AI tools can give your SEO strategy the boost it needs.
I use AI SEO software to analyze data faster, optimize content, and find ways to increase my chances of ranking higher.
But how do you know which tools you can trust?
To help you decide, I went through a long list of AI SEO tools, picked the top 8, tested each one manually, and wrote a detailed review.
What Are the Best AI SEO Tools?What Are the Best AI SEO Tools?
Here are my favorite AI tools for SEO:
1. ContentShake AI for generating SEO-friendly content
2. Semrush Copilot for personalized SEO recommendations
3. Clearscope for SEO content optimization
4. SurferSEO for advanced SEO content creation
5. ChatGPT for brainstorming and data analysis
6. Copy.ai for automating your SEO workflows
7. SERP Gap Analyzer for finding keyword opportunities
8. Perplexity for conducting online content research
Let’s look at each of them in detail.
1. ContentShake AI1. ContentShake AI
- Best for: Beginners looking to create high-ranking content
- Pricing: $60/month for the Unlimited plan
ContentShake AI is an AI writing tool that we've developed at Semrush.
It combines our proprietary SEO data with AI to help you create entire articles. It also suggests trending content ideas, generates social media posts, and writes content in your brand voice.
I recommend using ContentShake AI for creating SEO-friendly drafts, especially if you’re not an SEO expert.
I especially love that it finds your target keywords and analyzes SERPs to optimize content for search intent.
Let’s look at a sample workflow.
First, head to ‘Settings’ to add details about your business, your target location, and language. This ensures you get relevant content idea suggestions.
From there, choose a content idea you’d like to tackle (or add your own). Click ‘Generate Article’ to get started.
You’ll see the setup window where you can choose which target keywords to add, set the desired content length, and select the preferred brand voice.
Check the ‘Add an extra SEO boost’ box to add advanced SERP analysis and click ‘Create article’.
In just a few minutes, your draft will be ready. You can then use the blog editor to add more original ideas and thoughts to your content.
There’s also an integrated AI chat, an AI image generator, and a content optimization tool that helps you improve your copy.
My Favorite Features
- 25 new content ideas every week for your niche and location
- Content creation in your brand voice and writing style
- Semrush’s SEO data for keywords and content outlines
- AI image generation and an AI chat
- One-click WordPress publishing
What I Like And Dislike
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
| Very easy to use, so ideal for beginners with little SEO experience Uses Semrush’s data to optimize AI-generated content Covers the entire content creation cycle, from ideation to publishing | Less suited to large teams and enterprise users Some stock images suggested by the tool may not always be relevant |
2. Semrush Copilot
- Best for: Getting personalized SEO recommendations
- Pricing: Available to all paid Semrush users (Semrush plans start at $139.95/month)
Semrush Copilot is an AI-powered assistant that offers personalized recommendations based on your SEO performance.
Copilot analyzes all of your data within your various Semrush tools:
- Site Audit
- Backlink Gap
- Keyword Gap
- Organic Research
- Position Tracking
- Backlink Analytics
It then consolidates the issues and action items into tailored recommendation cards, related to your keyword rankings, domain authority, organic competitors, and more.
I use it to regularly check SEO recommendations and spot potential issues, such as with technical SEO or backlinks.
When I see a recommendation or alert I want to investigate further, I head to each specific tool and check it accordingly:
My Favorite Features
- SEO data organization to help you strategically tackle different issues
- Search performance analysis and regular competitor updates to scope new opportunities
- Daily alerts with issues and changes
What I Like And Dislike
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
| Makes it easy to prioritize action items for SEO performance Helps navigate the many tools in Semrush’s suite Offers daily alerts to keep you posted about real-time concerns Converts data into actionable insights in an order of priority | Limited to Semrush users: not compatible with other tools While the reports provide a lot of useful data, some of the summaries could be more in-depth |
3. Clearscope
- Best for: Content optimization and basic SEO analytics
- Pricing: Starts at $189/month
Clearscope is an AI content platform. It helps you with keyword research, content optimization, and analytics.
The content optimization feature is somewhat similar to what other AI content tools usually offer. But the workflow is different.
You will need to add an existing URL and the target keyword, and the tool will analyze the published page for you.
It will then provide several improvement suggestions, such as:
- Target keywords (including related keywords)
- Recommended word count
- Readability score
- Content grade (which measures content relevance)
- Structure changes
The tool also helps with topic research and generates basic SEO reports. For example, it helps you track ranking positions and some content analytics metrics.
