Searching for the best AI SEO tools to help improve your website’s ranking in 2023? Discover in this comprehensive comparison guide some of the various AI Search Engine Optimization (SEO) software available today that could boost your search rankings!
How we categorised and ranked the Best AI SEO Tools
a) Categorising & Ranking the AI SEO Tools
The AI SEO tools in the table above are ordered initially by the number of search engine optimization (SEO) categories covered by the tool’s features (see definitions below). Where the AI SEO tool offers a similar set of features to another tool, then cost is the second ranking factor.
SEO Feature Categories definitions:
As the table illustrates, there is a wide range of AI SEO tools. Some offer a good breadth of features, while others offer both breadth and depth/quality of features, which is inferred by the premium-price ranges.
These general or “super-SEO” software come in various forms and complexities, catering to all types of users at different points in their journey to create content or optimize content for search engines.
However, the order in which the tools are presented doesn’t highlight the fact that some tools are more appropriate than others depending on SEO strategy and what stage of the content creation journey the user is at.
The diagram below offers a view of when some of these AI SEO tools might be appropriate based on the user’s
Maturity or point in their journey (e.g. beginner or established business/website); and
Budget – the assumption here is that as users progress to become more established, their budget usually increases.
Remember that choosing the best AI SEO tools is only part of it – see AI Tools for Content Creation or some of the Best AI Apps recommended across the suite of tools available in this space.
b) Free SEO Tools
Some free tools are provided by AI SEO software providers covered in this post (e.g. Ahrefs Webmaster tool). This is to entice potential users to the rest of their SEO suite, but are usually limited in their use or provide access for only a limited time (e.g. 7 days up to 30 days free access in the providers below).
What are the Best AI SEO Tools for 2023?
The following are some of the popular and well-known AI SEO software providers. The categorisation and ranking above, plus the details below should enable you to decide which of them fit your current SEO optimization needs.
You may have a different experience or opinion with some of these AI SEO tools. If so, we would love to hear about your experience and opinions. Please place your comments in the section below this post.
Now let’s get started and look at each of them in more detail.
1. SEO Buddy
Key Features:
Project Dashboard: easily manage backlink opportunities and content ideas, and keep track of competitors.
Competitive Analysis: identify what is currently ranking in search engines and based on competitive analysis, find the most relevant content ideas and backlinks to help increase your website’s rankings and domain authority.
Content Ideas: discover great content ideas based on your target keywords and identifies how to make existing content rank better.
Backlink Opportunities: find new untapped backlink opportunities and make sure you’re pursuing the most valuable and relevant backlinks
Tasks: stay organised and focused on your website by providing daily bite-sized SEO tasks to improve your website.
SEO University: offers a variety of educational resources to help you learn more about SEO.
Pricing:
SEO Buddy has a limited 7-day free trial, after which it has two further paid plans starting at $47/month. There is a discount available (just under 10%) for an annual subscription, equivalent to one free month.
Pros:
Easy to use: the user interface is intuitive and the platform is well-organised, even for beginners, with no restrictions on team size (i.e. unlimited seats!)
Comprehensive: offers a wide range of features to help you with all aspects of SEO.
Affordable: more affordable option than some of the other premium SEO tools on the market (like Ahrefs and Semrush) that offer a similar set of features.
Tracking: keeps track of results from search engines that you have reviewed so you never have to waste time analysing them again.
Great for those starting out or who have a low domain authority and need to undertake link building but don’t know where to start.
Cons:
More advanced features may require additional training and expertise to use effectively.
Some features are only available in the higher price plans (such as identifying backlink opportunities)
SEO Buddy may not be as well-known or widely used as some of its competitors.
My Take:
SEO Buddy has a reasonable pricing structure for a relatively comprehensive SEO tool when compared to other market-leading providers such as Ahrefs and Semrush. Even its top price plan is on par with some of the starting packages of the premium tools.If you are in the market for superclone Replica Rolex , Super Clone Rolex is the place to go! The largest collection of fake Rolex watches online!
If you are starting out or a small business, SEO Buddy provides a good breadth of features and allows you to utilise more features as your business or website grows, at still a relatively affordable price.
