Costs
Is SEO worth it? Work out the jobs you need
The quick answer
SEO is worth it when the extra jobs it brings in leave you with more profit than the bill takes away. Start with what you keep from a typical job after materials and labour. Divide your monthly SEO bill by that amount to see how many extra jobs a month you need to break even.
On this page
Key takeaways
- SEO is worth it when the profit from the extra jobs it brings in is more than the full cost of the work.
- Work from what you keep per job after materials and labour, not from the invoice total.
- In our made-up example an $890/month + GST fee is covered by three extra jobs that each leave $400, though you should use your own figures.
- Count fees from the first month and extra profit only when a job is paid, because the early months can run at a loss.
- Google appearances and Analytics events show visibility and enquiries, so keep a ledger of paid jobs as well.
Is SEO worth it? For a trade business it is when the extra jobs it brings in leave you with more money than the bill takes out. Picture a Sydney electrician holding a monthly SEO invoice and wondering how many new jobs she needs just to cover it. This guide gives you a short calculation to answer that with your own numbers and a way to check later whether it worked.
Here’s an example. The figures are made up so we can show the calculation, except for the fee. An electrician in Parramatta keeps $400 from a typical $800 job after paying for materials and labour. Her SEO plan costs $890/month + GST, which is the real price of our Suburb SEO plan. Three extra jobs a month would cover that fee and five extra jobs would leave her $1,110 better off after paying it.
SEO, short for search engine optimisation, means improving your website and Google listing so people searching for your service can find you. If you would rather see what a monthly fee covers before you do any sums, our SEO packages page lists the work and the terms. Otherwise a few recent invoices and a pen are all you need for the steps below.
How many extra jobs would pay for the SEO bill?
Divide your monthly SEO bill by what you keep from one job and round up. That gives you the number of extra jobs a month you need to break even. Here are the steps with the electrician’s made-up figures beside each one.
- Write down what a typical job brings in before GST, which is $800 for the electrician.
- Subtract what it costs you to do the job, such as materials, wages and fuel, which comes to $400 for her.
- What is left is the profit you keep from that job, which is $400 for the electrician. Business.gov.au calls this gross profit and defines it as the difference between sales and the direct cost of making the sales.1
- Write down the monthly SEO bill plus anything extra you pay because of it, such as new photos, which for her is just the $890 fee.
- Divide step 4 by step 3 and round up. Hers is $890 ÷ $400, which comes to 2.2, so she needs three extra jobs.
The table shows what a month could look like for the electrician at different results. Each extra job leaves her $400 and the fee is $890.
Scroll across to read every column
| Extra paid jobs in the month | What she keeps from them | After the $890 fee | Return on the fee |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | $0 | -$890 | -100% |
| 2 | $800 | -$90 | -10% |
| 3 | $1,200 | $310 | 35% |
| 5 | $2,000 | $1,110 | 125% |
Two jobs leave her slightly out of pocket and three tip her into profit. That small gap is why it pays to know your break-even number before you sign anything.
What does SEO ROI mean and how do you work it out?
ROI means return on investment, which is the profit you make from spending money shown as a percentage of what you spent. Business.gov.au says to divide the net profit of the investment by its cost and convert it to a percentage.1
In the table above the last column does this. Five extra jobs leave the electrician $1,110 after the fee. Divide $1,110 by $890 and you get about 1.25, which is 125%. Zero jobs lose the whole fee, which is why that row shows -100%.
Some ROI figures you see online count sales instead of profit. A sales figure can look large and still leave you with nothing after costs, so always ask which one you are looking at. The simple version in this guide counts only what you keep from each job and the SEO fee. It leaves out your time and your other bills, which the fine print at the end explains.
Which costs belong in the calculation?
Put in everything you pay because of the SEO work and nothing you would have paid anyway. For most owners that is a short list.
- The monthly fee for as long as you stay on the plan.
- Any setup fee or once-off audit, because it is part of the total even though you pay it only once.
- Extra costs the work creates, such as new project photos, a better contact form or a tool you subscribe to.
- Your own time, if you will spend hours supplying details or approving pages.
Business.gov.au lists marketing among a business’s overheads, which are the fixed costs of running it, such as rent, utilities and admin.1 That is why we take the fee off what you keep from the jobs and not off the invoice total. The invoice also has to pay for the materials and wages that went into the job.
If your time is the biggest cost, put a number on it. An hour you spend on SEO is an hour you are not on the tools, so use what you would normally keep from an hour of billable work.
What about the months before the first extra job arrives?
Count the fees from the first month and the extra profit only when a job is paid. A good month five does not cancel months one to four on its own, so keep a running total.
Google says some changes to a website can show an effect within hours while others can take several months. Its starter guide suggests waiting a few weeks before judging whether a change helped. It also says that not every change makes a noticeable difference.3 Our guide on how long SEO takes goes into the wait in more detail.