My Favorite Features
- Keyword research through discovery reports
- Direct content optimization via a URL
- A term map based on the keywords used in your draft versus competing articles
- Integration with Google Docs, WordPress, and MS Word add-ons
- Content brief generator
What I Like And Dislike
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
| Automates the process of building content briefs and optimizing content Keep tabs on published content to find opportunities to refresh content Provides content analytics, which simplifies performance analysis | More expensive than most SEO content creation tools and has no free trial Doesn’t offer many content creation possibilities Content analytics and keyword research tools are somewhat basic, and the content grade seems to be limited to checking if you covered all related keywords |
4. SurferSEO
- Best for: Advanced users looking to create SEO content with AI
- Pricing: Starts at $89/month, with up to 30 articles at $19 each.
SurferSEO offers a suite of SEO tools to discover keywords, find content ideas, create outlines, optimize content, and more.
Many content teams use it for content optimization. Similar to Clearscope, it analyzes the organic results for your target keywords and makes recommendations.
Spoiler alert: I’d be careful with metrics like optimal content length and the recommended number of headings. While they might be useful, it’s best to do what makes sense for your specific content piece.
Surfer also offers some extra features that could be useful for SEOs. These include a topical map, a SERP analyzer, and a content audit tool.
Finally, you can generate full articles, but each of them costs an additional $19 with a maximum of 30 articles on the cheapest plan.
My Favorite Features
- Blog editor that combines AI and data suggestions
- Topic cluster generation based on your seed keyword
- Internal linking suggestions for your domain
- AI content detector and humanizer
What I Like And Dislike
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
| Easy to use when working with content writers, as it helps to track keywords in your drafts Sleek and modern UI The Google Docs extension makes it easy to work anywhere Lots of data-driven tools useful for SEOs and content marketers | Might not be the best choice for beginners and folks looking for more automation as it involves more steps and requires more SEO experience Limited credits make it difficult to use freely Google Docs extension can get a bit buggy Content Editor doesn’t let you adjust your targets |
By the way, here’s a ContentShake AI vs SurferSEO comparison we created.
5. ChatGPT5. ChatGPT
- Best for: Brainstorming tasks and data analysis
- Pricing: Free version available. The paid plan costs $20/month.
In the screenshot above, ChatGPT claims it can do a variety of SEO tasks. But I would be cautious here.
This tool, alongside other AI chatbots like Gemini and Claude, is amazing for brainstorming and analysis. But it doesn’t have any real-time SEO data.
So, you can’t actually use generic AI chats to find keywords or analyze SERPs. They’re also not adapted for long-form content creation.
That being said, ChatGPT is useful for other SEO tasks. These include:
- Optimizing your existing content for target keywords
- Analyzing a range of data
- Tailoring your content to your buyer personas
- Clustering your keywords
- Brainstorming ideas
Let’s look at an example.
I asked ChatGPT to group my keywords based on the categories.
I downloaded a list of keywords from Semrush, uploaded the CSV file to ChatGPT, and added a prompt:
Here’s the result I got:
Not too bad. Plus, it saved me a lot of time.
My Favorite Features
- Custom GPTs that you can build for specific SEO tasks (e.g., writing meta descriptions)
- The Memory feature, which allows you to share custom instructions to quality-check responses
- Automated CSV data upload and analysis
- A huge brainstorming potential based on your input
What I Like and Dislike
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
| Powerful AI with integrated data analysis features ChatGPT's best model (ChatGPT 4-o) is free for all users Beginner-friendly interface and affordable price point | Doesn't offer real-time SEO data and specialized SEO output The interface is not optimized for long-form content creation Prone to factual errors and inaccurate responses |
💡 Check out how ChatGPT compares to ContentShake AI.
6. Copy.ai6. Copy.ai
- Best for: Automating your SEO workflows
- Pricing: Starts at $49/month. There’s also a limited free plan available.
Copy.ai is an AI-powered automation platform with content creation tools for sales and marketing needs.
Like other AI writing tools, it was primarily used for content creation. But it has recently shifted its focus towards automation.
The tool's standout feature is its ability to create multistep workflows for SEO processes.
You can use the library of template workflows for different use cases, such as writing a blog post, writing an SEO brief, etc.
Or, you can design custom workflows to automate different parts of your SEO setup.
