In 2025, search engine optimization (SEO) was among the top 3 marketing channels (alongside websites and blogs) that gave marketers a solid ROI. This doesn't come as a surprise because a strategic investment in SEO can keep paying off for years.
In this guide, I'll show you how to see whether your SEO strategy is paying off by calculating, tracking, and forecasting your SEO ROI.
What you will learn
- How to measure SEO ROI
- Key metrics involved
- Real-world examples of successful SEO ROI
What is SEO ROI?
SEO ROI is the profit generated for each dollar you invest in different optimization activities. It's typically expressed as a percentage, though it can also be conveyed as the dollar value you earn for every $1 invested in SEO.
You can find plenty of figures being thrown around the web regarding the expected SEO ROI, but they're often not backed by credible sources.
Still, more comprehensive research like this study conducted by FirstPageSage sheds some light on the typical ROI that businesses in different industries see.
Specifically, the ROI of SEO activities was as high as 1,389% over three years, with around 900% being the average across 15+ industries.
At the same time, the average break-even time was 6-15 months. Depending on your industry, you should expect your figures to fall somewhere around these reference points.
Why is SEO ROI important?
Measuring SEO ROI is important because it quantifies the results of your SEO strategy and tells you whether your activities are paying off. With a more granular calculation, you can track the ROI of individual SEO campaigns to see what to double down on and boost your bottom line.
While 91% of marketers agree that SEO positively impacts their website performance and marketing goals, it's important to understand the dollar value of this impact—and that's where SEO ROI comes into play.
Additional benefits of tracking the ROI of your SEO efforts include:
Higher sales
Successful SEO results in increased sales, which is what the top management and other stakeholders want to see. By measuring the return on your SEO investments, you can demonstrate their impact and justify SEO budgets through cold data.
Lower customer acquisition costs
Attracting customers organically is cheaper than running paid ads, which is why SEO often has a higher ROI than Google Ads or other paid channels.
Tracking the specific ROI shows you exactly how much more cost-effective SEO is than paid campaigns so that you can optimize your overall strategy accordingly.
Prioritizing SEO efforts
SEO encompasses an entire ecosystem of practices, so you should break down the ROI by activities to see which of them are generating the highest returns.
This way, you can cut back on the processes that might not be worthwhile and use your resources more efficiently.
Key metrics to track for SEO ROI
Not all SEO metrics directly contribute to your profits. To calculate SEO ROI effectively, prioritize these key performance indicators (KPIs):
Leads
To see if your SEO efforts are worthwhile, you should know how many leads they bring in over a certain time frame.
Depending on the specifics of your sales funnel, you can track leads from:
- Product demos
- Email sign-ups
- Lead forms
In any case, work out the number of leads and the cost per lead by comparing the investment in SEO campaigns to the total number.
You'll then combine this metric with average lead value to calculate ROI. Speaking of which...
Average lead value
After understanding the costs involved in generating each lead, you should know how much revenue they bring to forecast your SEO ROI.
Let's say your average lead revenue is $100, and your costs are $400 for a blog post that generated 9 leads. In this case, the SEO ROI formula would be:
[[(average lead value x number of leads) - campaign cost] / campaign cost] x 100
In our example, this would be [($100 x 9) - $400] / $400 = 125%, meaning for every $1 spent, you got $2.25 back.
Sales
Conversions are the end goal of most SEO campaigns, so you need to know how many website visitors end up buying.
Keep close track of purchase conversions and the costs associated with them, and you can calculate ROI by simply comparing the two.
Revenue
The revenue generated from SEO campaigns is the key component of the ROI formula, but you should go beyond the total amount of money you earn.
Keep track of the average order value (AOV) and customer lifetime value (CLV) for more in-depth ROI calculations that give you a broader picture of campaign effectiveness.
Costs
Besides your ability to generate revenue, SEO ROI shows how efficiently you do it and whether your costs are optimal. That's why you should track expenses like:
- Agency fees
- Tool subscriptions
- In-house salaries
Break down everything that goes into an SEO campaign, and then attribute costs to each element.