2. Can I Rank
Key Features:
Keyword research and tracking tools help businesses target the most valuable keywords for their industry and audience.
On-page optimization: analyses your website’s code and content to identify and recommend areas that can be improved for SEO.
Link building: helps you research, evaluate and build high-quality link prospects to your website.
Competitor analysis tools identify opportunities for your website’s improvement by pulling data about competitors using over 200 ranking factors from seven sources including from the best SEO tools on the market such as Ahrefs and Semrush.
Reporting: provides detailed reports on your website’s SEO performance that help you track your progress and identify areas that need improvement.
Pricing:
Can I Rank has four plans, the first of which is a limited free plan. There is an initial 7 days free with each of its reasonably priced plans starting at $49/month.
Pros:
Provides a valuable snapshot of where you are on SEO
Goes beyond SEO and gives you benchmarks on how you’re doing from a Marketing perspective on content, authority and other metrics against a list of competitors that you select
Expands your reach with a consistent flow of new relevant keyword ideas – more in-depth than some other tools.
Provide valuable insights into the strategies and tactics used by competitors.
Cons:
Sometimes it can be information overload and not always accurate and some have reported the user interface to be slow.
The platform is not as well-known or widely used as some of its market-leading competitors like Semrush and Ahrefs.
My Take:
Can I Rank is a very reasonably priced SEO tool that certainly allows the beginner or small business a more affordable start than some of its premium competitors.
It covers a good amount of SEO features and does pull on some of the data from such SEO market leaders so certainly worth considering if you have a limited budget.
3. Surfer SEO
Key Features:
Content Editor: provides users with data-driven insights to help optimize their content for search engines.
Keyword Research: help users identify high-volume keywords with low competition. Also provides insights into the search intent behind specific keywords.
Site Audit: comprehensively audit website pages and suggest improvements for technical SEO issues.
Free tools: includes free content outline generator and Keyword Surfer, a Chrome extension that provides volume, cost per click, and other competitor keyword analysis without leaving Google’s search engine results pages (SERP).
Pricing:
Surfer SEO offers a variety of pricing plans, starting at $59 per month for the Basic plan. A number of higher-priced plans, with extra features and higher usage limits, also cater for large businesses.
Surfer SEO offers a 17% discount on their annual plan subscription (effectively giving users two months free). They also offer a 7-day free trial.
Pros:
Data-Driven Insights: provides users with data-driven insights to help improve their website’s search engine rankings.
Comprehensive On-Page Optimization: the AI SEO tool covers all aspects of on-page SEO, including content optimization, keyword research, and technical SEO.
User-Friendly Interface: has clear visualisations that make it accessible to both beginners and experienced SEO professionals.
Regular Updates & 3rd Party Integrations: constantly adding new features and updating its algorithm to stay ahead of the competition, including integrations with Google Docs, WordPress, Jasper and Semrush.
Cons:
Price Point: a premium tool and its pricing plans may be too expensive for small businesses or individuals. However, it is still more affordable than other AI tools (like Ahrefs).
Limited Features Compared to Other Tools: While it provides a comprehensive suite of tools for optimizing content for search engines, it may have fewer features than other premium SEO tools on the market (like Ahrefs comprehensive backlink analysis).
My Take:
Great for individuals and small businesses: along with its free tools, Surfer SEO offers a lower price point than other premium AI tools, representing good value and functionality for those content creators starting out.
Great Visualisations: its suggested improvements to articles during the writing process based on data-driven comparisons to competitor websites is a great way to learn what works best for search engines.
Convenient 3rd Party Integrations: Surfer SEO is a logical addition with integrations to popular tools a content creator would use (like Google Docs and WordPress).
4. SE Ranking
Key Features:
Keyword research: powerful keyword research tool that can help you target the most valuable keywords for your industry and audience.
On-page SEO: offers a variety of tools to help you identify and fix technical SEO issues and optimize your website’s content, code, and structure.
Off-page SEO: provides backlink analysis tools to monitor the quality and quantity of backlinks to your website, also tracking your competitor’s backlinks.