Here’s what it looks like:
My Favorite Features
- A workflow library with ready-made templates to complete specific tasks
- Infobase creation to store crucial information for guiding your SEO tasks
- A dashboard to save, manage, and share your SEO content projects
What I Like And Dislike
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
| The unique workflow creation feature works great for enterprise SEO teams and large agencies with lots of processes Offers and modern and sleek UI Integrates with 2,000+ tools | It’s somewhat hard to use and might take you a while to figure it out Doesn’t offer any SEO data |
7. SERP Gap Analyzer
- Best for: Finding relevant keyword opportunities
- Pricing: $79/month
SERP Gap Analyzer helps you discover low-difficulty keywords for your content plan. In other words, you can use it to find relevant key phrases with less competition.
This is especially helpful if you’re in a highly competitive niche and if your domain authority is not very high.
All you need to do is enter your site and a seed topic to run an analysis.
The tool will analyze the search results for multiple keywords related to your main topic and present the difficulty of ranking for each keyword.
You can also access other insights like global search volume, SERP weaknesses, and more.
My Favorite Features
- Topic suggestions tailored to your website and industry
- Low-competition recommendations keywords based on your website’s SEO
- Built-in AI writing tools to create a brief, draft, meta description, etc.
What I Like And Dislike
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
| Solves one of the key SEO pains—finding high-potential content topics Generates briefs, outlines, and other content Documents SERP analysis in detail to guide SEO efforts | Doesn’t integrate with most other SEO tools, except Semrush Can be a bit confusing to figure out |
8. Perplexity
- Best for: Finding fresh information and examples for SEO content
- Pricing: A free plan is available. The paid plan costs $20/month.
Perplexity is a conversational AI tool that’s connected to the Internet. It lets you parse the web and find information quickly.
Wondering why I included this tool in a list of SEO software?
SEO is closely connected with quality content. And quality content needs fresh information, useful examples, and so on.
I often use Perplexity to find those things in minutes instead of spending hours reading various articles.
For example, imagine I need to find a small business content marketing campaign example for my article.
The tool uses various online sources and instantly suggests interesting ideas:
My Favorite Features
- Parses the Internet to find relevant and fresh information
- Lets you upload files in multiple formats to derive insights from these documents
- Allows you to build collections by grouping chat threads related to a single topic
- Cites sources and reading references used in creating a response
What I Like And Dislike
| ✅ Pros | ❌ Cons |
| Conducts image and video search Organizes research with collections of multiple threads Performs focused research on specific sites, such as YouTube, Reddit, etc. | There’s a limited number of questions that you can ask in a day on the free plan Limited to research and doesn’t serve very well for content creation Might hallucinate sometimes |
FAQs
What are AI SEO Tools?
AI SEO tools use artificial intelligence to automate and fast-track SEO processes, such as keyword research, SERP analysis, and content creation.
They can help you make better data-based decisions, increase productivity, and save time on routine tasks.
Earlier this year, I surveyed over 2,500 small businesses and asked them about their experience with AI.
And guess what?
68% of companies report higher SEO and content marketing ROI when using AI.
How to Use AI SEO Tools the Right Way
There has been a lot of talk lately about Google “penalizing” AI-generated content.
Let’s get this sorted once and for all.
Google doesn’t care if it’s AI copy or not. It cares only about your content being genuine, useful, and relevant.
Here’s what else they say:
“Poor quality content isn't a new challenge for Google Search to deal with. We've been tackling poor quality content created both by humans and automation for years.”
However, I wouldn’t recommend relying solely on AI to create content for SEO and content creation.
Why?
Because AI doesn’t have the unique topical expertise that you need to create compelling content.
But using AI as a tool to create content under your supervision and with your input?
Or leveraging it to generate content ideas, cluster keywords, and analyze SEO data?
Why not!
Over to You: Choose The Best AI Tools for SEOOver to You: Choose The Best AI Tools for SEO
That’s a wrap on my weeks of testing and shortlisting my favorite AI SEO tools.
The key takeaway?
Choose a tool based on your specific needs and context. For example:
- Choose ContentShake AI if you’re a team of one looking to create organic content
- Use Copy.ai if you’re managing a large SEO team and need to automate processes
Remember, there’s a limit to what AI tools can do. Use them to support your work and get rid of routine tasks, and you won’t be disappointed.
Ready to give it a try?
Create ready-to-rank content in one click!
Try ContentShake AI-a smart writing tool for small teams with big content marketing goals.
Save time, see results.