Is SEO Worth It? A Study of the Value of SEO by WebFX

Yes, SEO is worth it for most businesses when the customers it brings in are worth more than what you pay for it. SEO earns visibility that keeps sending qualified buyers long after the work is done, in Google’s search results and in AI answers like Google AI Overviews and ChatGPT.

Whether SEO is worth paying for depends on your customer value, your conversion rate, and the cost of the work. Below, you’ll find client results, a simple formula for estimating what SEO is worth to your business, how AI search changes that math, and how to decide between doing SEO yourself, hiring, or partnering with an agency.

P.S. Learn what to expect from SEO pricing with our free guide. Claim your copy today!

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SEO Pricing: How Much Does SEO Cost in 2023?

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Can you find your website?

Do a quick search in Google for your most popular products or services that your company offers right now. Then ask ChatGPT, or check the Google AI Overview, for the same thing.

Where is your website? Are you having trouble finding it? This is not a good sign.

If you can’t find your website in the search results, then how do you expect potential customers to find it? The first organic result gets an average click-through rate (CTR) of about 22%, about 10 times higher than a page ranking in position 10, according to Semrush’s organic CTR research.

By not showing up in Google’s search results or in AI answers, you’re handing business away to other websites, including your competitors. SEO can remedy this and get you back in the game.

Having said that, you most likely need a more convincing case than “we’re giving money away” to show your boss. Perhaps some quick case studies will help demonstrate the value of paying for SEO?

SEO case studies

We have helped many businesses rank higher in Google. You can check out our portfolio to see more of the work we’ve done for clients.

Here are a few cases that highlight the value of SEO.

Merrimack Valley Psychological Associates

Merrimack Valley Psychological Associates is a counseling center serving its local community in Massachusetts. With a custom search engine optimization and local SEO strategy, the center:

• Doubled its revenue
• Expanded to hire six new team members

Mosquito Magnet

Mosquito Magnet is a mosquito trap manufacturer that sells a large portion of their products on their website. By using SEO, we were able to get their website ranking in the top 5 results for the keyword “mosquito.”

As a result of our SEO services, they also ranked #1 for “mosquito traps,” driving them lots of valuable traffic that was targeted specifically to the products they offered.

Noble’s Pond

Noble’s Pond is a local community for seniors ages 55 and up. We began SEO services to increase the visibility of their site in search engines. Improving this website’s SEO boosted its traffic by 751%.

Also, this significant increase in website traffic occurred in a span of just three months. Talk about results!

CEMB USA

CEMB USA is a manufacturer for the automotive industry. With SEO (and the WebFX team), CEMB USA reached its audience with its unique product, resulting in:

• 130% increase in total ranking keywords
• 31% increase in organic leads

S. Clyde Weaver

S. Clyde Weaver is a retail and online provider of various foods, like smoked meats and cheese. With local and traditional search engine optimization from the WebFX team, the business experienced the following results:

• 136% increase in ecommerce sales
• 10,000+ more social media followers

What can SEO be worth to you and your company?

The above results are great, but these numbers may not apply to your business. Let’s see if we can get some hard numbers to show what SEO can be worth to you and your business.

The best way to start answering the question “what is SEO worth to me?” is to determine how much each customer is worth to you. Are you an online t-shirt shop selling $10 tees? Or are you a multinational industrial manufacturing company selling millions of dollars in equipment to each client?

The value of SEO will be significantly different depending on the average order value per customer.

If you offer services, or even subscription based products, it will be helpful to know the lifetime value of a customer rather than average order values. These are customers that keep coming back for more after that initial purchase. You can calculate your customer lifetime value (CLV) with our free tool!

Calculating the value of SEO

Let’s go through an example, to help answer whether SEO is worth it. For the sake of round numbers and our example, let’s say you make $100 per order on average, and you generate about 1,000 visitors per day to your online store.

It will also be crucial to know what percentage of your visitors convert, or end up buying your products or services. We’ll assume a 2% conversion rate for our example online business.

Based on these numbers, we have a starting amount of $60,000 in revenue each month without SEO services. How?

If basic SEO strategies get your website ranking from page five to page one, then you can safely assume a huge bump in traffic. However, just to be safe, let’s say this increases your daily traffic by 50%.

1,500 visitors/day * 30 days * .02 conversion rate * $100 = $90,000 per month

You’ve just increased your monthly revenue by $30,000 a month… or $360,000 a year!

Considering that most SEO projects cost between $1500 and $5,000 per month, this doesn’t sound so bad! SEO is worth the money considering the results we’ve seen with our clients in the past.

To calculate the value of SEO for yourself, you can substitute your own values in the formula above.

You’ll need your average number of visitors per day, your website’s conversion rate, and the average order value.

From this, you should be able to quickly determine what even a small increase in traffic, as a result of SEO services, can do for your revenue.

Is SEO still worth it when AI answers skip the click?