Competitor analysis: provides tools to track the performance of competitors and identify opportunities for improvement.
Reporting: provides detailed reports on your website’s SEO performance, so you can track your progress and identify areas that need improvement.
Pricing:
SE Ranking offers a reasonably priced three-tier plan starting at £33/month (or just over $40/month) with a 14-day free trial. It also offers a 20% discount for annual subscriptions on any of its three plans.
Pros:
Affordable: more affordable option than some of the other AI-powered SEO tools on the market offering similar features
User-friendly: easy to use, even for beginners. The user interface is intuitive and the platform is well-organised.
Comprehensive: offers a wide range of features for any beginner or small business to help with all aspects of SEO.
Up-to-date: is constantly being updated with new features and improvements.
Cons:
Not as powerful as some other tools: does not offer as many features as some of the other premium AI tools on the market that caters to larger businesses or websites.
Some features are only available on higher-priced plans (e.g. historical data on keywords/domains and support).
My Take:
SE Ranking is a great powerful SEO tool if you are starting out or a small business. It does have a good breadth of features for beginners, but to access all the platform’s features, you will need one of its higher-tiered plans.
It is initially more affordable than its premium counterparts like Semrush and Ahrefs. However, to access all its features including any additional features like Local Marketing and Content Editor, it does come at an extra cost that will bring you to a similar level as those premium offerings.
SE Ranking is however a good tool that offers small businesses the opportunity to grow and leverage more of its features in the future as the business or website expands.
5. Semrush
Key Features:
Comprehensive SEO offering Google Rank Tracking, domain authority tracking, analyses your website’s backlink profile, conducts technical SEO site audits, analyses keywords and click data for target keywords.
Content marketing: analyse content performance, identify content gaps, and find new content ideas.
Competitor Analysis: provides detailed information about competitors’ strategies, including their backlink profile, paid search and organic traffic, and keywords they target
Other toolkits allow you to manage and optimize content marketing or digital advertising campaigns
Pricing:
Semrush offers three primary plans: Pro, Guru, and Business. A 17% discount is available for annual subscriptions (equivalent to 2 months free).
Pros:
Comprehensive AI SEO tool with an extensive website database, also able to optimize sites for local searches
Generous reporting limits able to cater for those with a high level of SEO experience
Includes in-depth pay-per-click (PPC) data for paid keywords
Multichannel support
Cons:
Complex AI SEO tool therefore can be overwhelming for beginners
Steep learning curve: users may need to invest some time to understand all the features and how to use them. It does require basic SEO and technical knowledge
Cost: can be expensive, especially for small businesses and individuals on a tight budget. Note not all features are available in all plans.
Limited data for some countries: data is not as comprehensive for some countries as it is for others.
Inaccurate data: Some users have reported that Semrush’s data can be inaccurate in some cases, such as when estimating website traffic or search volume.
My Take:
Semrush does have a wide offering, almost a “jack-of-all-trades” when it comes to SEO features and toolkits. However, this can be an expensive option for beginners or small businesses until they have acquired experience to be able to capitalise on all its offerings.
Semrush is often pitched up against Ahrefs as another premium all-in-one SEO AI tool. Which one offers the best value to you will depend on where you are at in your content creation journey and need for highly SEO-optimized content.
6. Ahrefs
Key Features:
Keyword Explorer: helps identify high-volume keywords with low competition via thousands of keyword ideas, including metrics for search volume, keyword difficulty score, and click-through rates.
Site Explorer: analyse website backlink profile, top organic traffic, and traffic value estimates.
Content Explorer: Search for top-performing content in any niche or topic and analyse its backlink profile and social metrics. This helps users identify content gaps on their websites and suggest new content ideas.
Rank Tracker: Track website ranking positions and monitor SERP features, including featured snippets and local packs.
Site Audit: Identify and fix technical SEO issues, improve site speed, and optimize on-page elements that may impact a website’s search engine rankings.
Pricing:
Ahrefs offers a variety of pricing plans, as shown below. More details on the extra features of each plan can be found here. The pay annually option gives users two months of free use (effectively a 17% discount).