3 steps to track SEO ROI
To measure SEO ROI and track it ongoingly, take the following steps:
1. Define your costs of SEO
You need to define your SEO costs as precisely as possible for an accurate picture of your ROI. Start by listing all the direct costs, such as:
- SEO agency fees
- Freelancer payments
- Internal team salaries
- SEO tool subscriptions
These costs are relatively easy to identify and break down—but you must also account for indirect expenses like:
- SEO training
- Software upgrades
- Technical improvements (e.g., site speed or UX improvements)
Add all these costs together to sum up your total investment. Doing so accurately is crucial to precise ROI calculation, so examine your workflows carefully to outline all cost drivers.
When you have the total cost, break it down quarterly and monthly. This way, you can continuously track your expenses and manage them more effectively.
2. Measure the revenue generated from SEO
After working out the SEO costs, you need to see how much revenue your campaigns are bringing in. You can do this through analytics tools, which mainly depend on your website type.
For example, e-commerce businesses and content sites can use Google Analytics to set up dashboards to track transactions.
If you're not sure how to set up tracking, you can use this quick guide that outlines the process for Google Analytics 4.
Keep in mind that it’s rare for readers to buy something right off your article unless they’re in the purchase stage. SEO often takes several touch points to work, which can complicate revenue attribution.
There are various attribution models, with the following two being popular:
- First-click attribution—Ties revenue generated from SEO activities to the first interaction between a prospect and your website.
- Last-click attribution—Gives credit for a conversion to the last interaction before the purchase.
Neither model is perfect because they both ignore activities in the middle of your sales funnel.
That's why you should combine them into multi-touch attribution that maps the buyer's journey and factors in all the relevant stages.
For example, here's a case study demonstrating how BugHerd used Surfer to optimize their content, resulting in a 127% increase in sign-ups compared to the previous year.
The company could directly tie the resulting revenue to the optimized content, so they could see how their investment paid off.
To get the same level of insight, set up automated tracking of lead actions like:
- Form fills
- Phone calls
- Inquiries from qualified leads
This way, you can break down the revenue sources with more detail and forecast future revenue for easier SEO ROI calculation down the line.
3. Calculate the final ROI
Once you have the SEO costs and revenue, plug them into the following formula to calculate SEO ROI:
[(Revenue from SEO - SEO Costs) / SEO Costs] × 100 = SEO ROI%
A positive ROI percentage means that your strategy is profitable, while a negative percentage means it's losing money and should be adjusted.
In this case, the first thing you should do is look into SEO costs to see if there's room to cut them and boost the strategy's profitability.
You can review your funnel's key touchpoints to see how you can make them more effective to generate more revenue.
For example, a well-ranking blog post with plenty of traffic might be sending users to a poor landing page, so changing the page's layout and content might help increase conversions.
Seeing as SEO is a long game, you need to monitor your ROI continuously. Calculate it frequently to identify patterns and adjust your strategy as needed.
Example of SEO ROI calculation
If you want to see a detailed SEO ROI calculation in practice, here's an example scenario:
- SEO Costs: $5,000 (over 6 months)
- Revenue from Organic Traffic: $25,000
Now, let's apply the formula I mentioned above:
- SEO ROI = [(Revenue from SEO - SEO Costs) / SEO Costs] × 100
- SEO ROI = [($25,000 - $5,000) / $5,000] × 100
- SEO ROI = [$20,000 / $5,000] × 100
- SEO ROI = 4 × 100
SEO ROI = 400%
In this case, SEO efforts returned 400% more than what was invested.
Keep in mind that there's no right or wrong when it comes to SEO ROI—benchmarks can vary greatly between industries and SEO strategy maturity.
To avoid unnecessary comparisons with others, define your target ROI based on overall financial goals.
How to forecast SEO ROI
Besides calculating the current ROI, you should know how to forecast SEO ROI for future periods to estimate your strategy's profitability.
Even though exact predictions are difficult, effective forecasting gives you a general reference point based on historical data and realistic assumptions.
To forecast your strategy's ROI, use historical cost and revenue data to estimate these metrics in the future. For costs, you can use the current expenses and add any additional costs you expect to incur in your projected time frame.
For example, if you're projecting quarterly costs, you add up the expected salaries, subscription costs, and other expenses in the next three months.
