7 Best AI SEO Tools of 2024 (Ranked and Reviewed)

Keeping up with the latest SEO strategies can feel like wrestling a cloud. The abundance of information and shiny objects can be overwhelming, leaving you frustrated and unsure of yourself.

But fear not! Thanks to AI-powered SEO tools, you can leverage the power of artificial intelligence to research, plan, write, and optimize your content in one fell swoop – based on actual data, not just feelings.

With the power duo of AI and data on your side, you can navigate the ever-evolving landscape of SEO with confidence and achieve better results in the search engines, faster.

A recent industry study found that 54% of SEO professionals are using AI to supercharge their digital marketing strategy. In this post, we’ll look at seven of the best AI SEO tools making waves in the SEO community right now.

This post may contain affiliate links. See my disclosure for more info.

What are the best AI SEO tools?

Based on customer experience, affordability, and features, our top picks for the best AI SEO software, platforms, and apps are:

• Surfer SEO
• NeuronWriter
• SurgeGraph Longform AI
• MarketMuse
• Frase
• Scalenut
• ZimmWriter

Surfer SEO

Surfer SEO is SEO workflow and content optimization software with a set of features to help you boost organic traffic. The best part is that Surfer helps you achieve this just through on-page optimization – no tedious link building necessary.

As far as AI SEO tools go, Surfer has something of a cult following and a very active official Facebook group, SEO Surfers, which has 19.8K members at the time of this writing.

Surfer’s most popular feature by far is the Content Editor, where you can create SEO content briefs and fully optimized articles.

Start by entering your target keyword, and Surfer will tell you which NLP terms you should use, how often, and where. It will also give you a real-time Content Score.

In case you’re curious how Surfer gets this info, they use natural language processing (NLP) to extract entities related to your target keyword (based on top-ranked articles in the search engine results pages).

This helps you create the most comprehensive article possible that also aligns with searcher intent and helps Google understand the meaning and sentiment behind your content.

As you optimize your content with the suggested keywords, your Content Score will increase until you’re “in the green.” Satisfying.

You and your team can write your article directly in Surfer, or you can work in Google Docs using the Surfer Chrome extension.

Surfer’s new AI writing tool, Surfer AI, is the latest addition to the software. It’s designed to save hours of your time and boost organic traffic by generating articles that are already optimized based on Surfer’s SEO score.

Highlights

• Keyword Research feature generates topic clusters based on your target keyword, so you know what articles to write to improve your topical authority.
• Grow Flow gives you custom AI-generated tasks to complete every week to boost your organic search rankings, making Surfer the perfect DIY SEO tool for beginners as well as experts.
• Audit tool gives you a list of insights for any of your webpages – for instance, problems with page speed, NLP entities, or content structure.
• SERP Analyzer displays correlation between top-ranked articles and factors like word count and keyword density.
• Domain Planner gives you Content Scores across your domain and helps you know which pages to optimize first.
• Works in any language.
• Includes plagiarism checker.
• Integrates with Google Docs, WordPress, Jasper, and Semrush.

Pricing

Surfer’s Lite plan costs $29 per month and gives you three Content Editor credits.

The Essential plan costs $89 per month and gives you seven Content Editor credits.

The Advanced plan is best for mid-sized teams. It costs $179 per month and gives you 12 Content Editor credits.

The Max plan, for agencies and large teams, costs $299 per month. It gives you 50 Content Editor credits.

As with most AI SEO software, you can save money on annual Surfer plans.

If you need more Content Editor credits, you can purchase them as add-ons. Other add-ons include Surfer AI, Grow Flow, Audit, SERP Analyzer, White Label, and API.

NeuronWriter

NeuronWriter is growing in popularity as an alternative to Surfer SEO — particularly if you need both an AI writer and optimization platform — thanks to its affordably priced plans. In fact, this tool is exponentially cheaper than Surfer for what you get.

I’ve heard fantastic feedback about NeuronWriter in SEO and affiliate marketing groups, and I’m looking forward to trying it out next, so stay tuned for the in-depth review!

