8 Best AI SEO Tools for 2025 (Tested Firsthand)

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?

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 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

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

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

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

By the way, here’s a ContentShake AI vs SurferSEO comparison we created.

5. 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

💡 Check out how ChatGPT compares to ContentShake AI.

6. 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

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

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

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 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?