What is ranking actually worth to you?
Put in your job value, your call volume, and how many of those calls you close. See the projected annual gain, what it nets after cost, and how many extra calls it takes just to break even.
- Net of cost, not just revenue
- Uses your real close rate
- No signup
What one closed job is worth to you on average, before costs.
Inbound calls and form leads you currently get from Google.
Where you want to be. Doubling is realistic over 6 to 12 months in most markets.
Share of calls that become paying jobs. Most service businesses land between 30% and 50%.
What you would invest each month. Our packages run $500 to $3,000 depending on market and competition.
Projected annual revenue gain
$61,200
- Extra calls per month
- 15
- Extra jobs won per month
- 6.0
- Extra revenue per month
- $5,100
- Annual SEO cost
- −$12,000
- Net annual gain
- $49,200
That is 5.1x back for every dollar spent. You would need 3 extra calls a month just to break even.
Free audit. No signup to use this calculator.
How to read the number you just got
Every input above is an estimate, so treat the output as a range rather than a forecast. What the calculation is genuinely good for is comparison: it tells you whether the gap between where you rank now and where you could rank is worth the cost of closing, and it tells you which lever moves your result hardest. For most businesses that lever is not the ranking at all, it is the job value or the close rate.
One caveat the maths cannot capture: rankings compound and spend does not. A campaign that looks marginal in year one often looks obvious by year two, because the pages, reviews, and links you built keep working while the cost stays flat. That is the opposite of paid search, where stopping the spend stops the calls the same day.
Revenue gain is not the same as ROI
Plenty of agency calculators show a large annual revenue figure and stop there, because it is the most flattering number available. Revenue that costs more to produce than it returns is not a gain. The calculator above subtracts your spend and shows net, which is the only figure worth making a decision on.
Your close rate matters more than your ranking
Moving from position eight to position three might double your calls. Improving how those calls are handled can do the same thing without any ranking change at all. If your close rate is under 30%, fixing that is usually faster and cheaper than any SEO campaign, and it multiplies the value of every call SEO later adds.
Average job value hides your best opportunity
Most service businesses have a spread of job types, and the average conceals it. If emergency work is worth four times a routine visit, ranking for emergency terms is worth four times as much per call. Run the calculator once with your overall average, then again using only your high value work to see what targeting those searches specifically is worth.
The break-even number is the honest test
The annual projection depends on hitting a target you have chosen. The break-even figure does not: it tells you how many extra calls a month are needed simply to cover the cost. If that number looks small next to what your competitors are already getting, the case is straightforward. If it looks like a stretch, the spend is probably wrong for your market.
Working out what to fix first? See what local SEO actually costs, compare our packages, or run the NAP consistency checker to catch the cheapest problem most businesses have.
Frequently asked questions
How is local SEO ROI calculated?+
Take the extra calls you expect to gain each month, multiply by the share of calls you close into paying work, and multiply that by your average job value. That gives monthly revenue gain. Multiply by twelve for the annual figure, then subtract what you spend on SEO over the same period to get net gain. The calculator above does this, and also shows the return per dollar spent and how many extra calls a month you need just to cover the cost.
Why does the calculator ask for a close rate?+
Because calls are not jobs. A calculator that multiplies every extra call by your full job value assumes you win every one, which overstates the result by roughly two to three times for most businesses. Applying a realistic close rate, usually somewhere between 30% and 50% for local service businesses, is the difference between a projection you can plan against and a number that just looks good.
How long before local SEO actually produces this return?+
Most local businesses see meaningful ranking movement in three to five months, and the revenue follows the rankings rather than the spend. That means year one usually lands below the annualised figure shown here, because you are paying through the ramp before the calls arrive. The figure above describes a steady state month once rankings hold, which is the right basis for deciding whether the investment is worth making at all.
Is local SEO a better investment than Google Ads?+
They behave differently rather than one simply beating the other. Ads produce calls immediately and stop the moment you stop paying. SEO takes months to arrive and then continues without per-click cost. In expensive categories, legal and some medical keywords in particular, a single paid click can cost more than a hundred dollars, which makes the long-run economics of ranking hard to match. Most businesses run both, using ads to cover the ramp while rankings build.
What is a good ROI for local SEO?+
It depends entirely on your job value. A roofer averaging twenty thousand dollars a job reaches a strong return on a handful of extra calls a year, while a business with a hundred dollar ticket needs consistent volume to justify the same spend. Rather than aiming at a benchmark multiple, use the break-even figure in the calculator: if the extra calls needed to cover your spend look obviously achievable in your market, the investment is sound.
Does this calculator store my numbers?+
No. Everything runs in your browser, nothing is sent anywhere, and no email or signup is required. Refreshing the page clears it.
Next steps
The projection assumes you can reach that call volume. A free audit tells you whether the rankings behind it are within reach in your market, and what stands in the way.