Take your total revenue from local SEO, subtract what you spent, divide by what you spent, then multiply by 100. That's your ROI percentage. The tricky part is tracking revenue back to local SEO. You need to count leads from Google Maps clicks, organic local search, and "near me" queries. Most businesses use call tracking and form submissions to measure this. If you spend $800/month on local SEO and it generates $4,000 in revenue, that's a 400% ROI. Not bad. Here's a simple example: You pay $1,000/month for local SEO. Over six months, you track 24 customers who found you through Google Maps or local search. Average job value is $500. That's $12,000 in revenue minus $6,000 in costs, which equals $6,000 profit on a $6,000 investment. That's 100% ROI, or a 2x return. The calculator at the top lets you plug in your numbers and see different scenarios. Change your average sale value or monthly search volume and watch how the projected ROI shifts.

For most local businesses, 200-500% ROI is realistic once you hit top rankings. That means every dollar you spend returns two to five dollars in revenue. Service businesses like roofers, plumbers, and lawyers often see higher returns because their average job values are bigger. A dentist might get 300% ROI with a $1,500 average patient value. A personal injury lawyer could hit 1,000% ROI with high-value cases. The key is your average sale value and how many leads you need to break even. In the first 3-6 months, don't expect much return. You're building authority and climbing rankings. But once you crack the top 3 in the Map Pack, leads start flowing. By month 12, you should be cash-flow positive if you picked the right keywords and your website converts. Plug your industry's average sale value into the calculator and adjust the conversion rate slider. You'll see the exact monthly revenue potential based on your local search volume and where you rank.

Most small businesses spend between $500 and $2,000 per month on local SEO. The range depends on your market competitiveness and how much you're doing yourself versus paying an agency. A basic package for a small town plumber might run $500-700/month. That covers citations, Google Business Profile management, basic content, and review requests. A competitive market dentist in Miami or Dallas might need $1,500-2,500/month because there are 50 other dentists fighting for the same Map Pack spots. DIY local SEO can cost as little as $100-300/month if you just pay for tools and do the work yourself. But most business owners don't have time to chase citations, write content, and build links every week. The real question isn't "how much does it cost" but "how much can I make from it." If you spend $1,000/month and generate $5,000 in new revenue, that's a steal. Run the numbers in the calculator with your target keyword's search volume and see the potential return at different price points.

Expect 3-6 months for early results and 6-12 months for solid, consistent lead flow. Local SEO is not an overnight thing. In the first month or two, you might see small wins. Your Google Business Profile gets more views. A few citations start showing up. Maybe you jump from position 12 to position 7 in the Map Pack. But leads are still thin. By month 4-6, if the work is solid, you should start breaking into the top 5 and seeing real traffic. By month 9-12, you're ideally in the top 3 and generating leads every week. Competitive markets take longer. If you're a roofer in Phoenix competing against 100 other companies, it might take 12-18 months to dominate. A locksmith in a small town might rank in 60 days. The calculator shows you cumulative revenue over time. Adjust the timeline slider and you'll see how waiting 6 months versus 12 months affects total ROI. The longer you rank, the more money you make without increasing costs.

Yes, if customers search for your services on Google Maps or with "near me" searches. If they don't, then no. Local SEO works best for businesses with local intent: plumbers, roofers, dentists, chiropractors, lawyers, HVAC companies, auto repair, hair salons, restaurants, locksmiths, electricians. People are actively searching for you right now. The question is whether they find you or your competitor. Here's the math. Let's say 500 people per month search "emergency plumber near me" in your city. If you rank #1 in the Map Pack, you get about 88 clicks (17.6% CTR). If 5% call you and 30% of those book, that's 1-2 jobs per month just from that one keyword. If your average job is $400, that's $600/month in revenue from one keyword. Now multiply that by 10-20 keywords and you're looking at serious money. Type your main service keyword into the calculator and plug in realistic numbers for your close rate and average sale. If the revenue projection beats your monthly cost after 6 months, it's worth it.

