Microsoft make a number of interesting tools available that are well worth exploring as part of your search engine optimisation activities.

Microsoft are offering more than 20 different tools, broadly grouped into Keyword Research Tools, Audience Demographic Tools, Content Analysis tools, and a few Social and Video tools.

I would recommend starting with the Demographic Prediction tool which gives a breakdown of a user’s gender and age based on Microsoft’s Passport data gathered as users search and browse the Internet.

You can use this tool to view demographic breakdown by key phrase or by visits to a particular web address.

Taking cars as an example, we an see that older men are searching for Jaguar XK8, whereas it is younger women looking for Mini Coopers.

Starting first with the Jaguar searchers, we see a 58:42 split men to women, with disproportionate number of searchers in the 35-49 age group as compared to the general search population.

As for Mini Cooper, we see a majority of younger women, aged 25-34:

You can use this data to better understand your user base, and ensure that your web design is suited to the characteristics of the visitors to your website.  It could also be used to help to shape your keyword strategy;  if it is mainly 18-24 year old men searching for what you think is your keyphrase, but you know your market is mainly 34-50 year old women, then it might be time to rethink your keyphrases you’re using on your site.

The Content Categorisation Engine tells you how how the search engines are interpreting your website, and the broad categories into which your website falls.

Looking at this website, the tool shows a strong level of confidence that this site is about Business, The Internet, People, and Small Business:

The Content Categoristion tool was designed to place appropriate advertising on a particular website, but it can give you a better understanding as to how the search engines are interpreting your website.

The Detecting Online Commercial Intention tool assesses whether key phrases indicate an intention to purchase products, or are simply seeking information about the product.  You can use this tool both to research keyphrases, but also to analyse your own website.

And finally, try out the AdText Writer tool, which generates small adverts for use as Pay Per Click advertising.  The tool analyses your webpages, and comes up with a range of 3 line ads to use in Google AdWords, oops, Microsoft AdCenter.