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Email list or search traffic: which is worth more to your website?

17 October 2026

Our earlier posts worked out how much traffic it takes to earn $100 and $1,000 a month, how long traffic takes to grow, what a returning visitor is worth, what a bounce costs, what a slow page costs and how many posts it takes before Google sends real traffic. This one asks where to spend your effort once traffic arrives: is an email subscriber worth more than a visitor from Google?

Turning a subscriber into visits

A visitor from Google comes once and may never return. A subscriber comes back every time an email makes them click. So the fair comparison is one subscriber against the search visits they are worth:

One subscriber = emails a month x click rate x months they stay on your list

The benchmarks the calculator starts from:

• The average email is clicked by 2.62% of the people it reaches, and opened by 21.33% (Mailchimp, October 2019). Opens have read high since Apple Mail Privacy Protection (September 2021) began loading emails automatically, so clicks are the honest measure.
• The average sign-up form converts 1.95% of visitors (Sumo, 2017).
• A list loses about 22.5% of its addresses a year (HubSpot) - roughly 2% a month.
• A $5 page RPM - ad earnings per 1,000 page views - is the midpoint of the travel, food and home tier (Aditude, 23 July 2025).

At 4 emails a month and a 2.62% click rate, each subscriber sends 0.105 visits a month. Losing 2% of the list a month, the calculator counts about 35 months of that over five years - about 3.7 visits per subscriber. Every visit, from email or search, is worth the same here: 2 pages x $5 RPM = 1 US cent.

Work out your own split

Type your search visits and returning visitors from your counter, your subscribers, the share who sign up, emails a month, click rate, list loss, pages per visit, RPM and search growth. The calculator shows what one subscriber is worth in search visits, what each channel earns over 24 months, and how big your list will be by then - with a chart.

Prefer a full page? Open the email list vs search traffic calculator on CalcSA. To see what bringing any visitor back is worth, the value of a returning visitor calculator covers that.

Worked example: the calculator's defaults

A site with 2,000 search visits a month growing 3% a month, 300 returning visitors, 500 subscribers, 1.95% of visitors subscribing, 4 emails a month, 2.62% click rate, 2% of the list lost a month, 2 pages a visit and a $5 RPM.

• Email sends about 52 visits a month today - 17.5% of the 300 returning visitors on the counter.
• Search earns $689 over 24 months from about 68,850 visits - $284 of it in year one.
• Email earns $22.50 over the same 24 months from about 2,250 visits - 3.2% of the two together.
• The list grows to about 1,410 subscribers, sending about 148 visits a month by month 24.

Three more cases, same defaults except the one shown:

• Send 8 emails a month instead of 4: a subscriber is worth 7.4 search visits and email earns $45 - double, but still 6% of the total.
• Get 5% of visitors to sign up instead of 1.95%: the list reaches about 3,140 and email earns $42.
• 8 emails a month at a 5% click rate (a small, engaged list): a subscriber is worth 14 search visits and email earns $86 - 11% of the total.

Estimates. The 2,000 search visits, 300 returning visitors, 500 subscribers, 4 emails a month, 2 pages a visit and 3% growth are assumptions, as in the calculator. The model values a visit at display ads only; email readers usually read more and buy more than first-time search visitors, so it understates the list - and it ignores the cost of your email service.

Two channels over two years

Same site, defaults, earnings added up at six points in time:

• Search wins on volume because Google keeps sending new people; the list only grows by 1.95% of them, minus the 2% it loses each month.
• Email's line bends upward - its earnings per month nearly triple over the two years as the list grows.
• The list is insurance, not income. If a Google update halves your search visits, the subscribers are the readers you still own.

Reading your counter for this

Your WebCounter counter gives you the two numbers the calculator needs most, so you can replace its guesses with your own.

• Visits a month on your free WebCounter report is the starting point for "search visits a month" - most new-visitor traffic on a content site comes from Google.
• Returning visitors are the ceiling on what your list sends. Email clicks land as returning visitors, so if you get 300 a month, your newsletter cannot be sending more than that.
• Check the day after each send. A bump in returning visitors the day an email goes out is your real click count - divide by subscribers to get your own click rate.
• The pages list shows what subscribers read. The post you linked in the email should jump for a day or two.
• Pages per visit is page views divided by visits on your report - put your own figure in instead of the default 2.

Sources

• Mailchimp, "Email Marketing Benchmarks and Statistics by Industry" (October 2019) - average click rate 2.62%, open rate 21.33%. Not re-checked at the original on 17 October 2026; figures as cited in the CalcSA calculator.
• Sumo, "Email Signup Benchmarks" (2017) - average sign-up form converts 1.95% of visitors. Not re-checked at the original on 17 October 2026; as cited in the CalcSA calculator.
• HubSpot - email lists lose about 22.5% of addresses a year. Not re-checked at the original on 17 October 2026; as cited in the CalcSA calculator.
• Aditude, "RPM for Publishers" (23 July 2025) - $5 RPM midpoint for travel, food and home. Not re-checked at the original on 17 October 2026; as cited in the CalcSA calculator.
• Calculator: CalcSA, Email list vs search traffic.

Estimates only. What a subscriber is worth depends on how often you send, how good the emails are and what you sell; your own counter and email dashboard beat any average.