SEO is worth it when you have a realistic timeline and target keywords people actually search for with buying intent. The math is straightforward: if you rank for a term with 500 monthly searches and a 25% click-through rate, that's 125 free visits monthly. If your close rate is 2% and average customer value is $2,000, you're generating $5,000 monthly from one ranking. Paid ads would cost you $3–$15 per click for the same traffic depending on your industry. The compounding effect makes SEO especially valuable. A blog post or service page that ranks in month six keeps delivering traffic in months 12, 24, and 36 without additional spend. We've seen pages in our portfolio generate six figures in attributed revenue over three years from a $1,200 initial content and optimization investment. Paid campaigns deliver nothing the day you pause them. SEO isn't worth it if you need leads this week, if you're in a market with zero search volume, or if you're unwilling to wait 4–8 months for meaningful results. It's also questionable for businesses with sub-$500 customer lifetime values in hyper-competitive spaces like general personal injury law, where you'd need a $40,000+ annual budget just to compete. For Ottawa SEO's clients, we see positive ROI most reliably when the business has at least $5,000 to invest over six months, operates in a service area with defined geography (local SEO cuts timeline in half), and sells something worth $800+ per customer. E-commerce works if margins support the longer runway. The businesses that regret SEO investment either hired bottom-tier providers who built spammy links and tanked their rankings, or gave up at month three before algorithms had time to trust the site. The businesses that wish they'd started sooner are the ones watching competitors own page one for their core terms while they pay $8 per click on Google Ads with no equity built.