Pros:
Comprehensive SEO offering: offers a range of features that cover all aspects of SEO, making it a one-stop solution for businesses.
Large dataset: uses a proprietary algorithm to provide up-to-date data on keyword rankings, backlinks, and search engine traffic.
User-friendly interface: intuitive interface and clear visualisations make it easy to use for both beginners and experienced SEO professionals.
Regular updates: constantly adding new features and updating its database to ensure it stays ahead of the competition.
Backlink Analysis: one of the most comprehensive in the industry. It can help users identify link-building opportunities and track their backlink profile over time.
Cons:
High price point: Ahrefs is a premium tool, and its pricing plans may be too expensive for small businesses or individuals starting out with SEO. It currently offers no free trials or discounts.
Limited credits per month: With all the plans, a maximum of 500 credits are applied to usage, and once exceeded, an additional fee is required for extra credits.
Steep learning curve: While the tool’s interface is user-friendly, features may require SEO expertise or experience to use effectively.
Limited integration options: It does not integrate with as many third-party applications as some of its competitors, which can be a drawback for businesses that rely on multiple tools for their marketing stack.
My Take:
Ahrefs offers a lot to users, but its full feature value is in the higher price ranges, unsuitable for those starting out. Even on its Lite subscription, the value gain for beginners at that price point is better spent elsewhere.
Offers a free Webmaster Tool that provides website owners limited access to Site Explorer and Site Audit.
At the higher price plans with all of the features available to the user, Ahrefs does become an all-in-one AI SEO tool for established businesses and websites. Its robust and comprehensive database for keyword analysis (and more), makes it one of the best SEO toolsets on the market that money can buy!
7. BuzzSumo
Key Features:
Content Discovery: research relevant keywords (with metrics such as search volume, PPC, etc), track trending topics on social media and the web, and find the most popular questions that people are asking in a specific niche or industry
Content Research/Analyser: discover popular content on any topic across various social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Reddit. Perform backlink analysis to see the websites linking to competitor sites to identify link-building opportunities.
Influencer and Competitor Research: find and analyse top-performing content and influencers/journalists in your industry, including their content marketing strategies, identifying possible opportunities for collaborations and partnerships.
Monitoring: provides real-time custom alerts and notifications when a brand, keywords, backlinks, or influencers/journalists are mentioned or creates new posts on social media.
Reporting: build and generate reports on your content performance and the brands, keywords and influencers you want to track.
Pricing:
BuzzSumo offers five different price plans starting at $119/month. It is at the premium end of the range for SEO tools but does offer a 20% discount on those taking an annual subscription (equivalent to about 2.5 months free). All plans come with a 30-day free trial.
Pros:
A powerful tool for content discovery and analysis, particularly with a comprehensive database across various social media content and the web
Easy to use and intuitive interface
Regular updates with new features.
Offers Chrome extension to analyse websites and blogs while on the go
Powerful APIs to build automated report monitoring
Supports team collaboration and content planning
Cons:
Some features are only available on the higher-priced plans (e.g. journalist database or YouTube analyser).
Reports can be overwhelming for beginners.
Expensive price points – relatively expensive compared to other AI SEO tools which will put it out of reach for individuals or small businesses starting out on a limited budget
Limited data export options in the lower-priced plans
The backlink analysis feature may not be as comprehensive as some other artificial intelligence SEO tools
My Take:
BuzzSumo offers a good range of SEO features for those businesses or websites wanting to scale and expand, particularly via social media engagement.
Its higher price plans place it in the premium range, therefore, is likely less suitable for those starting out in their content creation journey or on a limited budget.
However, BuzzSumo is certainly a worthwhile SEO tool to consider at the right point. For instance when you need to expand your content and look into partnerships or link-building opportunities with influencers/journalists in your niche.
8. Mangools
Key Features:
KWFinder: helps you find long-tail keywords with high search volume and low competition.
