9 Top AI SEO Tools & How to Use AI for Writing and More

You don’t have to be an expert to use search engine optimization (SEO) effectively for your business.

With artificial intelligence (AI), you can tackle writing, content optimization, technical SEO tasks, and other advanced SEO techniques on your own.

This article covers the top SEO tools powered by AI to make your website more visible with minimal effort.

What Are AI SEO Tools?

AI SEO tools use machine learning and natural language processing to analyze, strategize, and create content that ranks websites higher on search engines like Google. In particular, these tools scour the internet, process data, and provide insights to accelerate your decision-making.

Artificial intelligence SEO tools come in different forms. Comprehensive platforms manage end-to-end SEO strategy, doing everything from automating keyword research to helping with competitor analysis. Other tools specialize in a single function like content generation or on-page optimization.

The best fit will depend on your goals and other factors. Common features of the best AI SEO tools are provided after the list below to help you choose the one that best fits your needs.

9 Best AI Tools for SEO Optimization

1. Semrush

Semrush is the leading all-in-one AI SEO tool for data-driven optimization.

Semrush supports your entire SEO strategy from keyword research to creating marketing briefs and long-form content. Its AI insights suggest actionable strategies from millions of data points.

Semrush Top Features

• Copilot: Generate recommendations from website data and market information. Copilot tracks ranking positions, suggests “hidden” keywords, analyzes competitors, and much more.
• AI Writing Assistant: Produce long-form articles in seconds from 75+ templates. The AI Writing Assistant can create content in 25 different languages.
• ContentShake AI: Zero in on untapped keyword opportunities and craft high-quality articles in a single workflow.
• AI Marketing Strategy: Integrate SEO and marketing strategies by developing funnels, accessing market data, and tapping into Semrush’s library of marketing tactics.
• Backlink Analytics: Review real-time data to identify toxic referrers, analyze competitor links, and find potential partners to build your website’s authority.
• Market Explorer: Discover intelligence on industry trends, competitors, and market opportunities. Reports allow benchmarking, growth tracking, and other customizations.

Who uses Semrush, and how much does it cost?

Semrush is for career bloggers, marketing teams, and small-to-large businesses that want reliable data combined with AI tools focused on content marketing.

Pricing starts at $139.95 per month. Use its 14-day free trial to start getting insights, AI keyword suggestions, and more.

2. ChatGPT

ChatGPT is an AI language model that uses prompts for content creation, ideation, and analysis.

This powerful content creation tool doesn’t have complex SEO capabilities, but it can speed up content development through the use of targeted prompts.

ChatGPT Top Features

• AI content generation: Generate attractive headlines, outlines, full blog posts, social mead ideas, and more.
  • Example: “Create an SEO-optimized headline and outline for an article on reusing coffee grounds”
• Optimize key elements: Get suggestions on technical SEO improvements.
  • Example: “Generate an SEO-optimized title tag and meta description for a blog post about easy home workout tips”
• URL analysis: Assess a URL from an SEO perspective.
  • Example: “Analyze this URL’s structure, keywords, and relevance and provide suggestions for improving search engine rankings: [insert URL here]”
• Keyword ideas: Save brainstorming time with prompts for secondary and long-tail keywords.
  • Example: “Give me long-tail keyword ideas for ‘potluck recipes’”
• Content refresh: Receive guidance on how often to update your website and blog content.
  • Example: “When should I refresh a list of birthday gift ideas to maintain relevance”
• Content readability: Use ChatGPT to make content easier to read for a specific audience.
  • Example: "Rewrite this content for a [insert grade level] audience. Simplify the language while keeping the original meaning."
• Schema markup: Help search engines understand what your content is about by using schema markup.
  • Example: “ChatGPT, create schema markup for a blog post titled ‘Easy Egg Fried Rice Recipe’”

Who uses ChatGTP, and how much does it cost?

ChatGPT is best for small business owners, bloggers, and publishers.

You can use ChatGPT for free. If you want more updated and improved content, ChatGPT-4 starts at $20 per month for individuals.

3. Exploding Topics

Exploding Topics offers data on an extensive array of emerging trends.

Finding new and trending topics to write about is a strategic way for small businesses and individuals to stand out from larger competitors. Exploding Topics uses AI and human analysts to discover topics that aren’t mainstream yet, but have the potential to explode soon.

Exploding Topics Top Features

• Trends database: Search a database of potential trends by topic, such as social trends, education trends, or lifestyle trends.
• Trend analysis: Get historical search volume and related trends, products, and topics. For example, Top SEO Tools reveals new tools based on volume growth for the past five years.
• Weekly newsletter: Sign up for a free weekly trending topics email newsletter.
• Projects: Add interesting trends to your projects to stay on top of topics that may be of interest to your audience.
• Browsable format: Many reviewers and customers highlight Exploding Topic’s great UI and often choose it over Google Trends.

Who uses Exploding Topics, and how much does it cost?

