Our investigative data research study pulled data from the most credible sources online to determine the average ROI for SEO is 989%. The only marketing investment that has higher returns for businesses than an SEO strategy is email marketing. The reason why an SEO strategy has such a high rate of return is that SEO is one of the only marketing tactics that continues to deliver a return even after you stop your investment. Compared to paid search, most of your revenue growth stops permanently when you stop paying for paid search. Here is a visual representation of an SEO investment versus paid digital marketing ads:

Although every business is different, your marketing investment needs to be tailored to your specific business. What is a good ROI for SEO?

What you need to keep in mind for your business is that SEO is a long-term investment and SEO ROI. Only invest in SEO if your business has at least one consistent income stream and, ideally, multiple income streams to benefit from SEO ROI. Even more, expect high cost services SEO that is proven to deliver results sustainably, so you can avoid getting hit by an algorithm update and permanently losing all revenue and maintain and grow your SEO ROI. If you are looking to cut corners, get fast results, and think a low cost SEO campaign will do it then you are not going to get an SEO ROI.

Then we encourage you to try it and see the results of a low cost SEO campaign for yourself and the lack of SEO ROI. On the other hand, if you have an established business with success in your industry and want to get to the next level, then SEO digital marketing is a must to achieve an SEO ROI. Here is a three-year average breakdown of the SEO ROI in 19 of the most popular business industries with the timeline for your business to break even on your investment in SEO:

8.90 is the average SEO return on advertising spend (ROAS) for SEO. For every $1 you spend on SEO, you make $8.90 in revenue that is your SEO ROI.

The SEO ROI is 736%, and the typical time to break even is 8 months.

The average ROAS for SEO traffic is $8.75; for every $1 you spend on SEO traffic, you make $8.75 in revenue that is your SEO ROI.

The average ROI is 702%, and the expected time to break even on your SEO ROI is 7 months.

The average ROAS for SEO traffic is $9.20. For every $1 you spend on SEO, you make $9.20 in revenue for your SEO efforts.

The ROI of SEO traffic in the Biotech industry is 788%, and the time to break even is 8 months on your SEO efforts.

The ROAS is $7.40 for businesses in the construction industry. For every $1 way a construction business spends on SEO services for its website, they make $7.40 in organic conversions. 

The ROI of SEO traffic for construction businesses is 681%, and the time to break even is 5 months using Google Analytics.

The ROAS of SEO traffic for eCommerce is $3.65. For every $1 way eCommerce businesses spend on SEO success for their website, they make $3.65 back.

The ROI of SEO traffic for eCommerce is 317%, and the time to break even is 16 months using analytics. 

The ROAS of SEO conversion for Financial Services is $11.10. For every $1 financial services SEO cost your company in this industry, you make $11.10 in return as an example.

 The ROI of SEO for financial services is 1,031%, and the time to break even is 9 months using analytics. 

The ROAS of SEO traffic thought leadership for Higher Education & College is $10.40. For every $1 Higher Education & College SEO cost your company in this industry, you make $10.40 in return as an example. 

The ROI of SEO for Higher Education & College is 994%, and the time to break even is 13 months using analytics meeting software, the average purchase, average customer life time value, an SEO calculator, and SEO tools.

The ROAS of SEO for HVAC Services is $8.15. For every $1 HVAC Services SEO cost your company in this industry, you make $8.15 from your SEO consultant.

The ROI of SEO for HVAC Services is 678%, and the time to break even on Search marketing is 6 months using analytics.

The ROAS of SEO for Industrial IoT is $9.85. For every $1 Industrial IoT SEO content marketing cost your company in this industry, you make $9.85 on search marketing.

The ROI of SEO for Industrial IoT is 866%, and the time to break even on search marketing is 7 months using analytics.

The ROAS of SEO for Commercial Insurance is $9.05. For every $1 Commercial Insurance SEO content marketing cost your company in this industry, you make $9.05 on your search marketing. 

The ROI of SEO for Commercial Insurance is 758%, and the time to break on search marketing even is 9 months.

The ROAS of SEO for IT Staffing is $7.00. For every $1 an IT Staffing SEO Agency cost your company in this industry, you make $7.00 on search marketing. 

The ROI of SEO for IT Staffing is 612%, and the time to break even on search marketing is 10 months.

The ROAS of SEO for Legal Services is $6.15. For every $1 a Legal Services company spends on SEO, they make $6.15 on search marketing.