Here is the electrician again with made-up results that show the shape of a slow start. Please read it as an illustration and not as a forecast of what SEO usually does.
Scroll across to read every column
| Month | Extra paid jobs | Fees paid so far | Profit kept from extra jobs so far | Running result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 0 | $890 | $0 | -$890 |
| 2 | 1 | $1,780 | $400 | -$1,380 |
| 3 | 3 | $2,670 | $1,600 | -$1,070 |
| 4 | 4 | $3,560 | $3,200 | -$360 |
| 5 | 5 | $4,450 | $5,200 | $750 |
| 6 | 5 | $5,340 | $7,200 | $1,860 |
Table: made-up results for one imaginary electrician, shown for illustration only and not a forecast of what SEO will do for any business.
Early months can run at a loss
Made-up example, not a forecast
Running total ($)
Month
$1,380 behind at the end of month 2
Back in front in month 5
Made-up results for one imaginary electrician. Amounts before GST.
She is $1,380 behind at the end of month two and only back in front in month five. A weaker run shows the other side. If one extra job arrived each month, six months would bring $2,400 in profit against $5,340 in fees, a loss of $2,940.
If cash is tight, that early dip matters more than any average. When you need extra jobs inside the next few weeks to cover rent or wages, SEO is the wrong tool for that gap because the early months are the costly ones.
Kavera note: Our Suburb SEO plan has no setup fee and, like every SEO plan we offer, runs month to month, so you can cancel anytime. We recommend six months to see real results. Read your ledger each month to see the work delivered. Our SEO packages page lists every plan and our promise: if we miss a month’s agreed numbers, your next month is free.
How do you tell which jobs came from search?
Ask every new customer how they found you and write the answer next to the job. A ledger is just a table you fill in as you go, in a notebook or a spreadsheet.
Scroll across to read every column
| Column | What to write | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Date of enquiry | The day they first got in touch | Lets you match jobs to the month you paid the fee |
| How they found you | Their own words, such as Google, Maps, ChatGPT, a referral or your van | Stops you counting every job as an SEO job |
| What they asked for | The service and the suburb | Shows whether the right kind of work is arriving |
| Quote and result | The price you quoted and whether they said yes | Many enquiries never become jobs |
| Paid | The amount received before GST and the date | Only paid jobs count |
| Direct costs | Materials, wages and fuel | Lets you work out what you kept |
Count a job only if you would not have had it otherwise. A past customer who rings you directly is not an SEO job. A neighbour’s referral is not one either.
Your website can count some of the steps for you. In Google Analytics a key event is an action you ask it to count, such as a visitor reaching your “thanks, we got your message” page. Google recommends using its ready-made events, such as generate_lead, wherever possible.2 That counts enquiries and not paid jobs, so it supports the ledger without replacing it. Ask your web developer to set it up.
When is SEO worth it and when is it the wrong spend?
People who search for a service are already looking for someone to do it, so a good result in search puts you in front of buyers at the moment they want help. That only pays when you can take on more work and the numbers leave room for the fee. Run your own answers against the table.
Scroll across to read every column
| SEO is more likely to pay if | Wait or choose something else if |
|---|---|
| People in your area already search for the work you do | Almost nobody searches for it and your work comes from a few regular customers |
| You keep a good amount from each job compared with the monthly bill | You keep so little per job that you need many extra jobs just to cover the fee |
| You have room in the diary for more work | Your diary is already full and you would turn extra jobs away |
| You answer calls and forms the same day and send quotes quickly | Enquiries sit unanswered for days |
| You can cover several monthly fees before the jobs arrive | You need extra income within weeks |
If you are not sure whether people search for your service, a keyword review, which checks the phrases people type into Google, will tell you. It is part of the audit described at the end of this guide.
The same calculation works for any way of finding customers. Write down what you pay, how many paid jobs it brings and what you keep from them. Google says that advertising with Google has no effect on your site’s presence in its search results. It also says that it costs nothing to appear in organic results.4 So paid ads and SEO are two separate bills and each needs its own calculation.
If you run a small business and want to talk the numbers through, our small business SEO page explains how we work with owners at your size. If a past provider put you off, read how to choose an SEO agency first. If you are unsure whether to hire someone or use an agency, our guide on SEO agency vs in-house compares the two.
Do more Google appearances mean more profit?
Not by themselves. An appearance counts how often your site showed up in search results and it does not count calls, quotes or paid jobs. It is a useful early sign but it is not the answer to the money question.