SEO delivers better long-term ROI, but Google Ads gets you leads today. Most smart businesses use both. Google Ads converts at about 200% ROI on average. You pay for every click, and once you stop paying, the leads stop. Local SEO can hit 500% ROI once you rank, and those leads keep coming month after month without additional ad spend. But SEO takes 6-12 months to work. Ads work in 48 hours. Here's a real example: A local HVAC company spends $2,000/month on Google Ads and gets 40 leads at $50 per click. They close 8 jobs at $1,000 each, making $8,000 (300% ROI). They also spend $1,000/month on SEO. After 8 months, SEO delivers 30 leads per month at essentially zero cost per click. Those 30 leads generate $6,000/month in perpetuity. That's 500% ROI that keeps compounding. Use the calculator to model both scenarios. Set your monthly cost at $2,000 for ads versus $1,000 for SEO and compare the 12-month revenue totals.

Position #1 gets about 17.6% of clicks, position #2 gets 15.4%, and position #3 gets 15.1%. Together, the top 3 control nearly half of all local search clicks. That might not sound like a huge difference between #1 and #3, but when you run the numbers it adds up fast. Let's say your keyword gets 1,000 searches per month. Position #1 gets 176 clicks, position #2 gets 154, and position #3 gets 151. If you're in position #2 and climb to #1, you gain 22 extra clicks per month. At a 5% conversion rate, that's one extra customer per month. Over a year, that's 12 extra customers. If your average sale is $800, that's $9,600 in additional revenue just from moving up one spot. The Map Pack is winner-take-most. Positions 4-10 are visible if someone scrolls, but they get way less action. Most users click one of the top 3 or refine their search. Plug your current Map Pack position into the calculator and then change it to #1. Watch the monthly click estimate jump and see what that means for revenue.

You'll roughly triple your leads, maybe more. Position 8 gets maybe 3-5% of clicks. Position 2 gets 15.4%. That's a huge jump. Let's use an example with real numbers. You rank #8 for "roof repair near me" with 800 monthly searches. You're getting about 32 clicks per month (4% CTR). At a 4% conversion rate, that's 1-2 leads per month. Now you climb to position #2. You're getting 123 clicks per month (15.4% CTR). At the same 4% conversion rate, that's 5 leads per month. That's a 4x increase in leads. The difference between being on the edge of the Map Pack and being in the top 3 is the difference between scraping by and printing money. Most users don't scroll past the top 3. They just click, call, and book. Change the position slider in the calculator from 8 to 2 and look at the click estimate. Then multiply that by your conversion rate and average sale value. That's the dollar value of climbing six spots.

Most local service websites convert between 2% and 7% of visitors into leads. The average is around 3-5% depending on your industry and how good your site is. If you're a plumber and your site just has a phone number and some blurry photos, you might convert 2%. If you have clear calls to action, social proof, before/after photos, and click-to-call buttons, you might hit 6-8%. High-ticket services like lawyers and HVAC tend to convert lower (2-4%) because people shop around more. Quick-need services like locksmiths or towing convert higher (5-10%) because it's an emergency. Here's an example: You get 200 visitors per month from local search. At a 3% conversion rate, that's 6 leads. At a 6% conversion rate, that's 12 leads. If you close 30% of leads and your average job is $600, the difference between 3% and 6% conversion is $1,080 per month in revenue. That's nearly $13,000 per year. In the calculator, adjust the conversion rate slider from 3% to 6% and watch the revenue projection double. That's the value of a high-converting website.

Yes. Phone calls close at 30-50% on average. Web form leads close at 10-20%. People who call are warmer and more ready to buy. When someone calls, they want to talk now. They have urgency. They're one conversation away from booking. When someone fills out a form, they might be shopping around, comparing prices, or just researching. You have to call them back fast or they go cold. If you wait 24 hours to respond to a form lead, your close rate drops to like 5%. Let's say you get 20 phone calls and 20 form submissions per month. You close 8 of the calls (40%) and 3 of the forms (15%). That's 11 jobs total. If you improved form response time and closed 20% of forms, you'd get 4 form jobs instead of 3. One extra job per month might not sound like much, but over a year that's 12 extra jobs. At $700 per job, that's $8,400 in found revenue. The calculator assumes a blended conversion rate, but in reality you should track phone versus form separately. Most local SEO and Map Pack clicks turn into calls, which is why they convert so well.

