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Tool time Lastly, augment all of that good data with professional keyword research tools. Microsoft offers a tool called adCenter Excel Add-in Keyword Research Tool for versions 2003 and 2007. (Note: You'll need to set up an adCenter account before you can use the tool. Luckily, unlike most other online ad vendors, adCenter offers customer support over the phone with a real person - at no cost to you! - to help you get your account set up and running.) Both Google and Yahoo! offer their own keyword research tools. In addition, there are many third-party keyword research tools available, some for free, others for a fee. The adCenter Excel Add-in Keyword Research Tool can do the following: * Scan your current website and extract the keywords that offer the highest confidence levels based on their current usage * Suggest new keywords based on user behavior or your existing keyword list * Provide: o Research data on top performing keywords o Performance data on the keywords you specify o Information on keyword usage based on geographic and demographic data Note that the keyword tool is primarily designed to help users figure out which keywords to use with their Pay-Per-Click (PPC) advertising campaigns. However, the tool's output is also extremely relevant to developing or revising a keyword list for your website as part of an SEO update. We'll talk about the process of creating a PPC campaign in later posts. To use the tool, I recommend adding your keywords (one word per line) to an empty Excel spreadsheet, listing them in column A. Select the words for which you want to see adCenter's confidence level rating, click the Ad Intelligence tab, and then click the lower half of the Keyword Suggestion button on the toolbar, using both the Contained and Similarity tasks. You'll get a list of additional suggested keywords and phrases that correspond to each of the keywords you selected. Use the ones that are relevant