick your trade and area, or enter the searches you want to rank for
- Choose the position and add your conversion rate and customer value
- See the visits, customers and return, position by position and month by month
Example figures. Put in yours.
What ranking is worth What ranking is worth
- Visits a month
- –
- Enquiries
- –
- Customers
- –
- Return on the SEO spend
- –
- Same visits as ads
- –
- Customers to cover the cost
- –
- Busiest month
- –
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This SEO ROI calculator shows what ranking on Google is worth to your business. Pick your trade and area and it fills in how many people search for you each month, from Google’s own figures for 115 trades across Ireland and the UK. Choose a position. It turns those searches into visits, enquiries, customers and a return on what the SEO costs.
Ranking for your own list of searches instead? Switch to “My own searches” and put in the number.
How to calculate SEO ROI (the SEO ROI formula)
The return is the money SEO brings in, less what it costs, divided by what it costs. Before you rank, you have to estimate the money. You work forwards from the searches.
| Step | Sum | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Visits | Searches × share who click at your position | 1,600 × 10.2% = 163 |
| Enquiries | Visits × conversion rate | 163 × 8% = 13 |
| Customers | Enquiries × close rate | 13 × 25% = 3.3 |
| Revenue | Customers × what a customer is worth | 3.3 × €500 = €1,630 |
| ROI | (Profit − cost) ÷ cost × 100 | (€1,630 − €800) ÷ €800 × 100 = 104% |
That example measures the return on revenue. Add your gross margin under More options and the calculator measures it on profit, which is the honest version.
How many people search for your service?
More than most businesses guess, and fewer than most agencies promise. Google’s own figures, pulled in September 2026, put “plumber dublin” at about 1,600 searches a month. “Plumber navan” gets about 260. “Roofer dublin” gets 3,600.
Those are the searches for one wording in one place. People also search “near me”, add “emergency”, or name the next town, so treat the calculator’s figure as a floor. Where Google records too few searches for your trade in your area, it says so rather than guess.
The Google Ads budget calculator uses the same data, with a table of search volumes and click prices for every trade.
Click-through rate by position on Google
Where you rank decides how many of those searches become visits. The drop is steep. The calculator uses First Page Sage’s published study of Google click-through rates (updated May 2025).
| Position | Share who click | With a map pack above |
|---|---|---|
| 1st | 39.8% | 23.7% |
| 2nd | 18.7% | 15.1% |
| 3rd | 10.2% | – |
| 4th | 7.2% | – |
| 5th | 5.1% | – |
| 6th | 4.4% | – |
| 7th | 3.0% | – |
| 8th | 2.1% | – |
| 9th | 1.9% | – |
| 10th | 1.6% | – |
Most local searches show three businesses on a map before the ordinary results, and the study publishes lower figures for the top two positions when that happens. The calculator uses them unless you say there’s no map pack. Getting into the map pack itself is a separate job, done through your Google Business Profile and your reviews.
What is a good ROI for SEO?
One that clears break-even once the rankings are in place. That’s the whole test.
It’s often easier to think in customers than percentages. The calculator shows how many new customers a month pay for the SEO. If it’s two, and you already win two a week from other sources, you know exactly what you’re aiming at.
SEO or Google Ads?
Both buy the same thing: a visit from someone searching for what you sell. Ads buy it one click at a time, today. SEO earns it, slowly, and keeps it.
The calculator prices your SEO visits at what the same clicks would cost as ads, using Google’s click price for your trade and area. When that figure is well above what SEO costs you, the case makes itself. Ads still earn their place while the rankings build. Our comparison of Google and Facebook ads covers where each one fits.
How long before SEO pays for itself?
Months, not weeks. Early signals usually show within eight to twelve weeks, and meaningful movement within four to six months, depending on where you start. So judge the return over a year.
The month-by-month table helps with timing, too. If your searches peak in March, the work that gets you ranking has to start well before it. When you want someone to do that work, that’s what we do.
Rankings are the means. Visits, leads and revenue are the measure.
Client results, measured in the numbers the business cares about.
Read the case studies
Questions people ask.
How do you calculate the ROI of SEO?
Take the profit (or revenue) SEO brings in, subtract what it costs, divide by the cost and multiply by 100. To estimate it before you rank, work forwards: searches a month, times the share who click at your position, times the share who enquire, times the share who buy, times what a customer is worth.
How many people search for my service?
Pick your trade and area in the calculator. It uses Google's own figures for 115 trades across 37 Irish towns and counties and 30 UK cities. "Plumber dublin" is searched about 1,600 times a month; "plumber navan" about 260.
What is a good ROI for SEO?
Anything comfortably above break-even once rankings are in place, measured on profit rather than revenue. The calculator shows how many customers a month cover the cost, which is often the clearer way to judge it: if two new customers pay for the month, you know what you are aiming at.
How long does SEO take to pay off?
Months, not weeks. Early signals usually show within eight to twelve weeks and meaningful movement within four to six months, depending on where you start. That is why the return is worth judging over a year rather than month by month.
What does a 20% ROI mean?
That you get your money back plus a fifth. Spend €1,000 on SEO in a month, make €1,200 of profit from it, and the return is 20%. At 0% you break even; below it, the SEO costs more than it earns.
Is SEO still worth it in 2026?
If people search for what you sell, yes. The searches in the calculator happen every month whether or not you rank for them, and AI answers draw on the same pages that rank. The calculator shows what those searches are worth to you, set against what they would cost as ads.
Where do the figures come from?
The searches and click prices are Google Ads Keyword Planner data for September 2025 to August 2026, pulled through DataForSEO. The share of clicks at each position is First Page Sage's published study (updated May 2025), with their lower figures for positions 1 and 2 when a map pack shows.
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Search that compounds, run by people who show their work.
Strategy, technical, content, links and local, planned together and reported against the numbers your business cares about.