You can do the same with revenue—using historical data, project metrics like:
- Organic traffic
- Conversion rates
- Average order values
After making your projections, use the ROI formula you saw above—here's a quick example:
- Projected Revenue: $30,000
- SEO Costs: $7,000
- Forecasted SEO ROI = [($30,000 - $7,000) / $7,000] × 100 = 328%
Keep in mind that forecasts aren't guarantees because a lot can change in the projected time frame. Still, they help you create data-driven expectations and set SEO goals accordingly.
Challenges of measuring SEO ROI
The actual ROI calculation is pretty straightforward—what happens before it is usually the main cause of struggle. Here are the main obstacles you might encounter:
Revenue attribution difficulties
Even with the attribution models I mentioned, connecting revenue to specific SEO initiatives is often challenging—especially if you have an elaborate strategy with many touchpoints.
In many cases, SEO contributes to conversions indirectly, so it's hard to know precisely which of your tactics resulted in the generated revenue.
Time lag from investment to return
SEO is a long-term strategy, so you won't see results within a few days or weeks.
It can take months for your strategy to yield tangible results like revenue and profit, and you might make changes or additions in the meantime.
This contributes to the revenue attribution issue and requires close tracking of your SEO initiatives.
Search engine algorithm updates
Google makes hundreds of changes to the search algorithm each year, which can impact your rankings and traffic.
While this might not be an issue for point-in-time ROI calculations, it makes forecasting difficult because a change can happen suddenly and affect your predicted results.
That's why it's best to have optimistic and conservative projections that account for different scenarios.
3 tools to measure ROI from SEO
With the right set of tools, you can overcome the above challenges and track your ROI more effortlessly. Here are some recommendations:
Matomo
Matomo is a comprehensive web analytics platform that lets you understand the financial impact of your SEO initiatives on a more granular level. It offers plenty of actionable insights that simplify revenue attribution, such as:
- Organic traffic sources
- Keyword referrals
- User actions
The platform's conversion tracking features let you define custom goals (e.g., form submissions, purchases, or downloads) and assign values to each, which helps quantify the results of SEO-driven actions.
It also supports heatmaps, session recordings, and A/B testing, which lets you analyze how organic visitors interact with your content and connect these interactions with revenue.
Wicked Reports
Wicked Reports is a multi-touch marketing attribution platform particularly useful for e-commerce brands and subscription-based services.
It integrates with your CRM, email marketing platform, and/or ecommerce system to paint a complete picture of customer acquisition and revenue generation throughout the funnel.
The platform identifies long-tail, high-intent keywords and landing pages that contribute to sales, even weeks or months after the first click.
You can choose between several attribution models to track revenue and calculate ROI more effortlessly.
Fathom Analytics
Fathom Analytics is a Google Analytics alternative that retains the platform's best features while enriching it with a stronger focus on privacy and a clean dashboard.
It offers features like URL tagging, event tracking, and filterable dashboards to let you measure the effectiveness of individual SEO campaigns or blog posts.
The tool also supports streamlined goal and event tracking. For example, you can define conversions like form submissions, downloads, or button clicks and directly link them to organic search sessions.
This lets you calculate the value of organic traffic based on completed business objectives, not just page views or sessions.
Key takeaways
- SEO ROI is the amount of profit your SEO campaigns generate. It's expressed as a percentage of gains (or losses) your campaign returns within a specific time frame.
- Calculating SEO ROI lets you quantify the financial impact of your SEO activities. By doing so, you can justify SEO budgets and prioritize the most impactful activities.
- To calculate SEO ROI, you need to track metrics like leads, sales, and average order value. These metrics inform the revenue your campaigns generate, which is a key component of ROI.
- Connecting specific events to revenue can be challenging, so you can use attribution methods like first-click and last-click attribution to simplify the process.
- Besides revenue, you need to know how much your SEO campaign costs. Outline your tool subscriptions, salaries, and other expenses that directly and indirectly affect SEO costs.
- Once you have your SEO costs and revenue, you can calculate ROI by using the following formula: SEO ROI = [(Revenue from SEO - SEO Costs) / SEO Costs] × 100
- Besides point-in-time calculations, you should forecast future ROI by estimating the revenue and costs within a given time frame. When doing so, account for potential future scenarios like search algorithm updates to get a more accurate estimate.