SERPChecker: A SERP analysis tool that helps you verify whether or not your links are actually helping boost your rankings
SERPWatcher: A rank-tracking tool that allows you to track how you rank for certain keywords
LinkMiner: Backlink analysis tool that finds high-quality backlinks for your website that are already linking to your competitors
SiteProfiler: Website audit tool that identifies and fixes SEO issues on your website.
Pricing:
Mangools offers a free 10-day trial with their three different plans at reasonable prices. You can also save a whopping 35% on annual subscriptions (a larger discount than other AI SEO software tools).
Pros:
Affordable: one of the most affordable SEO suites on the market.
Easy to use, even for beginners.
Powerful: has a wide range of powerful features that can help you improve your website’s SEO, offering both basic and advanced SEO features
Provides some helpful features that other SEO tools don’t have, like website preview through its SERP Simulator
Provides a Google Chrome and Firefox Extension that extends their SEO features to your browser to analyse any web page
Cons:
Some features are more complex than others: may take some time to learn how to use them effectively.
Limited data is available for some countries and some features may lack in-depth analysis. For instance, the link index is great but not as large as its competitors
My Take:
Mangools is a great option for small businesses and SEO beginners on a budget who are looking for an affordable and easy-to-use SEO suite. Users can start off with its basic suite of SEO features and then progress on to its more advanced features.
While some features may lack in-depth analysis, it still provides valuable data and insights with increased usage caps at higher price plans (and some like Keyword research has unlimited usage).
9. RankIQ
Key Features:
Keyword analysis: helps users find relevant keywords and provides data on their search volume, difficulty, and potential search traffic. It also tracks your website’s ranking on Google search engine results pages (SERP) for target keywords.
Competitive analysis: provides insights into competitors’ organic search strategies, including their top-ranking pages, backlinks, and keywords.
Content optimization: analyses on-page SEO to identify issues and provide actionable recommendations to improve rankings, including suggestions for titles.
Integrated with Google Analytics data to track website performance.
Pricing:
As illustrated in the above image, RankIQ just has one simple monthly subscription of $49/month (currently 50% off their $99 standard rate).
Pros:
Designed specifically for bloggers and content creators, focusing on long-tail keyword research
User-friendly interface: has a clean and user-friendly interface, making it easy to navigate and use its features
Affordable pricing: competitive pricing compared to other SEO tools such as Semrush and Ahrefs, making it a good choice for small businesses or individuals on a budget
Easy to use: user-friendly tool even if you have no SEO experience
Cons:
Not as comprehensive features as Ahrefs and Semrush with no backlink analysis or full site audit features and may not be suitable for more advanced SEO tasks. Limited to keyword research, rank tracking and content optimization.
Limited data: data coverage is currently limited to a few countries, and its data accuracy may not be as high as some of its competitors.
Limited integrations: RankIQ currently does not integrate with as many third-party tools as some of its competitors.
Lack of historical data: RankIQ currently only provides limited historical data, which may be a disadvantage for users who need to track changes in their SEO performance over time.
My Take:
RankIQ is an AI-powered SEO tool designed specifically for bloggers and content creators that manage and optimizes your website’s content offering useful features at an affordable price point for beginners and small businesses.
However, its limited feature set and data coverage may be a drawback for some advanced users, especially those who need more advanced SEO features or data for multiple countries.
10. Marketmuse
Key Features:
Content planning: identify content gaps and provides recommendations for new content ideas based on target keywords with page-level, site-level and SERP insights
Keyword Research: keyword cluster creation & analysis to dominate your topical area and gain authority
Competitive Content Analysis reveals gaps to leverage in the SERP providing insights into competitor content strategies, including their strengths and weaknesses
Content Briefing to provide structure on topics to cover, questions to answer and links to include
Content optimization: analyse and identify low-quality content, providing recommendations for optimizing it to improve rankings in search engines
Pricing:
MarketMuse offers a very limited free version and paid subscriptions with more features that start at $149 per month. It also provides an equivalent 2-month discount for those taking up an annual subscription on its paid plans.
Pros:
User-friendly interface
Accurate and Intelligent: provides accurate and intelligent suggestions for improving your content, such as keywords to target, topics to cover, and content gaps to fill.
