We’ve been testing AI SEO tools for years — some at Backlinko, others through our broader content and SEO work.
Here’s the learning:
Most tools are racing to slap “AI-powered” on their features to stay competitive.
As Leigh McKenzie, Head of Growth at Backlinko, puts it:
“Be skeptical of any AI SEO tool that promises precision. If it claims to tell you exactly how you rank in AI results, it’s probably selling certainty where there is none.”
AI in SEO tools should do one thing well: use machine learning and automation to help you get better results faster. Whether that’s finding high-potential keywords, automating technical fixes, or scaling QUALITY content creation.
In this guide, I’ll share our honest assessment of 6 AI SEO tools.
All of them have proven they can actually improve SEO outcomes — not just add AI buzzwords to marketing pages.
A Quick Note: We update this list regularly as new tools emerge and existing ones improve. The AI space moves fast, so save this page and check back often.
Monitoring and optimizing brand presence in AI search
$99+/month
#1 ChatGPT
Best all-purpose AI SEO tool
ChatGPT, the large language model by OpenAI, is as powerful for SEO as your imagination allows. Use it right, and it can handle many repetitive SEO tasks, including content creation, SERP analysis, and market research.
The catch?
ChatGPT works with general internet data, so the responses can sound cookie-cutter.
Still, it’s very useful for SEO.
Here are a few ways we use it.
Speed Up Content Creation
No, ChatGPT won’t replace your content team.
(At least, not yet.)
But it can help you go from a blank page to a publish-ready draft faster.
I use it often for all kinds of content tasks, including building outlines to writing ad scripts to drafting TikTok videos.
Side note: Want to see how AI can support your content marketing? Discover how the Backlinko content team uses AI to write exceptional content.
Here’s the thing:
When using ChatGPT (and other similar AI tools for SEO), your prompt affects the quality of its answers.
So, be specific..
The best prompts typically include these four elements:
Persona: Who the AI should act as (e.g. SEO strategist, social media manager)
Context: Topic and background info the AI needs to understand
Task: What you want the AI to do
Format: How the response should look (e.g., tone, structure, table, bulleted list etc.)
Simple tasks might need only one or two of these.
For example, Leigh McKenzie got strong results using just context and task.
But for complex topics, or if you want more control over the output?
Using all four elements gives you much better results.
Pro tip: Test different LLMs to see the one that fits your content style. Claude, for example, is especially good at conversational writing and nailing brand voice.
Diagnose and Fix SEO Issues Faster
ChatGPT is a powerful assistant for troubleshooting technical SEO.
Whether you’re new to SEO or just want to move quicker, ChatGPT helps you identify and fix issues without drowning in jargon.
Some tasks it can do:
Diagnose Google Search Console errors: Paste in the errors. Get a plain-English explanation and clear next steps.
Translate PageSpeed insights: Upload your report. Ask ChatGPT to explain the issues in simple terms and recommend fixes.
Find internal link opportunities: Share a list of your URLs. Get ChatGPT to suggest relevant internal links and anchor text.
For example, I use ChatGPT to find internal links for every new article I write.
Here’s my process:
First, I upload a list of all published articles along with the new draft.
Then, I add a prompt that uses the four elements of a good prompt (as I mentioned above).
The task is to get ChatGPT to find internal link opportunities based on topic relevance.
It returns a list of suggestions.
I scan, select what fits, and boom! Done.
Get Strategic SEO Insights
Wish you had a full-time SEO research assistant?
You do now.
It’s called Deep Research, one of the tools within ChatGPT.
I’ve used it to:
Track SEO trends.
Find credible stats, studies, and sources.
(This is perfect for boosting E-E-A-T and signaling trust to AI-driven search engines.)
(This isn’t always accurate. But it’s a great first step.)
The best part?
You can get these insights in under 15 minutes.
Old me — digging through PDFs, forums, blogs posts, and social media — would be absolutely floored.
Steal a Page from Backlinko’s Playbook:
At Backlinko, we use Deep Research to help scale content creation. But we don’t just use ChatGPT. We also tap into Gemini’s Deep Research and other AI tools to cross-check and validate what we find.
Take this example:
Michael Ofei, our lead editor, recently ran a Deep Research prompt that returned a 4,000-word report packed with reader pain points.
That kind of insight usually takes at least an hour to dig up manually.
Pretty wild, no?
Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
Faster content workflow with SEO-optimized first drafts
Prone to hallucinating facts. Requires expert fact-checking.
Highly-versatile for a wide range of SEO tasks from keyword brainstorming to technical analysis
Get recommendations on how to refresh existing content for better search engine rankings
Pricing
ChatGPT offers different pricing for individuals and businesses.