Like Surfer, this AI SEO tool guides you through creating optimized content, providing suggested NLP terms and a real-time Content Score to help you cover your topical knowledge gap for each keyword.

You can also quickly create content briefs with relevant headlines and People Also Ask questions from Google.

Unlike Surfer, NeuronWriter gives you AI writing credits with every pricing plan, so you can create optimized content quickly even if you’re on a tight budget. This makes NeuronWriter an excellent all-in-one SEO tech stack for solopreneurs and affiliate marketers.

NeuronWriter’s AI writer uses the latest GPT models. Some of its AI writing templates include: write paragraph, expand text, rephrase, article outline, topic ideas, article intro, YouTube descriptions, product descriptions, titles, meta descriptions, and email.

It also has a one-click long-form blog post generator.

One really neat feature that sets NeuronWriter apart from other AI SEO tools is its content repository, which lets you organize your content using tags and filters, prioritize upcoming articles based on market trends, and manage article status with your team.

Highlights

• Content optimization platform and AI writing tool in one. Writing templates include outline generator, paragraph writer, one-click article generator, and more.
• Explore topically relevant keyword ideas for your next articles and plan your editorial calendar months in advance.
• Built-in content calendar lets you plan content to create or optimize, assign writers and deadlines, and monitor article status.
• Avoid plagiarism with built-in checker.
• Integrates with WordPress and Google Search Console.
• Chrome extension included.
• Internal linking is included in every plan.
• Analyze top-ranked content and YouTube videos for your target keyword.
• Team collaboration and project management features include content calendar, status updates, and adjustable team member permissions.

Pricing

Neuron has five pricing plans which mainly differ in the amount of projects/folders, content writer analyses, and AI writing credits you get.

The Bronze plan costs just €19 per month and gives you two projects/folders, 25 content writers analyses, and 15,000 AI writing credits.

The Diamond plan costs €97 per month and gives you 50 projects/folders, 150 content writer analyses, and 75,000 AI writing credits.

Plagiarism checks, WordPress and Search Console integrations, and content management features are available only from the Gold plan upward.

SurgeGraph Longform AI

SurgeGraph Longform AI is an AI SEO tool designed to help you maximize the three “SEO cornerstones” essential to performing well in search engines: keywords, silos, and publishing velocity. It lets you research, outline, and generate a 3000-word optimized article in minutes.

SurgeGraph’s Outline Builder is an impressive feat. Instead of just giving you headlines and popular questions like other tools, SurgeGraph actually auto-generates an entire in-depth outline for you, complete with point-form notes and talking points based on the top 10 results.

In my opinion, this is one of SurgeGraph’s major selling points, especially if you spend a lot of time on research.

You’re free to edit or reorder the outline as you see fit, or you can just use it as is. Next comes the fun part: You just click a button, and the tool outputs thousands of words in minutes, based on your outline.

Using a selection of common AI writing commands like rewrite, simplify, expand, and continue writing, you can quickly edit the article to perfection.

SurgeGraph also gives you links to authoritative sites and a list of contextual keywords that you can include to ensure you cover the topic in depth.

The recently launched Auto-Optimizer lets you add contextual terms automatically section by section, cutting optimization time down by 50%.

Like other AI SEO software included in this list, SurgeGraph also offers an SEO Score, along with a checklist you can follow to boost your score.

The Keyword Research and Planning tools let you plan your next articles and visually map out your site’s pillar pages and silos — another huge selling point, in my view.

Highlights

• Generate in-depth article outlines complete with point-form notes with the Outline Builder.
• Customize the AI writing settings to match your brand and target audience by adjusting the creativity and readability levels or writing from a specific expert perspective.
• Auto-Optimizer feature automatically inserts contextual terms and adds external links to authority sites, reducing optimization time by 50%.
• Plagiarism checker included.
• Meta description generator included.
• Conveniently export finished articles directly to WordPress or as HTML, .docx, or PDF.
• Keyword Research tool lets you find topically relevant keywords along with search volume, difficulty, and profitability metrics. Keyword groups can be saved as projects.
• Planner tool lets you map out your site architecture and internal links to improve indexation and topical authority and maximize link flow.

