Essentially this step should be done before you start building your site. Most of us however, have an existing site and figure out that we end up with less visitors than expected. So even with an existing website you can create a unique keyword research tailored to your business / website. This step must be done before you even start thinking of on-page optimisation and conducting a link-building strategy! Both, site clinic as well as your off-page strategy require the keyword strategy in order to be effective. Aim is to find a set of keywords you want to be found for, and that set of keywords should be achievable and give you the highest Return on Investment (ROI).

We all know that each industry has it's very own set of major keywords. For example if you are selling shoes you might want to rank #1 in Google and other search engines for "Shoes". Well, it won't happen - especially not in the short run. So the idea is that you find keywords that give you are return in the short run as well. Bear in mind the Pareto Principle or also known as 80-20 rule. This becomes handy when forming your keyword strategy.

• You want your target market that converts visiting your site. Many visitors are great, but if they don't find what they are after they will leave straight away, which has a negative impact on site interaction and increases the bounce rate. And a great bounce rate is not a good signal to search engines - nor leaves you a happy business owner.
• If you start your own business you may have thought how you can differentiate yourself from competitors. Well, this is a great entry point for your keyword research. People who want exactly your products / services as they are different from whatever else they may get. So how do they search for it ? If your business does not set itself apart from others - you may score with other factors such as being the only shop that is selling those items in a particular area. For example if you are the only one to be selling old SLR cameras in Kings Cross, London - then you may want to target keywords that contain SLR camera combined with Kings Cross.
• And here the Pareto Principle kicks in - an exact long tail keyword phrase might not be entered in the search engine as often as a major keyword in your industry, but the sum of alllong tail keywords is much higher than the sum of all major keywords you may be aware of in your particular field. So let's say 80% of all searches for your products are made through long-tail keywords, whilst only 20% are made via the single word search terms. Ok, the percentage might not be absolutely correct, but I think you get the picture.
• Another thought you might want to bear in mind is that 80% of of your sales come from 20% of your products. So, what are the 20%? You may have been around for sometime and you know what customers are after - so make sure that you are found for these products / services that generate high revenues. You can take this principle further and say that 80% of your profits come form 20% of the time you put in. So make your time count - with a well planned keyword strategy you can spend more time on growing your business, rather than wondering why you have to work so much without ever making considerable progress. Since you know now how important a keyword research, you may just want to get cracking by conducting your very own keyword research and formulate a tailored keyword strategyfor your business. Share your experiences via the comment section below. If you can think of any other reasons why a keyword research is important, let us and everyone else know!