Higher ticket prices mean you need fewer customers to break even, which makes local SEO way more profitable. A $200 average sale needs different volume than a $2,000 average sale. If you're a dog groomer and your average sale is $60, you need a lot of customers to cover a $1,000/month SEO bill. You'd need at least 17 new customers per month just to break even. But if you're a bathroom remodeler with a $4,000 average job, you only need one extra job every two months to cover that cost. The math works way better. Let's compare two businesses. Business A (locksmith) has a $150 average sale. Business B (HVAC installer) has a $3,500 average sale. Both spend $800/month on local SEO and both get 10 leads per month with a 30% close rate. Business A makes $450/month (3 jobs x $150). That's a loss. Business B makes $10,500/month (3 jobs x $3,500). That's a 1,200% ROI. Change the average sale value in the calculator and watch how dramatically the ROI number shifts. High-ticket businesses can afford to rank for lower-volume keywords and still crush it.

Use lifetime value if you have repeat customers. It makes your ROI look way better and it's more honest about the real value of ranking #1. A dentist doesn't just get one cleaning. They get a patient for life. That's potentially $3,000-5,000 over 10 years. An HVAC company gets the initial install, then annual maintenance, then another replacement in 15 years. A personal injury lawyer gets one case, but they might get referrals. If you only count the first transaction, you're underselling the value of local SEO. Here's an example. You're a pest control company. Your initial service is $200, but the average customer stays for 3 years at $60/month. That's a $2,360 lifetime value, not $200. If you acquire 10 customers per month from local SEO and only count the $200, you think you're making $2,000/month. But you're actually making $23,600 in LTV per month. That changes everything. The calculator uses average sale value by default, but mentally you should multiply that by how many times the average customer comes back. If you want to model LTV, just increase the average sale value field to reflect total customer worth.

The Map Pack gets about 44% of clicks. Organic local results get 29%. Paid ads get 19%. The rest go to other stuff like knowledge panels or people refining their search. That means the Map Pack is the single most valuable piece of real estate on a local search results page. If you rank #1 in the Map Pack, you're getting a slice of that 44%. If you rank #8 in organic results below the Map Pack, you're fighting for scraps of the 29%. Here's what that looks like with real numbers. Let's say "plumber near me" gets 2,000 searches per month in your city. The Map Pack gets 880 clicks total. The top 3 positions in the Map Pack get about 420 of those clicks. Organic results get 580 clicks total, but the #1 organic result only gets about 150 clicks. So ranking #1 in the Map Pack (176 clicks at 17.6% of 880) is better than ranking #1 organically below the Map Pack. The calculator assumes you're optimizing for Map Pack rankings, which is the right move for local businesses. Plug in your keyword and see how many clicks you'd get at different Map Pack positions versus organic.

Businesses with 4.5+ star ratings and 50+ reviews get way more clicks than 3-star businesses with 10 reviews. We're talking 50-70% more attention, easy. Google gives higher-rated businesses better visibility in the Map Pack, but even when you rank the same position as a competitor, users pick the one with better reviews. If you and another roofer both rank #2, but you have 4.8 stars with 120 reviews and they have 3.9 stars with 30 reviews, you'll get 2-3x more clicks even though you're in the same spot. Here's an example. You rank #2 in the Map Pack for "dentist near me" with 1,200 monthly searches. Normally you'd get 185 clicks (15.4% CTR). But your rating is 3.8 stars with 18 reviews. You're probably getting more like 110 clicks because people skip you for the 4.7-star dentist in position #3. Fix your reviews, and your CTR shoots up to the full 15.4% or higher. That's 75 extra clicks per month, which could be 4-5 extra patients. The calculator doesn't factor in review quality, but you should mentally adjust your CTR down if your reviews are weak and up if they're strong.