Pricing

All of SurgeGraph’s pricing plans let you generate unlimited content!

The one-month plan costs $43.99 and is a great deal if you just want to crank out a ton of content in one shot.

The 12-month plan costs $24.90 per month (a 43% savings).

The 36-month plan costs just $14.69 per month (a 67% savings).

All plans come with a 30-day money-back guarantee.

MarketMuse

MarketMuse is an AI SEO tool and content strategy platform for marketing teams. It brings keyword research, topic research, and content audits all together in one place.

The software is heavily focused on owning your topic in the SERPs by helping your team plan topic clusters and prioritize keyword clusters with the best chance of ranking.

MarketMuse is one of just a couple of AI SEO tools on this list that offers a free trial plan. (I wish more of them did.)

Highlights

• Identify content gaps you and your competitors have and fill them to increase your topical authority.
• Automate content audits.
• SERP X-Ray feature shows you how to structure your content, including word count, headings, internal and external links, and multimedia.
• Content Score gives you real-time feedback on content quality.
• Become an authority on your topic in Google’s eyes by building topic clusters, which include ranking difficulty and value metrics.
• Content briefs feature gives your writers everything they need to create helpful content, including title suggestions, subheadings, frequently asked questions, topics to cover, internal links, and more.
• Identify and fix or remove unhelpful, outdated, or thin content to improve your sitewide rankings.
• Get page- and site-level insights and SERP and competitor analyses.

Pricing

MarketMuse has a no-credit-card free trial plan that gives one user limited page-level insights and 10 queries per month.

The Standard plan is best for individuals who publish regularly. It costs $149 per month or $1500 per year and gives one user full page-level insights and 100 queries per month.

The Team plan costs $399 per month or $3900 per year and includes three users, full page-level insights, and unlimited queries and content briefs.

Custom plans are available for large teams.

Frase

Frase is an AI-powered SEO optimization and writing tool in one. I’ve heard of many affiliate marketers using it as a more affordable alternative to Surfer and Jasper combined.

Using the tool, you can generate an outline in seconds. You can optionally drag and drop headlines from other articles in the SERP or edit the outline manually. You also have the option to provide detailed instructions for each subhead, or else have the AI generate the instructions for you.

Frase’s AI writing tool has some pretty useful features, like the ability to create detailed outlines complete with talking points. You can adjust the outline as you see fit to produce the desired tone and detail of output.

Additionally, you can use the AI writer to expand or rewrite content, write freeform using context from the editor, or generate article drafts, blog intros, title ideas, social media posts, product descriptions, and more.

Once you have your draft ready, you can use Frase’s SEO optimization tool, which features a real-time Topic Score to identify topic gaps and ensure your content measures up to the most comprehensive content that’s ranking for your topic.

Like a lot of other AI SEO software, Frase’s topic model derives this information from the top-ranked results in the search engines.

Highlights

• Analyze top-ranked search results, including metrics like Domain Rating and word count.
• Generate SEO-optimized content briefs in seconds.
• Outline Builder lets you drag and drop headings from top 10 SERP results or generate content briefs with AI.
• AI writer lets you fill in your content briefs with a fully optimized, up-to-date article draft, including optimized intros, frequently asked questions, copywriting frameworks, and more.
• Optionally give the AI writer detailed instructions for the entire article (e.g., tone of voice) and each subhead for more customized output.
• Real-time Topic Score helps you create comprehensive, fully optimized content.
• Topic heat map lets you view what topics each of your competitors is missing and quickly add them to your own content.
• Share editable document links with your writers (they don’t require a paid seat).
• Team collaboration features include easy document sharing, project status updates, and project folders.
• Create your own article templates.
• Connect to Search Console for sitewide content analytics.

Pricing

The Solo plan costs $14.99 per month, or $12.66 per month on an annual basis. It lets you write and optimize four articles per month, plus generate 4000 words of content.

The Basic plan is $44.99 per month, or $38.25 per month billed annually. With this plan, you can write and optimize 30 articles per month, plus you get 4000 AI words.

