1. Understand ROI
You can’t prove success without defining what it means. For content ROI, it comes down to a simple equation:
Return is the revenue generated through organic website visitors. However, revenue isn’t always directly attributed to a single page or channel.
Organic content often supports other parts of the funnel, such as:
- Boosting brand visibility
- Building topical authority
- Assisting conversions across email, social, PPC, and referrals
Good reporting accounts for that broader influence, especially for content that drives discovery or re-engagement.
Investment is the hosting and tech cost to serve pageviews. It includes infrastructure, like CDN usage, server bandwidth, firewalls, monitoring tools, and database operations.
Instead of viewing content as a fixed cost, treat every page as a unit of investment. That mindset shift lets you identify value and cut what doesn’t pay off.
2. Calculate the value of a page
Determine cost per pageview
Start with your hosting and infrastructure costs. Divide your monthly total by the number of annual pageviews. Then, speak with your developers to understand how much it costs per page view from a visitor or per hit from a bot, and calculate how it scales as you get more traffic or bot hits.
For example, I created a fictitious site called Helen’s Stunning Shoes and attributed some metrics to help you understand the calculations.
Calculate annual organic pageviews
Use Google Search Console or your preferred analytics tool to get 12 months of data per URL.
For example, the yellow flip-flop page received 90,000 page views in the last 12 months.
Calculate annual organic revenue
Annual organic revenue = number of conversions multiplied by value per conversion.
Work with your finance team to get a reliable average that accounts for refunds, cancellations, and real margin.
Using the above sample metrics for the yellow flip-flop pages:
- 18,645 conversions
- £5 per conversion (net value, after refunds etc.)
- Annual revenue = 18,645 × £5 = £93,225
Calculate ROI
Now plug the numbers into the formula:
(Annual organic pageviews × cost per pageview) – annual organic revenue
For the yellow flip-flops page:
- Cost per year: 90,000 × £0.000102 = £9.18
- Organic revenue: £93,225
- Organic ROI = £93,225 – £9.18 = £89,990.82
3. Calculate assisted value
Some content doesn’t drive direct revenue but still plays a critical role in conversions or visibility.
- Flag URLs that contribute to assisted conversions (via GA4 attribution or CRM data).
- Consider the role the content plays across other channels, like email or paid, or if it appears in AI overviews and LLMs.
- Assign binary values to indicate that a URL supports the wider strategy, even if it doesn’t convert on its own.
Using the flip-flop site again, a “best flip-flops” article might not convert directly, but it helps users discover the brand, drives email signups, and increases branded searches later. That’s strategic value worth factoring into ROI.
4. Classify pages by business impact
Group content by ROI and strategic contribution:
High-value pages are clear business drivers that generate revenue or assist-heavy content with positive ROI.
For example, the yellow flip-flops page brought in £93.2k in organic revenue and £30k in non-organic revenue over 12 months. It also played a role in multi-channel journeys, making it critical for SEO and business success.
Medium-value pages contribute indirectly. They might not generate much organic revenue, but support other teams or channels.
Take the “how to wear yellow sandals” blog post. It had zero direct revenue, but played a part in customer journeys that led to £30k in non-organic revenue. This kind of content is worth optimizing and validating across departments.
Low-value pages have minimal ROI, but still serve a purpose, whether it’s brand positioning or niche relevance. They don’t drive conversions, but might be worth keeping around if they support broader goals.
Net-negative pages cost more than they return. These are often high-traffic pages with no conversion that look impressive in analytics but quietly drain budget.
For example, the white plastic flip-flop page racked up over half a million pageviews but didn’t generate any revenue and cost the business £57.21 to host. With no conversions or cross-channel value, this page is losing money and should be removed or repurposed.