Free: Access to GPT-4.1 mini and web search. Limited access to GPT-4o, file uploads, image generation, Deep Research, voice mode, and data analysis.
Plus: $20/month. Everything in the free plan plus extended limits on file uploads, image generation, and data analysis. Access to advanced reasoning models and GPT‑4.5 (preview) and GPT‑4.1 for coding.
Pro: $200/month. Everything in Plus, with unlimited priority access to all reasoning models.
Team: $30/user/month. Same feature as Plus with higher usage caps. Workspace tools. Team data is not used for model training
Enterprise: Custom pricing. All Team and Pro capabilities. Enterprise-grade security, SSO, analytics, and more.
#2 Semrush
Best for all-in-one SEO with AI visibility tracking
Semrush is a full-stack digital marketing platform with AI baked into many of its tools.
It combines traditional SEO with AI features to support your entire workflow — from keyword research and content creation to performance tracking.
Whether you’re optimizing pages or monitoring your brand’s presence in AI answer engines, Semrush’s AI integrations help you hold onto what still works and stay ready for what’s next. Here are the AI SEO features we actually use.
Optimize for Answer Engines
The Semrush AI Toolkit gets your site ready for the next wave of search:
One shaped by tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini.
Think of it as a way of seeing your brand through the eyes of a large language model (LLM).
With it, you can:
Track what LLMs are saying about your brand
View sentiment signals and see which strengths LLMs associate with your brand and where you could improve.
Discover what users are asking answer engines about your business. Then, get tailored recommendations to fine-tune your content.
Side note: Yes, we’re still figuring out how LLMs affect SEO. But the brands that start paying attention now will be better placed to win in this new wave of SEO.
Here’s what this looks like:
Semrush Key Sentiment Drivers breaks down what LLMs say about your brand. Both the good and the not-so-good.
For example, ChatGPT called out Backlinko’s “comprehensive and actionable SEO guides” as a strength.
It also flagged that the site isn’t always the most frequently updated post-Semrush acquisition.
(Not true. But that shows us it’s an internet perception we need to fix!)
Yep, you still need to use your judgment. And some feedback may not fit your strategy.
But this toolkit gives you a shortcut to identify patterns fast and do something about it before it affects your brand.
It scans your Semrush data and delivers daily insights so you never have to spend hours digging through reports.
Here’s how it works:
Copilot analyzes six Semrush SEO reports, including Position Tracking, Keyword Gap, and Organic Search.
Plus, it alerts you to successes and areas of improvement.
Like keyword ranking spikes and new competitors to keep an eye on.
Copilot also reports new keyword opportunities, link-building ideas, and visibility trends.
For example, when Copilot monitors your Site Audit report, it alerts you to technical issues that need your attention. Like missing H1 tags and 4xx errors.
It also explains the implications if you don’t take action.
And then suggests how to fix any issues.
This saves you time since Copilot interprets the data for you and translates it into actionable insights.
You can finally spend less time analyzing results and more time optimizing your website.
Automate Content Writing
Semrush ContentToolkit combines AI and SEO data to streamline content creation.
Here’s what it helps you do:
Find winning topics based on search trends in your niche
Write SEO-optimized blog posts
Edit existing content for better readability and SEO performance
It does this through tools like Topic Finder, SEO Brief Generator, AI Article Generator, and Content Optimizer.
Want to see it in action?
Check out Topic Finder.
This tool uses Semrush data and AI to find high-potential topics.
You get one clean view of search volume, keyword difficulty, and user intent.
In other words, it makes it easy for you to gauge if a topic is worth your time.
From there, you can:
Generate an SEO content brief
Let the AI write a draft
Or take the reins and write it yourself
Already have a draft?
Use the Content Optimizer to improve it.
The tool analyzes your content and suggests improvements based on your target keywords.
You can even generate AI images to enhance your content visually.
Side note: Treat AI-generated content as a starting point. Not a final product. Add your expertise, fact-check every claim, and edit for tone and brand voice. That’s how you turn AI output into content that provides real value to your readers.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
Semrush Copilot identifies critical issues before they affect rankings
AI recommendations can sometimes lack strategic context and may conflict with manual strategies you’re already running
Tracks visibility on both traditional search and AI answer engines like AI Overviews
Offers advanced insights tailored to your own site instead of generic advice
Pricing
All paid Semrush subscriptions include Copilot. But the AI Toolkit costs an additional $99/month.
Semrush subscription pricing plans include:
Free: Access to Pro and Guru Plans. Limited features and tools.
