If you wonder what is the foundation of any SEO, the most crucial element that can affect whole search engine optimization campaign, there can be only one answer - keyword. Correctly optimized website with thoroughly selected keywords inserted in meta tags and body text can create miracles and increase your rating in search engine. Also I saw many companies that were totally unsuccessful only because wrong keywords were selected and thus website lost a lot of traffic.
Even if your website is brilliant and contains wonderful information, it can hardly become successful in case wrong keywords have been detected. Let's take the following as an example. I had a client who wanted me to make an advertising campaign that would improve current ranks of the company. They did not need any new keywords as for last two years they worked over achieving success in two search phrases - "Online banking solutions" and "Internet solutions America".
Can you guess what product does this company sell? I bet you'd never guess. That firm sold some website design software for banks. If you were a bank representative and you needed this software, would you use one of the keywords mentioned earlier? I think no as you'd think of something more logical.
This was a classic example of wrong keyword targeting. Their top ten rankings were completely irrelevant and visitors who came to hat website simply needed different information while potential customers used other keywords to find the product offered by that website. What was their mistake? They used a jargonized keyword - it was simple and clear for them, but the majority of searchers simply would use another word combination. Industry jargon is by far not the best idea for keyword suggestions.
Try to use your logics while defining keywords. Think of synonyms and check them using keyword suggestion tool like one by Google. Get broader definitions for your business as different people have different perceptions of same things, so there's no wonder they can name things differently. Popular and simplified language is what you seek in this case. Usually people use everyday informal language to make search engine queries and your aim is to give people what they want.