The Team plan costs $114.99 per month, or $97.75 per month if paid annually. This plan gets you three user seats, the ability to write and optimize unlimited articles, and 4000 AI words.

Need unlimited AI words? The Pro Add-on has you covered. For $35 per month, it gives you unlimited content generation plus advanced keyword and SERP data.

Scalenut

Scalenut is an AI SEO tool and content marketing platform for individual creators, SEO agencies, and marketing teams. It helps you manage the content lifecycle from start to finish.

Using the software, you can discover topic clusters and create a content plan in one click. Scalenut also produces fully automated content briefs.

The Cruise Mode feature lets you generate an optimized first draft in just five minutes with a few simple steps.

Scalenut’s content optimization feature uses advanced natural language processing (NLP) models to suggest relevant key terms to include in your articles so that they align closely with what Google wants to see. Its SEO score gives you real-time feedback on new and existing content.

In addition to its optimization tools, Scalenut features an AI writing tool with 40+ AI templates, including copywriting frameworks, product descriptions, emails, and website copy.

So if you’re looking for an AI SEO tool that lets you optimize and write content in one convenient platform, rest assured that you can get a lot of bang for your buck with Scalenut — even on the lowest plan, which gives you 100,000 AI words.

Highlights

• Scalenut’s AI has access to the latest information, so your content will be up-to-date.
• All-in-one platform with content planning, competitive insights, social listening, automated briefs, AI writing assistant, NLP keyword optimization, and SEO score.
• Create SEO-optimized blog posts in five simple steps with Cruise Mode.
• Enjoy top-notch training and support.
• Integrates with WordPress, Semrush, and Copyscape.
• Plagiarism checker included.
• One-click WordPress publishing included with the Growth and Pro plans.

Pricing

The Essential plan costs $23 per month when billed yearly. It gives you 100,000 AI words, five SEO-optimized articles, NLP key terms, and access to Cruise Mode.

The Growth plan costs $47 per month billed annually and gives you unlimited AI words, 30 SEO articles, 30 keyword clusters, 30 page audits, and one-click WordPress publishing.

The Pro plan costs $89 per month billed yearly. In addition to everything from the Essential and Growth plans, you get 75 each of SEO articles, keyword clusters, and page audits, plus a dedicated customer service manager.

ZimmWriter

ZimmWriter is quickly earning its place in the SEO community as one of the best AI SEO tools. Billed as “the best AI content writer for Windows,” the software was created by solo developer Matt Zimmerman, who runs the official ZimmWriter Facebook group and the YouTube channel Ranking Tactics.

ZimmWriter’s special power (in my personal view) is its ability to generate blog posts of up to 6000 words in seconds, while also including your NLP keywords from tools like Surfer or Frase. This means you can achieve a high content score without having to do all the additional work of manual content optimization.

Plus, compared to alternatives like Surfer AI (which costs $29 per AI-optimized article in addition to the price of your monthly subscription), ZimmWriter is far more affordable — to the tune of a few cents per article if you’ve signed up for the lifetime deal.

Another huge highlight of this AI SEO tool is that it lets you queue up to 1000 posts, press a button, and walk away while the software writes all your content for you. Check out sample articles on the site.

There’s also a Local SEO Buffet feature, perfect for agencies, that lets you set up and generate up to 625 service pages for a local business. For example, you might have 25 business locations and 25 services (625 articles).

To fine-tune and customize the tool’s output, you can feed it background information or have it scrape URLs, such as from Amazon or a competitor. (Again, you can view a demo on the site.)

You can use ZimmWriter with thousands of Windows desktop applications and websites, including WordPress, Google Docs, Microsoft Word, Notepad, Gmail, LinkedIn, Grammarly, Surfer, and Frase.

Highlights

• Generate long-form blog posts with your NLP keywords auto-added.
• Bulk generation feature lets you queue and generate up to 1000 posts at a time.
• Local SEO Buffet tool lets you create service pages for a multi-location and/or multi-service local business in minutes.
• Articles come formatted with markup, so you can add them to WordPress as-is.
• The AI generates a Midjourney prompt with every article, so you get a high-quality “stock” photo to use for your featured image.
• The lifetime deal makes this a low-cost alternative to other AI SEO tools and writing assistants.
• Fine-tune output with background info and URL scraping.
• Works almost anywhere on Windows desktop and with tons of sites and tools, including SEO tools like Surfer and Frase.
• Uses latest OpenAI models.

