Cost per click from SEO can vary widely depending on various factors such as your industry, ranking, and website authority score. Practically speaking, your cost per click will be your cost per website visitor assuming your site loads quickly and is relatively engaging. Recently, our team completed a meta-analysis and calculated what cost per click should be expected based on those factors. The factors are:
- Industry: Some industries are more expensive than other industries due to competition and the number of competitors targeting transactional keywords.
- Ranking: Websites ranking near the top will earn cheaper clicks.
- Website Authority Score: If your website has a low authority score, it will be more difficult to maintain high rankings, which will raise your cost per click.
- Search Volume of Keyword: Even if you rank at the top of Google for a keyword, you could still be paying a lot if there is a low volume of traffic.
Defining SEO Cost per Click
Unlike Google Ads, with SEO you are not directly paying for clicks. Instead, we are measuring based on an investment in an SEO agency or SEO department. Our formula is:
SEO Cost per Click = Total Investment in SEO / Number of Clicks
SEO Cost per Click By Industry
The following section compiles SEO cost per click broken down by industry.
Industry Cost Per Click
Addiction Treatment $1.67
B2B SaaS $1.58
Biotech $1.82
Construction $1.52
eCommerce $0.50
Financial Services $2.50
Higher Education & College $2.39
HVAC Services $1.51
Industrial IoT $2.04
Commercial Insurance $1.73
IT Staffing $1.33
Legal Services $1.08
Manufacturing $1.89
Medical Device $2.92
Oil & Gas $2.15
PCB Design & Manufacturing $2.69
Pharmaceutical $1.92
Real Estate $3.50
Solar Energy $1.77
SEO Cost per Click By Ranking Position
Whether you are at the top of the page, the bottom of the page, or somewhere in the middle dramatically affects your SEO cost per click.
Position Cost per Click
Search Position 1 $1.12
Search Position 2 $2.30
Search Position 3 $2.77
Search Position 4 $2.94
Search Position 5 $3.05
Search Position 6 $3.09
Search Position 7 $3.17
Search Position 8 $3.22
Search Position 9 $3.23
Search Position 10 $3.25
SEO Cost per Click By Website Authority Score
If your website is highly trusted by Google, you will be consistently delivered cheap clicks. If not, it will be more difficult. Click here to check your website authority score.
Website Authority Score Cost per Click
80-100 $0.12
60-80 $1.70
40-60 $5.63
20-40 $10.36
0-20 $15.87
SEO Cost per Click By Keyword Search Volume
The higher the volume your keyword has, the more clicks you can obtain without spending incrementally more money on SEO.
Keyword Search Volume Cost per Click
0-100 $4.81
100 - 1,000 $4.43
1,000 - 5,000 $3.85
5,000 - 50,000 $3.23
50,000 - 100,000 $2.20
100,000 + $1.38
Achieving a Low SEO Cost per Click: Next Steps
If you believe cheap, high-quality website traffic will increase your leads and sales, don’t hesitate to reach out. We are professionals in the art of SEO and help brands build a consistent lead-generation machine.
Sources:
Focus Digital Internal Data