Exploding Topics is best for niche content creators, investors, and businesses that want to find a keyword opportunity before it becomes mainstream.

Exploding Topics starts at $39 per month (billed annually) and offers channel breakdowns, 10 Trend Analyses, and 100 Tracked Trends.

4. Alli AI

Alli AI makes instant changes to website code, tags, and headers at scale.

Alli AI solves the problem of manually updating a lot of web pages across very large websites. It integrates with content management systems (CMS) to extend their capabilities and overcome some of their limitations.

Alli AI Top Features

• Bulk on-page optimization: Edit key SEO elements across large sites at scale without manual work or CMS limitations.
• Instant SEO changes using the live editor: Update meta tags or headings directly in a browser without waiting for developers or admins.
• Automated schema markup: Add schema so search engines understand web page content better. This is especially useful for recipes, events, news, and other structured content.
• Internal linking automation: Get internal linking recommendations that make your site more user friendly and easier to navigate.

Who uses Alli AI, and how much does it cost?

Alli AI helps large blogs and websites become more visible and obtain more traffic by making important code and content updates fast. It’s essential for marketing agencies and SEO teams that need to update thousands of pages at a time.

Pricing begins at $299 per month for up to five websites.

5. Frase

Frase is a content optimization tool that makes content production easy.

Frase offers a unique experience for creating blog outlines, doing research, and creating articles. Its AI consolidates headings, phrases, and content structures from top results for a specific keyword to build articles that perform well online.

Frase Top Features

• User-friendly interface: Frase offers a clear visual breakdown of what your content should look like to rise to the top of a search engine results page (SERP).
• In-editor writing assistant: Its basic offering lets you write up to 20,000 words with AI every month.
• Addons: Easily create long-form content from start to finish with its Article Wizard feature, which drafts your blog post and enriches it with SERP data.

Who uses Frase, and how much does it cost?

Frase focuses on creating optimized content, making it great for content marketers, writers, and SEO professionals.

You can use one query and build content for free. Paid plans start from $15 per month for 10 queries.

6. INK

INK is an AI SEO assistant geared towards content optimization and semantic intelligence.

INK includes 150 pre-trained AI models to create quality long-form content. It emphasizes semantic intelligence, going beyond simple keyword usage to rank higher in search results.

INK Top Features

• INK Documents: Build your article or blog post with a specific query in mind or start writing freestyle. INK’s command mode speeds up writing by using contextual clues to complete specific tasks like finishing a paragraph.
• INK Images: INK will compose AI-generated images from descriptions provided to help make your content more appealing.
• Semantic analysis: INK's semantic analysis suggests related terms to make your article more relevant and engaging.
• Content shield: INK catches watermarks or identifiable phrases indicating that the content is AI-generated. It also checks for plagiarism to keep your content unique.

Who uses INK, and how much does it cost?

INK is great for writers who want SEO optimization tailored for long-form material while offering an enjoyable writing experience.

INK offers a comprehensive suite of tools for $39 per month when billed annually.

7. RankIQ

RankIQ uncovers niche blogging opportunities.

RankIQ helps bloggers find low-competition keywords with low difficulty to identify topics that are not overly saturated in the market. These topics are often easier to rank highly in search engines in a short period of time.

RankIQ Top Features

• Keyword Library: Explore a goldmine of niche information on many topics, including AI-identified keywords with the lowest competition and the highest traffic potential.
• Content Grade: RankIQ identifies and analyzes the words and phrases related to a topic or keyword to help optimize your content.

Who uses RankIQ, and how much does it cost?

RankIQ is best for bloggers looking for niche research information and content optimization features in one place.

You can access RankIQ SEO research and content optimization features for $49 per month.

8. Jasper

Jasper is an AI content marketing tool with a distinctive brand voice feature.

Jasper’s language learning model uses your content to continuously train and refine its output. The result is that, over time, it will produce writing that uses your brand voice.

Jasper Top Features

• Custom commands: Prompt Jasper to perform specific actions on targeted areas of your content.
• Custom brand voice: Create distinctive brand voices for different types of marketing and communications. Jasper can develop voices by analyzing existing materials.
• Create campaigns: Set up elaborate campaigns including social media posts, email, blog content, and more by adding a voice and a few branding inputs.
• Knowledge base: Import knowledge from text, PDF, and URLs for Jasper to reference when building content.
• Workflows: Use templates to scale and customize content creation for your business.

Who uses Jasper, and how much does it cost?

Jasper is best for marketing teams that want to maintain a consistent brand voice.

The Creator plan is $39 per month, and you can try it out with a free 7-day trial.

9. AI Search Grader

AI Search Grader is a free benchmarking tool from Hubspot that improves brand visibility and performance across AI platforms.

With the rise of AI, there’s an increasing need to make sure content shows up on AI platforms like Perplexity AI, Claude, and ChatGPT. Hubspot’s AI Search Grader displays how products appear on AI platforms and illuminates ways to improve content visibility within AI tools.