The ROI of SEO for Legal Services is 526%, and the time to break even on search marketing is 14 months.

The ROAS of SEO for Manufacturing is $9.50. For every $1 a Manufacturing company spends on SEO, they make $9.50 on search marketing.

The ROI of SEO for Manufacturing companies is 813%, and the time to break even on search marketing is 9 months.

The ROAS of SEO for Medical Device companies is $12.85. For every $1 a Medical Devices company spends on SEO, they make $12.85 on search marketing.

The ROI of SEO for Medical Device Companies is 1,183%, and the time to break even on search marketing is 13 months.

The ROAS of SEO for Oil & Gas companies is $10.55. For every $1 an Oil & Gas company spends on SEO, they make $10.55.

The ROI of SEO for Oil & Gas companies is 906%, and the time to break even is 10 months.

The ROAS of SEO for PCB Design & Manufacturing is $12.40. For every $1 a PCB Design & Manufacturing company spends on SEO, they make $12.40.

The ROI of SEO for PCBD Design & Manufacturing is 1,101%, and the time to break even is 11 months.

The ROAS of SEO for Pharmaceutical companies is $9.85. For every $1 a pharmaceutical company spends on SEO, they make $9.85.

The ROI of SEO for pharmaceutical companies is 826%, and the time to break even is 9 months.

The ROAS of SEO for real estate companies is $15.10. For every $1 a real estate company spends on SEO, they make $15.10.

The ROI of SEO for real estate companies is 1,389%, and the time to break even is 10 months.

The ROAS of SEO for solar energy companies is $9.20. For every $1 a solar energy company spends on SEO, they make $9.20.

The ROI of SEO for solar energy companies is 770%, and the time to break even is 9 months.

FirstPageSage

Omni-channel or multiple-channel search marketing is the key to provide the highest conversion rate and ROI at the lowest cost from your organic search strategy. Even without an omnichannel search approach to SEO for your ecommerce brand, the ROI of SEO for ecommerce is 317%. Omnichannel professional lead generation is the only way to maximize profitability at the lowest cost by increasing average order and customer lifetime value. 

Here are some examples of how omnichannel lead generation could work for your ecommerce sales funnel:

• You create a strong search marketing strategy where you understand your ideal customers and their journey on Google and how their stages of awareness affect their interaction with your brand. You create content that ranks on Google for what your customers are searching for at every stage, from when they are Unaware of their problem, Aware of their problem, Aware of their solution, Aware of your solution, and Most Aware of your solution where they are ready to make a purchase. After 12 months, your website receives thousands of clicks every month. Still, your website only converts a small percentage of those clicks directly to sales, around 1% to 5%. To convert more website visitors, you begin to offer something valuable to your website visitors in exchange for their email addresses. You begin marketing to these emails and are now converting 5% to 15% of your website visitors. To convert even more, you begin running retargeting ads on social media. Now, you are converting 15% to 35% of your website visitors.

Let’s break down what really happened there by using a diagram:

1. Create a strong marketing and sales strategy.
2. Deploy an investment into people managing your website’s SEO and generate thousands of rankings and clicks to your website page. As a result, your website page is now converting 1% to 5% of your traffic to a new customer each month.
3. Create something valuable and give it away free to collect email addresses from your website content traffic. Then market to that traffic via emails and increase your conversions between 5% to 15%.

Here is another example of how omnichannel marketing could work for your ecommerce sales team:

• You ran a paid advertisement on social media, which got people searching for your brand on Google. Then you rank for your brand name on Google to capitalize on this organic traffic. When these visitors find your website on Google, you offer them something valuable for free to capture their email address. Then you continue the conversation with them using email marketing and retarget your email list using TikTok ads until they convert to revenue via organic traffic on Google. 

Let’s break down what really happened there by using a diagram:

1. Paid Advertisement on social media (Generates awareness of your new product) – >
2. The awareness generates searches for your brand on Google ->
3. You offer something valuable for free to your website visitors to capture their email address ->
4. You email your website visitors to move them further down their sales journey ->
5. You run retargeting ads on social media to your website visitors to get them to visit your website on Google and make a purchase.

Customer lifetime revenue is the key metric to evaluate success and determine if your investment is worth it. Monthly revenue is the amount of revenue you make every month. Still, lifetime revenue is the amount of revenue you make per client over the lifetime of that relationship. In your space, define lifetime revenue per customer and include all revenue generated from the customer relationship, including referrals.

