The purpose of keyword research is to identify your website's most popular, relevant keywords in order to increase search engine rankings.  Keyword research is not just the gathering of keywords, but involves a deeper dive into the keywords that are being used by your audience, by your competitors and identifying keyword trends for your business.

Keyword research needs to be an on-going process as factors such as seasonality, industry development and new buzzwords all have a direct impact on keywords that users will search for.