Yes, but it's not as dramatic as people make it out to be. Consistent NAP (name, address, phone) across directories helps Google trust your business location, which helps you rank. But it's not a magic switch. If your NAP is a mess, Google might not show you in the Map Pack at all, or they'll rank you lower because they're not confident you're actually located where you say you are. If your NAP is clean and consistent across 50+ citations, Google sees you as a legitimate, stable business. That's worth maybe 1-3 ranking positions depending on how competitive your market is. Here's a real scenario. You're a chiropractor ranking #5 in the Map Pack. You clean up 40 citations that had old addresses or wrong phone numbers. Over 2-3 months, you climb to #3. That's a jump from 80 clicks per month to 151 clicks per month (assuming 1,000 monthly searches). At a 4% conversion rate and $150 average patient value, that's an extra $426/month in revenue, or $5,112/year. Not bad for a few hours of citation cleanup. NAP doesn't show up in the calculator directly, but think of it as a prerequisite for ranking in the top 3. You won't get there with messy citations.

Probably not. Google ranks businesses based on proximity to the searcher. If you're located on the north side and someone searches from the south side, you might not even show up in their Map Pack. This is why "citywide" rankings are kind of a myth. Your Map Pack ranking varies by where the person is searching from. You might be #1 when someone searches within 2 miles of your shop and #8 when they search from across town. That's just how Google works. Proximity is one of the top 3 ranking factors. Here's the strategy: Dominate your 3-5 mile radius first, then expand. If you're a locksmith on the west side, optimize for "locksmith west Austin" and "locksmith near me" for people in your zone. You'll rank #1 for nearby searches and maybe #4-7 for searches farther out. That's fine. The nearby searches are higher intent anyway because they're more likely to actually use you. When you use the calculator, think about your realistic service radius. Don't plug in total citywide search volume if you can't rank for all of it. Use the search volume for your neighborhood or region where you can actually win.

A little, but not much. The top 3 positions are shown by default. Positions 4-20 require the user to scroll or click "More places." Most people don't bother. Best estimates are that positions 4-10 combined get about 10-15% of total clicks. That's way less than the top 3, which get 48% combined. If you're ranked #6, you're getting maybe 2-3% CTR at best. It's better than being invisible, but it's not enough to build a business on. Here's the reality: If you rank #6 for "roof repair near me" with 1,000 monthly searches, you might get 25 clicks per month. If you climb to #2, you get 154 clicks. That's a 6x increase. The difference between position 6 and position 2 is the difference between $400/month in revenue and $2,400/month in revenue (assuming 4% conversion rate, 30% close rate, and $500 average job). Use the calculator to compare position #6 to position #2 in the same keyword. The revenue difference is massive. Positions 4-10 are nice if you're climbing, but they're not a destination. You need to break into the top 3 to make real money.

Always model a cluster. No local business ranks for just one keyword. You'll rank for 10-50 variations of your main service, and the traffic adds up fast. If you only model "emergency plumber Denver," you might see 500 searches per month. But you'll also rank for "plumber near me," "24 hour plumber Denver," "plumbing repair Denver," "water heater repair Denver," and 20 other variations. Combined, that cluster might be 3,000-5,000 searches per month. That's 6-10x more traffic than the single keyword. Here's how to model a cluster. Let's say you're an HVAC company. Your main keyword "HVAC repair near me" gets 600 searches. But you also rank for "AC repair near me" (800 searches), "furnace repair near me" (400 searches), "heating and cooling near me" (300 searches), and "HVAC installation near me" (500 searches). That's 2,600 total searches. At a 15% average CTR and 5% conversion rate, that's 390 clicks and 19 leads per month instead of 4 leads from just one keyword. You can run the calculator multiple times for different keywords and add up the revenue, or just use a conservative average across your cluster. Either way, don't just model one keyword. You'll undersell your potential.

Take the monthly search volume, multiply by 44% (Map Pack's share of clicks), then multiply by the CTR for your position. That gives you estimated monthly clicks from that keyword. Let's break it down step by step. You want to rank for "dentist near me" which gets 2,400 searches per month. The Map Pack gets 44% of clicks, so that's 1,056 clicks going to Map Pack listings. If you rank #1, you get 17.6% of those 1,056 clicks, which is 186 clicks per month. If you rank #3, you get 15.1%, which is 159 clicks. If you rank #7, you get maybe 3%, which is 32 clicks. Now multiply clicks by your website conversion rate. Let's say 4% of visitors book an appointment. At #1, that's 7 appointments per month. At #3, that's 6 appointments. At #7, that's 1 appointment. If your average patient value is $800, ranking #1 generates $5,600/month versus $800/month at #7. The calculator at the top does this math for you automatically. Just type in the keyword, select your current Map Pack position, and adjust your conversion rate and sale value. The tool shows you exactly how many clicks and how much revenue to expect.

