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SEO ROI Calculator

Monthly search volume, current and target position, conversion rate, and value per conversion. The tool applies a position CTR curve and reports the revenue at stake.

Free toolsSEO & ContentReviewed September 2026

Keyword, ranking, and value

Searches per month for the keyword, or the cluster of keywords the page targets.

1 to 20+. Use 25 if you do not rank at all.

Where you can realistically land.

Share of organic visitors who convert. Use your real landing page rate if you have one.

Revenue, gross margin, or lead value. Be consistent with how you value other channels.

InvestmentOptional. Adds ROI and payback on what you spend.

Agency, content, tools, and time.

Investment before the gain arrives. Leave blank to ignore.

Incremental revenue per month

–

From moving current position to target

Current monthly clicks
–
Target monthly clicks
–
Incremental clicks
–
Per month
Incremental conversions
–
Per month
Incremental revenue per year
–
Monthly × 12
Revenue at target position
–
Total, per month
ROI on investment
–
Needs investment
Payback
–
Needs investment

Runs entirely in your browser. Nothing you enter is stored or sent anywhere. Last reviewed September 2026.

Click-through curve at this search volume

Position Approx. CTR Monthly clicks at this volume Monthly revenue

Approximate curve blended across desktop and mobile. Branded and informational queries differ substantially.

What a ranking is worth, and why the curve is so steep

Organic traffic is not linear in position. On a typical query, position 1 takes roughly a quarter of all clicks, position 5 takes about a fifth of what position 1 gets, and the second page takes almost nothing. That is why the value of SEO work depends on where you start and where you can plausibly land, not on search volume alone. Moving from 18 to 13 changes very little. Moving from 8 to 3 can multiply traffic several times over.

The tool applies an approximate click-through rate to each position, multiplies the click difference by your conversion rate and value per conversion, and reports the revenue at stake per month and per year. Add a monthly investment and the number of months the work takes to land, and it reports return on that spend and how long until the cumulative gain covers the cumulative cost. The table underneath shows the full curve for the first page so you can see the cliff between position 1 and position 5 for yourself.

Treat every number here as an order of magnitude. The CTR curve is a blend across query types and devices. Branded queries send far more to the top result, informational queries with featured snippets, ads, or AI answers above the results send far less, and a rich result with sitelinks behaves differently again. Where you already have Search Console data for the query, use your observed CTR instead, and model a low and a high case before anyone puts the output in a budget.

Formulas

Current clicks
= Volume × CTR(current position)
Target clicks
= Volume × CTR(target position)
Incremental clicks
= Target clicks − Current clicks
Incremental conversions
= Incremental clicks × Conversion rate
Incremental revenue (month)
= Incremental conversions × Value per conversion
ROI
= (Incremental revenue − Investment) ÷ Investment
Payback
= Ramp months + (Investment × Ramp months) ÷ (Incremental revenue − Investment)

Frequently asked questions

How do you calculate SEO ROI?

Take the clicks you would gain from moving between two positions, multiply by your conversion rate and the value of a conversion, then compare that incremental revenue to what the work costs. The word that matters is incremental. Traffic you already have, or would have had anyway, does not belong in the return. This tool estimates the click gain from a position CTR curve, so the result is a forecast, not a measurement.

What click-through rate does the tool use for each position?

A rounded blend of widely published organic CTR studies: roughly 28% for position 1, 16% for position 2, 11% for position 3, falling to about 2% at position 10. Positions 11 to 20 get a flat 1% and anything deeper gets 0.3%. Real curves differ by query. Branded searches send far more than 28% to position 1, and informational queries with ads, featured snippets, or AI answers above the results send much less.

Should I use search volume from a keyword tool?

Use it as a starting point, not a fact. Keyword tools report annual averages that hide seasonality and are often overstated for commercial terms. If you already rank for the query, Search Console impressions for that query are a better base because they reflect what Google actually showed. If you rank for nothing yet, run the model with a low and a high volume and treat the answer as a range.

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