Kavera note: Our client SHORE’s non-brand Google appearances increased from 1,204 to 9,492, about 7.9x, between two four-week windows. Non-brand means searches that don’t include its business name. The periods were 22 June to 19 July 2026 and 4 September to 1 October 2026, covering Australian searches across its website and Maps listing together. Our GEO guide has the full comparison. That is a visibility figure. It does not tell you how many enquiries or paid jobs followed, which is why our plans ask for your feedback on suitable enquiries and booked jobs.
The same goes for AI answers. Being named by ChatGPT is not a booked job. Our Sydney AI search study froze 50 questions covering 10 trades before collecting any answers. It measures who gets named and linked rather than who gets paid. If your worry is whether people still search the old way as AI answers grow, read is SEO dead.
What should you do before you choose a plan?
Do the calculation and start the ledger now, before any SEO work begins. A few weeks of records give you an honest starting point to compare against later.
- Work out your break-even jobs using last year’s invoices.
- Start the ledger today and fill in the “how they found you” column for every new enquiry.
- Take those numbers to each provider and ask what they will measure and when you will see it.
For what Australian fees cover and how to read a quote, see how much SEO costs.
Our SEO audit is free. It reviews your site’s technical health, visibility, keywords, competitors and Google Business Profile and ends with a prioritised roadmap. Implementation is separate unless retained. Compare the monthly plans on our SEO packages page, where monthly plans start at Suburb SEO, $890/month + GST. No SEO package guarantees rankings, leads or revenue.
The fine print
Only the $890/month + GST fee is a real Kavera price. We checked it against our published pricing on 21 October 2026. Every job, invoice, cost and result in the electrician’s examples is made up to show how the calculation works.
The return figures subtract the SEO fee from what you keep from the extra jobs. They do not subtract your own time, other bills or tax, so they are not your final profit. Neither the break-even job count nor the return predicts that those jobs will arrive.
Count only extra jobs that came from the work. A job that would have happened anyway makes the result look better than it was. Compare fees and profit over the same period as well, because a single good month does not repay the earlier fees.
A Google Analytics key event counts an action on your website, such as a form being sent. It does not show that the enquiry was suitable or that the job was paid. We sell SEO, so we have a stake in this question. That is why every step above uses your numbers and not ours.
Good questions
Common questions Clear answers
How many extra jobs would I need each month to cover the SEO bill?
Divide the monthly bill by what you keep from one job, then round up. If the bill is $890 and you keep $400 from a typical job, that is 2.2, so you need three extra paid jobs a month to break even. Use your own figures and count only jobs you would not have won without SEO.
Do I work that out using the full job price or what’s left after costs?
Use what is left after costs. The full job price includes the materials, wages and fuel you spend to do the work, so it overstates what SEO earns you. Take the price before GST and subtract those direct costs. The amount left is what is available to pay for marketing and your other overheads.
How can I tell which paying jobs actually came from SEO?
Ask every new customer how they found you and write the answer in a ledger next to the quote and the payment. If your website counts form submissions in Google Analytics you can add those too. Count a job only if you would not have had it otherwise, so leave out repeat customers and referrals.
What if I get more calls but hardly any turn into paid jobs?
Look at the calls before you judge the SEO. Note which services and suburbs people ask about, how fast you reply and why quotes are turned down. The calls may be for work you do not want or for suburbs you do not cover. Tell your provider what you find so they can aim at better enquiries.
Will a few smaller jobs cover the cost or would I need bigger ones?
It depends on what you keep from each job. In a made-up example with a fee of $890/month + GST, a job that leaves $400 before GST needs three to cover the fee while smaller jobs that leave $150 each need six. The same sum works for any size of job, so divide your own fee by what you keep from the jobs you actually win, using recent invoices.
How do I factor in the months I’m paying for SEO before any extra work comes in?
Add up every fee from the first month and compare the total with the profit from extra paid jobs over the same period. In a made-up example with a fee of $890/month + GST, three months of fees come to $2,670 before GST, which needs seven jobs that each leave $400 before GST. Some changes take months to show, so plan to cover several fees before you decide.
Is it worth paying for SEO?
It can be when the profit from the extra jobs it brings in is more than everything you pay for it. That depends on how much you keep from each job, whether people search for your service and whether you can take on more work. Work out the break-even jobs first and then track your own jobs to see if they arrive.
Can I stop paying for SEO once jobs start coming in?
On a month-to-month plan you can stop when the notice terms allow, which is 30 days for our Suburb SEO plan. Whether the pages already published stay yours depends on the ownership and handover terms in your agreement, so check them before you sign. Whether they keep bringing enquiries depends on Google and on what other businesses publish, so no one can promise they will.
Sources
- Key financial termsbusiness.gov.au. Accessed .
- Tutorial: Set up a key eventGoogle Analytics Help. Accessed .
- SEO Starter Guide: The BasicsGoogle Search Central. Accessed .
- Do you need an SEO? Tips for hiring an SEOGoogle Search Central. Accessed .