Pro: $139.95/month. For beginners and small teams. Track up to 500 keywords and manage five projects.
Guru: $249.95/month. For agencies and medium-sized businesses. Track up to 1,500 keywords and manage 15 projects. Includes ChatGPT search tracking
Business: $499.95/month. For large agencies and enterprises. Includes everything in Guru. Track up to 5,000 keywords and manage 40 projects.
MarketMuse is AI software for planning, writing, and optimizing website content.
It uses AI and machine learning to help you optimize topic clusters and individual page performance.
MarketMuse is especially useful for managing a content marketing team and scaling content creation. Let’s look at its top two AI features.
Streamline Content Planning and Optimization
MarketMuse analyzes your website to understand its topical authority.
Then, it provides customized AI recommendations to help you:
Identify content gaps
Find underused keywords your site is already positioned to rank for
Boost topic clusters with new subpages
MarketMuse’s AI can also automate the content audit process, greatly reducing manual tasks.
This gives you insights as to which articles need major rewrites. And which ones need only a minor update for potential quick wins.
During content creation, generate a first draft, which you can refine or expand based on your research and expertise.
You can also regenerate sections as needed.
Throughout the writing process, you’ll get real-time, AI-based suggestions to optimize your content for SEO.
With everything centralized in one platform, your process becomes significantly quicker and more efficient.
Create Content Briefs Faster
MarketMuse can also help you build detailed content briefs for existing and new content.
The AI tool analyzes thousands of pages across the web to generate briefs that are SEO-friendly and easy to follow.
The briefs contain:
Recommended titles
Optimal word counts
Questions to answer
Suggested subheadings
Whether you’re managing content production for multiple agency clients or creating briefs for your business blog, MarketMuse can help speed up the content creation process. And ensure your content follows SEO best practices.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
Helps you get quick ranking boosts by identifying articles near the top of search results that just need a small content update
Focuses heavily on SEO data, so its suggestions can miss what makes your brand’s voice and style unique
Its detailed instructions can make writing feel like following a checklist, leaving less room for creativity
Pricing
MarketMuse offers four plans. Pricing is not publicly available:
Free: Limited SEO analysis. 10 queries per month. Optimize: 100 tracked topics/month
It’s like a central system of all your brand info where you can update information such as opening hours and services. Change it once in Yext, and it automatically populates all platforms you have a presence in.
It also uses AI to:
Track your visibility in AI search engines through Yext Scout
Automatically responds to customer reviews
Build AI-optimized landing pages with Yext Pages
Let’s look at one of its AI features.
Create Standalone SEO-Optimized Landing Pages
Yext Pages lets you quickly create SEO-optimized landing pages.
It works by pulling structured data from Yext Content.
This is where you store verified business information such as store hours, FAQs, services, and product details.
The data powers the AI to generate a complete landing page.
(You still get full control. You can review and approve everything before it goes live.)
These pages are ideal for answering specific customer questions like:
Is [Brand] open on weekends?
Does [Product] work for sensitive skin?
Where can I find [Service] in [City]?
What’s even better?
Each page is automatically formatted using SEO best practices.
For example, every page includes schema markup, making it easier for search engines to understand the content.
They’re also built with clean HTML structure, which helps LLMs parse and reference your content more easily.
What’s more?
These pages are already mobile-optimized out of the box, so they load fast and look great on any device.
In short, these pages are easy for people to read. And easy for search engines and AI tools to crawl and recommend.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
Manage your business info on over 175 platforms from one place.
Unique terminology, like “Knowledge Tags” or “Entities” creates a learning curve for new users
Consistent business details make it easier for search engines and AI to verify and show accurate results
Lacks broader tools needed for content strategy or technical SEO
Pricing
Yext offers different pricing plans for enterprises, single-location small businesses, and reseller partners.
Packages for reseller partners
The reseller package is the best option for agency owners. Or Yext partners who resell Yext solutions directly to their clients.
All pricing is customized. And not pre-listed.
The plans are:
Base: Access to Yext’s headless CMS
Starter: Includes all “Base” features plus visibility and engagement tools like Geocoding and Knowledge API
Professional: Includes all Starter features. Brand reputation and customer feedback management tools. Most popular option.
Ultimate: Includes the most advanced features for competitive intelligence and maximizing online discoverability
#5 Alli AI
Best for technical SEO optimization
Alli AI is an AI SEO optimization tool for agencies and teams.
It automates technical and on-page SEO optimization, so you can optimize faster and at scale.
