Free tool · Search
SEO ROI calculator
Built to be honest rather than encouraging. It recommends paid search over SEO whenever the payback says so.
Enter your search volume, positions, conversion rate, customer value and margin, and this returns the extra clicks, customers and gross profit a ranking move would produce — plus the month it pays back. It uses gross margin rather than revenue, so the answer is often no.
The calculator
Your numbers, not ours
The defaults are UK-typical starting points. Replace them — particularly the conversion rate and margin, which move the answer most.
Calculated in your browser. Nothing is sent anywhere and no figure you type is recorded. The click-through rates behind this are published industry averages, not our data and not a forecast — treat the output as an order-of-magnitude check, not a projection.
Method
What this model does and does not do
It multiplies your search volume by a click-through rate for each position, takes the difference, applies your conversion rate and customer value, then reduces the result by your margin. It spreads that gain across a ramp and compares the running total against your spend. That is the whole model, and it is deliberately simple enough to check by hand.
What it does not do is predict whether you will reach the target position. Nobody can, and anyone who says otherwise is selling. Treat the output as the value of the outcome if it happens, then apply your own view of how likely that is against the competitors currently holding those positions.
It also ignores brand search, direct traffic lift, the value of ranking for terms you did not target, and the fact that content built for SEO frequently earns its keep as sales material. Those are all real and all favour SEO. The model is conservative on purpose — an optimistic tool that told you to spend would be worth exactly what you paid for it.
The most common way to get a wrong answer here is the conversion rate. If yours comes from counting form fills rather than closed business, you are probably overstating it by a factor of two or more, and every figure downstream inherits that.
Questions
About this calculator
Where do the click-through rates come from?
Published industry averages, not our own data and not a forecast for your site. Real click-through rate varies by a factor of three or more depending on intent, how many ad slots sit above the organic results, and whether the query triggers an AI overview. If you have Search Console, tick the box and enter your real figure — that path is always more truthful than the table.
Why does it ask for gross margin?
Because revenue is not profit, and an ROI calculator that compares turnover against cost flatters every result. A £10,000 uplift at 20% margin is £2,000 of actual gain, and a £1,500 retainer against it is a loss. Most tools of this kind quietly skip this input, which is why most tools of this kind produce encouraging answers.
What is the ramp, and why does it make the first year look bad?
SEO does not switch on. The model assumes nothing in months one and two, then a gradual climb reaching full effect around month twelve. So you pay twelve months of cost against a return that starts at zero. A negative first year is normal and is not on its own a reason to stop. A negative second year is.
It told me not to do SEO. Is that a mistake?
Probably not. It says that when the extra traffic yields under one customer a month, or when the spend never recovers within two years. Both are common on low-volume terms or sites that convert poorly, and in both cases the money genuinely is better spent elsewhere — usually on conversion, or on paid search where you find out in a fortnight rather than a year.
Should I use one keyword or a whole cluster?
A cluster, and add the volumes together. Almost nobody ranks for exactly one term, and a page that reaches position three for its main phrase picks up dozens of related ones. Modelling a single keyword understates the case, sometimes badly. Just be honest about which of those terms you would actually compete for.
Can I trust this enough to sign a contract on it?
No, and nothing that produces a number from six inputs should be trusted that far. Use it to rule things out, which is what it is reliable for — a term that cannot pay for a retainer at any position is a robust finding. A projection showing a modest monthly profit is not; it depends on inputs you have estimated.
Related reading
The other free tools
Got a number you do not believe?
Bring it to a call. The Nexclick will tell you which input is doing the damage — and if the answer is that SEO is wrong for you, we will say that too.