Show them the math with their own numbers. Skeptical people trust calculators and data more than promises. Start with something they already know: how many customers they need per month to make money. Let's say they need 20 new jobs per month at $600 each to hit their revenue goal. That's $12,000/month. Now show them how many people are searching for their services on Google. If "plumber near me" gets 1,200 searches per month in their city and they're not ranking, they're invisible to 1,200 potential customers every single month. Next, show them what happens if they rank #1. At 17.6% CTR, that's 211 clicks. At a 5% conversion rate, that's 10-11 leads. If they close 30%, that's 3 jobs per month from one keyword. Add 5-10 more keywords and they're getting 15-20 new jobs per month from SEO. That's $9,000-12,000/month in new revenue. If SEO costs $1,200/month, the ROI is 750-900%. Walk them through the calculator in real time. Let them change the numbers to match their close rate and average ticket. When they see their actual numbers showing 400% ROI, it clicks. The calculator takes "trust me bro" and turns it into "here's the proof."

They're educated guesses, not guarantees. They show potential based on averages, but your actual results depend on your market, your website, and how well you execute. The calculator uses real benchmarks: Map Pack CTR rates, average conversion rates, typical close rates. But your dentist practice might convert 8% while another converts 2%. Your market might have 10 competitors or 100. Your website might be gorgeous or built in 2003. All of that affects results. Here's what calculators are good for: showing you whether local SEO is worth exploring. If the calculator says you'd need to rank #1 for 50 keywords just to break even, local SEO probably isn't your best channel. But if it shows $8,000/month in potential revenue from ranking #1 for 5 keywords, and you're currently nowhere, then it's worth the investment. Use the calculator as a starting point, not a contract. In reality, you might do better or worse than the estimate. But it gives you a framework to make an informed decision instead of just guessing. Adjust the numbers in the calculator to be conservative. Drop the conversion rate from 5% to 3%. Reduce the close rate from 30% to 20%. If it still shows positive ROI at 12 months, you're probably safe.

Easy markets (small towns, low competition): 4-8 months to ROI. Competitive markets (big cities, saturated industries): 10-18 months to ROI. In a small town with three other plumbers, you can rank #1 in the Map Pack in 60-90 days if you do the basics right. Your costs are maybe $500/month. You start getting leads by month 3. By month 6, you're cash-flow positive. By month 12, you've made $15,000 in profit. Easy. In a city like Phoenix with 200 plumbers, it's a war. You're spending $1,500/month. You don't break into the top 3 until month 8. You don't hit consistent lead flow until month 10. You don't go cash-flow positive until month 14. But by month 24, you've made $40,000 in profit and you own the market. Harder, but worth it if you can afford the upfront investment. The difference is competition and how much work it takes to outrank everyone else. More competitors means more content, more citations, more reviews, and more links to get ahead. In the calculator, adjust the timeline slider and compare 6-month ROI versus 18-month ROI. Competitive markets take longer but the long-term payoff is bigger because the market is bigger.

Yes, and it's one of the best ways to frame the investment. Figure out what you'd pay per click with Google Ads, multiply by how many clicks you'd get from SEO, and that's your "saved ad spend" value. Let's say you want to rank for "emergency electrician near me." Google Ads charges $18 per click in your market. If you rank #1 in the Map Pack and get 200 clicks per month, that's $3,600/month in ad spend you're not paying. Over a year, that's $43,200 in saved ad costs. If your SEO costs $1,200/month, that's $14,400/year. You're saving $28,800 per year compared to paying for those same clicks with ads. This doesn't even count the fact that SEO clicks convert better than ad clicks because people trust organic results more. So you're not just saving money, you're making more per click. Use the calculator to estimate your monthly clicks from SEO. Then look up what your target keyword costs per click in Google Ads. Multiply clicks by CPC and that's your monthly saved ad spend. Compare that to your SEO cost. If you're saving 2-3x more than you're spending, it's worth it.