For instance, if a customer purchases from you for 10 years and spends $10 per year, then your customer’s lifetime value for your business is $100 minus any money you spend to acquire that customer. SEO is one of the only customer acquisition tactics where the traffic and revenue grow exponentially over time and continues even if you stop investing in SEO. Compared to paid advertising campaigns, where you make a set ROI based on the number of purchases you made during the campaign. Once the campaign stops, all revenue stops too. The ROI for SEO is nearly infinite since the traffic and revenue you gain during your SEO investment continue even after you stop.

The only way to know if the return on your investment in organic growth on Google was worth it is by using math. The challenge with calculating the ROI of SEO is that all of the organic growth on Google continues for your business even after you stop investing. Your return goes up long after your relationship ended with the organic Google growth services you hired for work. You need to wait until sometime after the campaign ends, then take the total number of new customers your business is acquiring every month due to your organic growth on Google. 

Then calculate the average order value and customer lifetime revenue; from here, you want to calculate the total customer lifetime value revenue that was added. The difference between the total customer lifetime revenue added and the cost of your organic growth Google services is your ROI which calculates the return on investment from your SEO efforts. You could track all of this data using Google Analytics for free or pay for SEMrush for access to session and leads data in deeper detail from organic search on Google and social.

What is the ROI on SEO Marketing Your Way?

Does SEO Have a High ROI?

Considering the typical measure of a solid ROI is a 5:1 ratio or an ROI of 500% then SEO would have nearly double a good ROI. Meaning the ROI of SEO is fantastic!

Before you calculate the ROI on SEO, you need to understand that SEO increases revenue and organic traffic to your site well after you stop investing in the management of your SEO. This means your ROI only increases over time. Since SEO takes a long time to generate results, measuring the ROI could be challenging. Unlike paid advertising, where you are focused on getting conversions in for every dollar you spend, you can make more than what your paid advertising manager spends. When you invest in digital SEO, you may not see new conversions for six to 12 months. Still, when you do get conversions, those conversions continue even after you stop investing in SEO traffic. 

To calculate SEO, you need to wait sometime after the work on a campaign ends or project 12 months into the future using historical data in Google Analytics. Next, take the total customer lifetime revenue from new customers added due to organic leads and SEO revenue growth. Subtract your leads generation investment, and you have your total rate of return from search engine optimization. Using Google Analytics, you can track your conversion rate, customer lifetime revenue, average order value, leads, and total revenue.

The typical ROI on any marketing that generates leads is 500% or $5 for every $1 you spend generating site visitor leads and revenue. You could track your conversion rate, leads, and revenue using Google Analytics.

What is SEO ROI?

SEO ROI (Search Engine Optimization Return on Investment) refers to the percentage of profit or revenue generated from an investment in SEO compared to the cost of that investment. In the context of the article, the average SEO ROI across all industries is 989%. 

How Can One Calculate SEO ROI?

To calculate SEO ROI, one needs to consider the long-term benefits of SEO, as the revenue and organic traffic from SEO efforts continue even after the investment stops. After the completion of an SEO campaign or after projecting 12 months into the future using historical data in Google Analytics, calculate the total customer lifetime revenue from new customers added due to organic leads and SEO revenue growth. Subtract the investment made in lead generation to get the total return from SEO. Using tools like Google Analytics, you can track metrics such as conversion rate, customer lifetime revenue, average order value, leads, and total revenue to aid in this calculation. 

What is a good ROI for SEO?

A good ROI is typically considered to be a 5:1 ratio or an ROI of 500%. In the context of the article, the ROI of SEO is 989% across all industries, which is nearly double the typical good ROI. This indicates that the ROI of SEO is outstanding. 

What is the ROI formula for SEO?

The ROI formula for SEO is:
$\text{ROI}=\left(\frac{\text{Total Customer Lifetime Revenue from SEO}-\text{Cost of SEO Investment}}{\text{Cost of SEO Investment}}\right)\times 100$

ROI=(Cost of SEO InvestmentTotal Customer Lifetime Revenue from SEO−Cost of SEO Investment​)×100 This formula takes into account the long-term benefits of SEO, as the revenue from SEO continues even after the investment stops. 

What is a good ROI for a website?

A good ROI for a website or any marketing effort that generates leads is typically 500%, which means earning $5 for every $1 spent on generating site visitor leads and revenue. 

What is the average ROI on digital marketing?

The average ROI on digital marketing, as mentioned in the article, is 500%. This means that for every dollar spent on digital marketing, there’s an average return of $5.