SEO is still worth it when AI answers skip the click, but the math needs two adjustments. Plan for fewer clicks on queries where an AI answer appears, and count your visibility inside those answers as part of what SEO earns you. The work that builds rankings, like helpful content, earned links, and accurate business details, is also what gets a brand mentioned in AI answers.

To update your own estimate of what SEO is worth:

1. Test a lower traffic case. Rerun the formula above with fewer visitors for keywords that trigger an AI Overview, so your estimate holds up if clicks drop.
2. Check whether AI answers mention you. Ask ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google AI Overviews the questions your buyers ask before they buy. Teams use OmniSEO®, WebFX’s AI search visibility platform, to track those prompts, see which competitors are cited beside them, and spot the topics where their content is missing.
3. Judge SEO on revenue, not sessions alone. Track leads and sales from organic search and AI referrals separately in GA4 and your CRM, so a dip in clicks doesn’t hide a rise in qualified buyers.

Can successful businesses stop doing SEO?

You may be tempted to abandon your SEO efforts after your company achieves online success. But no matter how profitable your business becomes, never stop optimizing your website. Even the most successful companies in the world use some level of SEO in digital marketing.

SEO is always changing, from Google algorithm updates to AI Overviews and AI Mode, and you can’t stand by and watch. In WebFX’s study of 2.37 million U.S. keywords, 25.8% of queries showed a Google AI Overview, or about 1 in 4 searches.

Search engines take into account the freshness of your content, as well as how recently other sites have linked to your content. So if you don’t maintain your SEO efforts, your site will eventually lose relevancy and its top spot in search results.

In order to preserve your visibility and rankings, you need to continue your SEO efforts. Otherwise, your competitors will outrank you, driving qualified traffic away from your business.

SEO vs. traditional marketing

Traditional marketing efforts cost much more than SEO to set up, monitor, and maintain. Traditional marketing doesn’t guarantee that people will be flocking to your doors to make a purchase, either. It’s not targeted, and it’s not always bound to reach the right audience.

SEO is different. People already in your marketing funnel are looking for a place to spend their money. You just have to cross their path via a Google search.

That’s why SEO has a much higher close than what you get with traditional marketing. For SEO, the close rate is 14.6%, while it’s only 1.7% for traditional marketing.

Is SEO worth it?

SEO is worthwhile if you have the right strategy in place and work with a partner that knows how to get results.

Organic search generated over 1 trillion visits in 2025 and remains the dominant traffic source, according to Semrush’s study of billions of web visits. The close rate of SEO leads is also much higher than that of traditional marketing. So, SEO provides an impressive return on investment (ROI).

Are SEO companies worth it?

We’ve established that SEO is a smart strategy, but should you pay for SEO services from a professional digital marketing agency?

You have several options for improving your website’s SEO — doing it yourself, hiring an in-house SEO, and working with an agency. Let’s take a look at these options.

Doing SEO yourself

You can find lots of information online about how to do SEO. Doing your own SEO can you money, and you get complete control over the process.

Learning SEO takes quite a bit of time, though. So, it might take you a while to get started and even longer to see results. You also have to keep up with changes in the SEO industry, including how AI Overviews and assistants like ChatGPT choose sources to cite, to keep your site visible.

If you have a relatively small website and lots of time on your hands, this method may work, but it can be challenging.

Hiring an in-house SEO

Another option is hiring an in-house SEO. This option can work well if you’re able to add someone to your team. With this option, you still have direct control over the work, but you don’t have to do it all yourself.

Hiring a new employee can also be time-consuming and comes with onboarding expenses and various other costs. For some businesses, especially SMBs, these costs may be too high to make this a viable option. It can also be challenging to hire the right employee if you aren’t familiar with how SEO works.

Partnering with an agency

You can also partner with an SEO agency. The best SEO companies have lots of experience and resources, which enables them to provide you with results quickly and consistently. You won’t have to worry about learning how to do the work yourself or figuring out how to find the right employee.

Make sure you choose an experienced agency that’s transparent about their pricing and past work. Look for reviews, testimonials, and a portfolio. They should also be willing to create a custom SEO strategy tailored to your needs and report on your visibility in AI answers, not just rankings.

While your SEO won’t work in your office every day, SEO firms like WebFX provide you with regular reporting and a dedicated account manager so that you have a consistent point of contact. WebFX ties that reporting to revenue with RevenueCloudFX, a platform that integrates with your CRM to show how each channel, including SEO, is performing.

Are SEO services worth it?

Should you pay for SEO services from a professional agency? If you find a reputable, experienced agency, SEO services are absolutely worth it. Put your numbers into the formula from earlier and compare your answer to the quote from your SEO agency to estimate your ROI.

Get your website ranking

What are you waiting for? Now that you know that SEO is really worth it, it’s time to act!

Contact WebFX today to find out how SEO services can boost your visibility in search results and AI answers, improve your conversion rate, and increase your revenue. Our SEO plans start at $2,900 / month, and we’ll be happy to customize a plan to fit your budget and unique needs.