Track three things: Map Pack ranking position, phone calls from Google listings, and revenue from local search leads. Those three metrics tell you everything. Set up call tracking so you know which calls came from your Google Business Profile or your website. Use Google Business Profile Insights to see how many people called directly from your listing or requested directions. Set up conversion tracking in Google Analytics to see form submissions from organic local traffic. Then tag every new customer in your CRM with their source (Google Maps, organic search, Google Ads, referral, etc.). Here's a simple tracking system. You rank #3 for "HVAC repair near me" on March 1st. In March, you get 23 calls from your GBP listing and 12 form submissions from organic local traffic. You close 9 of those (25% close rate). Average job is $1,800. That's $16,200 in revenue. Your SEO cost was $1,000. That's 1,520% ROI for the month. Without tracking, you're flying blind. You won't know if SEO is working or if you're wasting money. Most businesses fail to track properly, then complain that "SEO doesn't work" when really they just didn't measure it. Set up tracking on day one.

Emergency services (plumbing, locksmith, towing, urgent care) convert at 7-12%. Scheduled services (dentist, roofing, landscaping) convert at 2-5%. Emergency = high intent. Scheduled = shopping around. When someone searches "emergency plumber near me" at 9pm on a Saturday, they're not browsing. They need help right now. They click, call, and book. Conversion rates are high because intent is maxed out. When someone searches "kitchen remodel near me," they're starting a 3-month research process. They'll visit 10 websites, get 5 quotes, and think about it for weeks. Conversion rates are way lower. Here's an example. You're a 24-hour locksmith. You rank #1 for "locksmith near me" and get 150 clicks per month. With a 10% conversion rate, that's 15 leads. You close 50% because it's an emergency and they need in now. That's 7-8 jobs per month at $180 each, or $1,350/month. Now compare to a bathroom remodeler. Same 150 clicks, but only 3% convert (4-5 leads). They close 20% (1 job per month). At $8,000 per job, that's still $8,000/month, but the math is totally different. In the calculator, use 8-10% for emergency services and 3-4% for scheduled services. If you're not sure, use 4-5% as a safe middle ground.

Big time. HVAC makes bank in summer and winter, nothing in spring and fall. Roofers crush after storms. Tax accountants print money January through April. You need to model seasonal peaks and valleys. If you only calculate ROI based on peak season, you'll think you're making $20,000/month. Then fall hits and you make $4,000/month. Your annual ROI is way lower than you thought. Better to average it out over 12 months and set realistic expectations. Here's an example. You're a lawn care company. In April, May, and June, you rank #1 for "lawn care near me" and get 80 leads per month. You close 30 jobs per month at $150 each. That's $4,500/month. But in December, January, and February, search volume drops 70%. You only get 24 leads and close 9 jobs. That's $1,350/month. Your average monthly revenue is $2,925, not $4,500. If your SEO costs $800/month, your annual ROI is 265%, not 463%. Don't use your best month as the baseline in the calculator. Use your average month or model peak and off-peak separately. Otherwise you'll overpromise and underdeliver to yourself or your boss.

Yes, but you need to calculate each location separately because search volume and competition vary by city. If you have three locations (Dallas, Austin, Houston), you can't just multiply one location's numbers by three. Dallas might have 2,000 monthly searches for "plumber near me" with 150 competitors. Austin might have 1,200 searches with 80 competitors. Houston might have 3,500 searches with 200 competitors. Your ranking difficulty and traffic potential are different in each city. Here's how to model it. Run the calculator for each location separately. In Dallas, you rank #2 and generate $8,000/month in revenue. In Austin, you rank #1 and generate $6,000/month. In Houston, you rank #5 and generate $3,000/month. Your total multi-location revenue is $17,000/month. If you spend $1,000/month per location ($3,000 total), your blended ROI is 467%. You can also model the incremental value of opening a new location. If you're thinking about expanding to San Antonio, plug in San Antonio's keyword volume and see what the revenue potential is if you rank #1. If it shows $7,000/month potential, and it costs $1,500/month to rank there, it's probably worth the expansion.