Pricing

ZimmWriter offers an extremely competitive pricing model thanks to its being sold by a solo developer.

You just pay the cost of the monthly plan or lifetime deal, plus any OpenAI tokens you use, depending on the AI model you select, and in exchange you get unlimited content generation with no additional price markup. Even for a very long blog post using an advanced model, the credits work out to just a few cents.

The Normal plan costs $14.97 per month. In addition to unlimited words, you get access to one-click blog generation.

The Ultimate plan is $29.97 per month. This plan gives you access to all the juicy search engine optimization features like SEO blog generation, bulk blog generation, and the Local SEO Buffet.

Finally, ZimmWriter offers a lifetime deal. For a one-time payment of $497, you can own the software forever.

What are AI SEO tools?

AI-powered SEO tools are software platforms and apps that use AI to automate your SEO workflow. These smart tools use artificial intelligence, complex algorithms, and large datasets to inform and automate your SEO strategies, improving your performance with search engines.

The role of AI in SEO

The role of AI in SEO is changing fast, fundamentally shifting how we think about SEO strategy. With AI, especially through natural language processing (NLP), we’re better at understanding search intent and the relationships between keywords.

This leads to more productive and precise content creation and optimization, which in turn leads to better website visibility, higher search engine rankings, and more organic traffic.

Types of AI SEO software

Keyword research and content optimization tools

AI-based SEO tools provide recommended NLP keywords, real-time content optimization scores, and topic cluster data for planning future articles. With these insights, you can create high-quality, comprehensive, SEO-optimized content that matches searcher intent, improving its likelihood of ranking highly in search engines.

Link-building tools

AI tools can automate tasks like cold email outreach, making your link building campaigns more efficient. They can also help you manage your internal link strategy. For instance, I use the Link Whisper WordPress plugin to automate internal linking on my blog.

Technical SEO tools

These tools help with site-wide optimization rules like writing meta descriptions and improving page load speed. Some AI SEO tools can do full site audits, find issues, and automate fixes. This leads to better search engine rankings, plus a better experience for your users.

Writing tools

Although many AI keyword research and content optimization tools have a built-in AI writing tool, many SEOs opt to use a different tool as their main AI writer (for example, Surfer + Jasper).

This is because the writing quality tends to be much better with tools that are designed primarily for writing rather than optimization. So keep that in mind when building your AI SEO tech stack.

How can you implement AI in your SEO strategy?

You can implement AI in search engine optimization by using AI SEO tools to conduct topic and keyword research, generate optimized content, streamline link building, and manage technical SEO tasks. These tools use artificial intelligence to analyze vast datasets, helping you automate your content strategy and improve your SEO performance.

How effective is AI in SEO?

AI is a game changer for your SEO strategy. With its superpowers of natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning, AI can understand search intent, automate keyword research, and optimize your content workflow, significantly boosting your productivity and leading to increased search engine rankings and website traffic.

What is the best AI tool for keyword research?

The best AI-powered keyword research tool is Keyword Insights. It’s a powerhouse for generating tons of keyword ideas, spotting content gaps, and organizing keywords. It also includes some additional SEO features like AI-generated content briefs.

What is the best free AI SEO tool?

One of the best AI SEO tools that offers a free trial plan is Quillbot. It’s a handy tool that enhances your writing by rephrasing text and suggesting synonyms. Best of all, it integrates directly into Chrome and Microsoft Word, streamlining your writing process.

Wrapping up

Adapting a great AI SEO tool into your workflow can transform your productivity and help your content perform better in search engines – in some cases in just a few days.

At the same time, AI doesn’t always get it right on the first try (in case you haven’t noticed 😛). So exercise patience, and don’t be afraid to experiment with a few different tools until you figure out what works best for your own SEO strategy.