WebGuerrilla - 6:02 pm on May 2, 2001 (gmt 0)

I don't think that you can get a positive ROI on that number of terms. What we always try and explaing to clients is the fact that there are degrees of relevancy. If you use the dart board analogy, Your core terms are at the center. The next ring is variations of your core terms. As you move outward, the terms still relate to the particular business and may be searched on by potential customers, but they don't directly relate to the particular product or service offered.

An example might be a company the builds custom leather automotive interiors.

Core terms like "custom car seats" or "leather car seats" won't produce a ton of traffic, but the conversion rates for these terms will be extremely high. On the other hand, a term like "sports cars" may generate a large amount of searches, and sports car enthusiasts may be the type of people who order custom leather car seats, but the majority of visitors coming from that term will be looking for something else and will leave quickly. This results in very low conversion rates.

When you go after too many terms, the low conversion rates of the broader, less relevant terms off-set the conversion rates of the core terms. The result is the client ends up paying far more money than necessary to get the same basic amount of sales. Since the costs involved with SEO in terms of man-hours is basically the same, (regardless of the conversion rates of the individual terms), going after too many terms can easily produce an initial negative ROI.

SEO marketing isn't about volume. It's about attracting a better quality visitor. I personaly don't think there is any particular product or service that can come up with 1000 truly relevant terms.