SEO ROI calculator.
See what ranking on page one could bring in visits, leads and sales, and what the same clicks would cost you in Google Ads. Click rates come from 2026 data that accounts for AI answers.
Once you rank
…
Each month at your target position
Every position on page one
| Position | Visits | Leads | Ad value |
|---|
Tap a row to make it your target.
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Which of these keywords can you win?
Get a free audit of your search and AI visibility against three competitors, with the five fixes we'd make first.
Get my free audit →Google click-through rate by position in 2026.
Share of searchers who click each organic result. An AI answer above the results cuts clicks to the top spot by about five times.
| Position | Average | No AI answer | With AI answer |
|---|---|---|---|
| Position 1 | 7.1% | 22.6% | 3.6% |
| Position 2 | 3.0% | 10.2% | 1.4% |
| Position 3 | 1.7% | 5.8% | 0.8% |
| Position 4 | 1.1% | 3.7% | 0.5% |
| Position 5 | 0.7% | 2.5% | 0.3% |
| Position 6 | 0.6% | 1.8% | 0.3% |
| Position 7 | 0.4% | 1.3% | 0.2% |
| Position 8 | 0.3% | 0.9% | 0.2% |
| Position 9 | 0.2% | 0.7% | 0.1% |
| Position 10 | 0.2% | 0.5% | 0.1% |
Source: First Page Sage, Google click-through rates by ranking position in 2026 (updated 22 September 2026). Based on 3.67 billion impressions across 1,184 domains. First Page Sage reports that AI answers appear on 81.6% of US searches.
How the numbers are worked out.
- VisitsMonthly searches times the click-through rate for your position, using the column that matches how often AI answers show.
- Leads and salesVisits times your visit to lead rate gives leads. Leads times the share that buy, times your sale value, gives sales.
- Ad valueVisits times Google's typical top-of-page bid for your industry and market, from the same data as our Google Ads cost calculator.
- ReturnSales minus your monthly SEO cost, divided by that cost. Without sales figures, we compare your SEO cost with the ad value instead.
What the estimate can and can't tell you.
The top three take most clicks.
Positions one to three take most of page one's clicks. Moving from tenth to third is often worth more than adding new keywords at the bottom of the page.
AI answers change the maths.
Where an AI answer shows, fewer people click any result. Being cited inside the answer is now part of the job, not an extra.
Value builds over time.
Ads stop when the budget stops. A ranking keeps bringing visits each month, so compare a year of value, not one month.
We work on monthly levels, priced in THB or USD. Every level and term is on one page.
SEO ROI questions.
How do you calculate SEO ROI?
Multiply monthly searches by the click-through rate for your ranking position to get visits. Multiply visits by your conversion rate to get leads, then by the share of leads that buy and your average sale value to get sales. SEO ROI is sales minus what you spend on SEO, divided by what you spend on SEO.
What is the click-through rate for position 1 on Google?
In First Page Sage's 2026 data (March to August 2026, weighted to US searches), the top organic result got 7.1% of clicks on average. That rises to 22.6% when no AI answer appears and falls to 3.6% when one does.
Is SEO cheaper than Google Ads?
It can be, once you rank. Compare your monthly SEO cost with what the same clicks would cost in Google Ads, which the calculator shows. The trade-off is time: ads bring visits from the day they go live, while rankings take months to build. Our Google Ads cost calculator shows the ads side in more detail.
How long does SEO take to pay off?
It depends on how competitive your searches are and where your site starts. Rankings usually take months, so SEO costs come before the traffic. The calculator shows the monthly value once you rank; set your SEO cost against that to see how many months of ranking it takes to pay back.
Do AI answers make SEO worthless?
No, but they change the maths. AI answers take clicks from organic results, yet they also cite sources, and being cited puts your brand in front of the searcher. That's why we work on SEO and AI search (AEO) together.
Find out which rankings you can win.
Start with a free audit of your search and AI visibility, or tell us about your site and we'll suggest where to start.