Free tool
SEO ROI calculator: what a retainer has to produce to pay for itself
An SEO ROI calculator answers one question honestly: given what a customer is worth to you, how many enquiries a month does an SEO retainer have to bring in before it has paid for itself? Type in three figures of your own and this one shows four answers, including the break-even number of enquiries against the £399 Local tier. It uses no benchmarks, assumes nothing about your market, asks for no email address and stores nothing. What it cannot tell you is how many enquiries Google will actually send, which depends on your market and is what the free check estimates.
- Enquiries needed each month
- 14
- What those customers are worth
- £3,600
- Against Local at £399 a month
- 9.0x
- Enquiries a month to break even
- 2
Your figures, your maths. The calculator does not predict what Google will send; the audit estimates that for your market. It shows what the retainer has to produce to be worth paying for, which is the number to hold us to.
The arithmetic
Four lines, none of them hidden
- 1
Enquiries needed
The extra customers you want each month, divided by the share of enquiries that become customers. Four customers at a one-in-three close rate is twelve enquiries.
- 2
What those customers are worth
Customers wanted multiplied by what one is worth to you. Use the first order or the first year, whichever you plan by, and be consistent.
- 3
The multiple
That value divided by the monthly fee. At £399 a month, £3,600 of new customers is a multiple of nine.
- 4
Break-even enquiries
The fee divided by customer value, divided again by the close rate, rounded up. It is the number of enquiries a month at which the retainer has cost you nothing, and the number the monthly report should be read against.
What it leaves out on purpose
No traffic estimate, no industry click-through rate, no promise
Most SEO calculators ask for a search volume and a target position, apply an “industry-standard” click-through rate, and produce a revenue figure that looks like a forecast. It is not one. Search volumes are estimates, the click-through rate for any position depends on what else is on the results page (adverts, a map, an AI Overview), and the result is a number that sells the retainer rather than tests it.
This calculator runs the other way round. It starts from the numbers only you know and ends with the number you should hold any SEO company to. Whether your market can supply that many enquiries is a real question, and the honest way to answer it is from your own Search Console data and the competitors above you, which is what the free SEO check does. The reasoning behind how much to spend at all is in the guide on SEO budgets.
Where the inputs come from
Your invoices, your enquiry log, your plan
Customer value is the average of your last twenty invoices for the service you want more of, or the first-year value if customers stay. The close rate is last quarter's new customers divided by last quarter's enquiries; if you have never counted enquiries, start this week, because it is the number the whole retainer is judged on. Customers wanted is capacity: how many more jobs a month you could actually do without hiring.
Keep those three figures beside the quote when it arrives, because the multiple is the only test of it that matters. The tiers and what each contains are on the pricing page; the month, in order, is on the how it works page.
Then check it against real accounts
Small numbers, stated as small
The results page has five accounts with the figures Google recorded and the caveat beside each. The Chester remapping account went from seven clicks a month to forty-two in its second month, which is real, small, and exactly the scale a break-even figure from this calculator should be compared with. A calculator that tells you SEO will multiply your revenue is doing sales; this one is doing arithmetic.
Questions about the calculator
Does the calculator predict how many enquiries SEO will bring?
No, and be wary of any that does. It shows what the retainer has to produce to be worth paying for, from your own figures. How many enquiries your market can supply is a separate question, and the free check estimates it from your Search Console data and the three competitors above you.
Why is the multiple against the Local tier only?
Because it is the tier most businesses start on, and the arithmetic is the same for the others: divide what the customers are worth by the monthly fee. Growth at £599 and Multi-area at £799 are on the pricing page; replace the figure in your head and the multiple follows.
What is a realistic close rate?
Whatever yours is: count last quarter's enquiries and last quarter's new customers and divide. If you have never counted, start now, because that ratio is what the retainer is judged on. Do not borrow a rate from advertising or cold calling; a person who searched for the service before they phoned is further along than someone who was interrupted, so the two rates are not the same.
Is anything stored when I use it?
Nothing. The calculator runs entirely in your browser, sends nothing to us, and does not ask for an email address. If you want the estimate for your market alongside it, that is the free check, which is also free and also an email rather than a call.
Now find out whether your market can supply that many enquiries
Send the address and your sector. The free check reads your Search Console data and the three competitors above you and says what is realistic, within one working day, with a quote from the price list.