Here’s how it works:
First, Alli AI analyzes your website and detects search engine optimization issues. Such as missing canonical tags, duplicate meta descriptions, and slow-loading pages.
Then, it fixes them automatically with one click.
Let’s take a closer look at this key feature.
Resolve On-Page and Technical SEO Issues
Alli AI crawls your site and identifies on-page and technical SEO issues.
The tool finds problems like:
Missing image alt text
Unoptimized titles and H1 tags
Broken internal links
Missing schema markup
Slow site speed
Once issues are detected, Alli AI gives targeted recommendations for each error, which you can approve individually. Or in bulk.
Want it totally hands-off?
You can also authorize Alli AI to fix all identified issues with a click of a button.
What’s more, you can use Alli AI to generate schema markup, automate internal linking, and optimize page speed.
Bottom line:
If your site’s got technical SEO issues, Alli AI finds and fixes them.
So the content you spent hours on doesn’t get sabotaged by a missing tag or a slow load time.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
Accelerates on-page and technical SEO fixes by automating tasks like schema generation and internal linking
Requires expert oversight. Blindly approving automated changes can be risky to your SEO.
Pricing
Alli AI offers four pricing plans:
Small Biz: $169/month for one site and one person. Includes keyword tracking and weekly crawl.
Consultant: $399/month for up to five sites and five team members. Includes daily crawl and local results tracking.
Agency: $699/month for up to 15 sites and 15 team members. Includes API access.
Enterprise: $1,249/month for up to 50 sites and 50 team members. Priority customer success plans include a 10-day free trial.
#6 ZipTie.dev
Best for tracking brand visibility in AI answer engines
ZipTie.dev monitors how your brand appears in tools like Google AI Overviews, ChatGTP, and Perplexity.
It shows if AI engines are mentioning your brand for topics you care about.
And whether your competitors are edging into territory you want to lead.
In other words, it helps you answer the question that’s becoming central to SEO:
“What are AI tools saying about my brand and how do I stack up?”
Track Your Brand in LLMs
With ZipTie.dev, you can track how your brand performs for specific keywords and topics inside AI-generated answers.
You’ll see:
Whether your brand appears in answers to the queries that matter to you
If your domain is cited as a source
What the brand sentiment is
This means you’re always in the loop about your competitive landscape.
That’s insight well-worth having at a time when AI results are fast becoming the first touchpoint for most of your customers.
Compare Your Brand to Competitors
ZipTie.dev also gives you a side-by-side view of how your competitors are showing up for the same keywords and topics.
It acts as your AI SEO radar on autopilot. And it doubles as your early warning system.
For example, if a competitor starts dominating a topic you’ve overlooked, or sentiment around your brand starts to slip, you’ll know right away. Not eventually. Now.
Pros and Cons
Pros
Cons
Tracks AI Overviews in 11 countries (the only tool currently doing so in Poland, Spain, and Germany)
Lacks broader SEO capabilities. You’ll need other tools for other SEO tasks like keyword research and site audits
Still early-stage. Some AI features are actively rolling out and not yet fully developed.
Pricing
ZipTie.dev offers three pricing plans:
Basic: $99/month for 400 AI search checks, including AI Overviews, Perplexity, and ChatGPT
Standard: $319/month for 1600 AI search checks
Pro: $699/month for 4000 AI search checks
AI SEO Software: What Matters in 2025
You’re now playing on two fronts:
Traditional search and AI search engines.
While ranking for blue links is still relevant, LLMs like ChatGPT and Perplexity (plus Google’s AI Overviews and AI Mode) are shaping how people discover and trust your brand.
So your AI SEO software needs to do more than track rankings.
It should also help you get cited and surfaced by LLMs.
Must-Have Features for AI SEO Tools
Feature
Why it matters
Traditional SEO tracking
It’s still the main driver of high-intent traffic
Answer engine monitoring
AI tools are becoming the first touchpoint for brand awareness. You want to show up for the questions about the topic you want to be known for.
Brand mentions and sentiment
How AI frames your brand influences customer perception
Schema and structured data support
Helps Google and LLMs read and cite your content more accurately
Content gap and competitor insights
Useful for spotting what you’re missing and where your competitors are winning. Both in search and AI.
Keyword clustering for authority
Builds topical relevance, which boosts search rankings and increases chances of being pulled into AI answers
AI Content Tools
Today’s content needs to perform in search results and conversational AI queries. These help you scale both.
Backlinko is owned by Semrush. We’re still obsessed with bringing you world-class SEO insights, backed by hands-on experience. Unless otherwise noted, this content was written by either an employee or paid contractor of Semrush Inc.