Flexible and scalable: can be used by businesses of all sizes.
Cons:
Relatively expensive: on par with the likes of Ahrefs and Semrush, making it less accessible to small businesses or individuals on a budget
Steep learning curve: AI-based approach can be complex, and users may need to invest some time in learning how to use it effectively.
Limited data coverage: data coverage is currently limited to the US and UK, which may be a drawback for users targeting other countries.
Limited integrations: currently does not integrate with as many third-party tools as some of its competitors.
Not all features are available in all plans: Some features, such as the ability to create custom reports, are only available in the higher-priced plans.
My Take:
MarketMuse is another premium tool like Semrush and Ahrefs and is more geared to those with some experience as opposed to those just beginning their content creation journey.
To get value out of its many features, you should have some content already in your niche and are maybe at a point to improve your search rankings or looking to expand on your content offering and need good ideas and structure to take your website forward.
11. Alli AI
Key Features:
On-page bulk optimization: analyse your website’s code and content to identify areas that can be improved for SEO. It can then deploy code changes all at once across thousands of pages based on site-wide optimization rules.
Link building: find and build high-quality links to your website.
Live Editor: edit content and code via your browser and deploy the updates immediately, bypassing CMS or any technical limitations.
Reporting: provides detailed reports on your website’s SEO performance.
Pricing:
Alli AI offers a Consultant plan for consultants, startups, and small teams that costs $249 per month. It also offers flex pricing, which allows you to scale your SEO automation up or down in real time based on your business needs. All plans come with a free 10-day trial period.
Pros:
Automates SEO tasks: can automate many of the time-consuming tasks involved in SEO, such as link building and content marketing. This can save you a lot of time and effort and is ideal for agencies wanting to scale client fulfilment.
Provides detailed reports: helps you track your progress and identify areas that need improvement.
Cons:
Very Expensive: Alli AI is a premium tool priced for very experienced businesses and established websites and SEO experts.
Need experience and knowledge of SEO – not for beginners or small businesses/websites that will likely not obtain the full value offered by Alli AI
My Take:
Alli AI is an AI-driven SEO optimization, automation, and deployment platform ideal for businesses or those with a large online presence that have many web pages to optimize and wish to do all at once. Has a premium price range to match!
For highly experienced businesses and SEO experts with established websites that want to take a more efficient automated-deployment method to their SEO optimization efforts.
FAQs
a) Will SEO be replaced by AI?
While AI has become powerful in recent years, it is still only a tool that assists and replaces some tasks but it won’t replace the human element entirely. See this article on How AI will Impact Jobs, or further reading on whether AI will replace content writers and bloggers.
b) Is AI Content Bad for SEO?
It has also been asked if using AI-enabled or optimized content might be penalised by Google or be bad for SEO. There is no evidence to suggest that Google would penalise such content.
Google’s primary concern is on the quality and value of the content provided to users rather than its origin. As long as the AI-generated content meets the same standards as human-written content, then it should not negatively impact your SEO efforts or use of AI SEO software tools.
Final Thoughts
There are many AI search engine optimization tools out there to assist content creators. One could argue it is very confusing, and there is too much choice given the pace of AI development in the last few years alone.
So what are the best AI SEO tools to employ in your SEO strategy?
Depending on where you are in your SEO efforts and content creation journey, the best AI SEO tool for a beginner is SEO Buddy with its comprehensive features at a relatively affordable price.
For more established websites and experienced SEO experts, Ahrefs and Semrush are the popular premium AI-powered SEO tools of choice given their breadth and quality of features.
Some specialist SEO software tools like BuzzSumo also cater for those wanting to expand and scale via social media engagement.
Other content optimization tools might also be free but only concentrate on particular SEO features or be under usage limitations.
For instance, analytics data provided by Google Search Console is handy to assess organic traffic, the performance of your website and any issues with individual pages.
Whatever you decide today, just remember that your choice of AI SEO tool will most likely evolve with your SEO strategy as your website or business grows.
What are your most used AI SEO tools? Let me know in the comments section below.
Author: Darrell Chau
Updated: 06 May 2023