AI Search Grader Top Features

• Brand grader: Enter a brand name and industry to get a simple score that combines brand sentiment and share of voice.
• Brand sentiment: See whether AI search engines generate positive, neutral, or negative references to your brand.
• Share of voice: Learn how frequently AI tools mention your brand compared to competitors.
• Benchmarking: Contrast what AI tools are saying about your products and services versus competitors.

Who uses Hubspot AI Search Grader, and how much does it cost?

AI Search Grader is aimed at entrepreneurs, blog owners, and SEO experts who want to boost brand awareness and favorability.

It’s available for free and you can access it by simply filling in a form.

Key features of top AI tools

True AI/Machine Learning capabilities

Not all tools labeled “AI” actually use advanced machine learning. The best tools deliver better results by learning from your interactions and input, and then generate more useful and customized data as time goes on.

When investigating SEO AI tools, check to see if they will improve over time based on your needs.

Specialization for SEO use cases

Your SEO needs should guide what you choose. Choose a premium AI writing assistant if all you need is the writing functionality.

If you want to implement full-fledged SEO strategy that drives results, you’ll be best served by a tool that covers keyword analysis, competitor research, and more.

Integration with other tools

AI tools should easily integrate with the software you're already using, including your analytics software, CMS, email marketing platforms, and more.

Seamless integration enables an efficient workflow and eliminates manual data transfers.

Active development

Search engines update their algorithms regularly, and SEO tools should be flexible to adapt as the market evolves.

Look for solutions that are actively developed to stay on top of current keyword strategies, the most important on-page elements, and the latest search trends.

Responsive support

Quick access to helpful support is critical for fixing problems fast. Look at customer reviews on G2, Reddit, social media, and elsewhere to see how other customers have fared.

Responsive customer support usually offers multiple contact points like live chat, email, or phone.

Scalable performance

An AI tool should handle large volumes of data or complex tasks without slowing down or becoming too expensive to maintain.

Look for tools that offer flexible plans to accommodate future growth.

Pricing

Finally, look into the tool’s pricing and make sure it matches your budget and needs. Do your research and thoroughly explore pricing structures.

Avoid hidden fees, and always use free trials to assess an AI tool’s value compared to its price.

Why Is AI Useful for Marketers?

A great deal of a marketer’s time is spent on repetitive, time-intensive tasks. AI can automate many of these tasks, freeing up time for creative strategies that make an impact.

Some of the most beneficial uses of AI for marketers include:

• Topics and keyword research
• Ideation and brainstorming
• Content writing and optimization
• Workflow and template creation
• Campaign performance tracking

Overall, AI can remove guesswork and help marketers make more data-driven decisions, leading to better outcomes.

How to use AI for SEO, writing, ideation, and more

As Semrush is the most comprehensive AI SEO tool on the market, this example shows how it can help with specific SEO tasks.

Discover content ideas

Semrush’s ContentShake app combines optimization and content ideas. When you begin using it, you’ll go through a workflow to choose your main goal.

Next, add your business description and target country, such as “content strategist” and “United States.”

The ContentShake dashboard will show several ideas for blog posts. In this example, it suggested topics around content marketing.

• The graphic labeled “Commercial intent” indicates the audience for this content is likely looking to buy.
• The dashboard also suggests topic ideas with high monthly search volumes and manageable competition.
• Clicking “Generate Article” provides a suggested post title, word count, keywords, and brand voice.

Write articles

Semrush’s AI Writing Assistant provides access to 75+ formulas, tools, and templates.

Start with Article Generator and add a few details like the language, blog title, target keyword, and at least three subheadings.

The generator will produce a high-quality, natural-sounding article. It also provides an SEO score and tips to boost content relevance.

You can also run a plagiarism check and make sure your content is 100% unique.

Get instant SEO insights

Inspect your website’s performance without combing through graphs, trendlines, or needing an SEO expert to break it down for you.

Semrush’s AI Copilot will instantly summarize the most important highlights about your site:

• Keywords gained and lost
• Backlinks gained and lost
• New keywords and low-hanging fruit
• Competitors
• Broken pages
• …and more

All the important information about your site is laid out in plain English. You can explore each of these performance factors in detail by clicking on a result.

Daily actionable insights

Copilot also sends daily tips like keyword opportunities, link-building suggestions, and technical issues, such as missing H1 tags or 4xx errors. It explains the impact of these issues and how to fix them, saving you time by interpreting the data for you.

Conclusion

SEO has long been a daunting task for many marketers and business owners.

Thanks to AI, SEO tools like Semrush, Exploding Topics, and ChatGPT make it easy to implement meaningful changes that lead to greater traffic and content performance.

All of the tools listed above have free trials or limited free versions, giving you an opportunity to find the ones that will work best for your situation.

For more ideas on how AI tools can improve your marketing efforts, read 9 Tips for How to Bring AI into Your SEO and Content Strategy.