The article you’re reading right now has been ranking at the top for a bunch of AI SEO keywords for more than a year.
I was one of the first creators genuinely sharing how I use AI SEO tools and what’s been helping me with my SEO work. Search engines and LLMs rewarded my honesty with trust and organic visibility.
Now, with AI content everywhere, it’s super easy to put together an article, run it through an AI humanizer, and call it “I Tested AI SEO Tools. Here’s What Works.” That’s literally what I’m seeing all over the internet right now! But you’ve probably noticed that tons of websites took massive visibility hits because of Google’s January 2026 algorithm update.
We’re past the point where Google would shake things up temporarily and then rankings would settle down. These days, search rankings jump around constantly, and your positions in LLMs and AI Overviews are even more unstable.
There’s a study from Semrush about AI Overviews that shows just how crazy it is. URLs inside AI Overviews change frequently.
They looked at over 3,000 keywords where AI Overview showed up for at least 20 out of 31 days:
- Not a single keyword had the same URLs 100% of the time
- 96% of AI Overviews swapped out domains
- 91% of the URLs they tracked got kicked out of AIOs at some point
- Only 43% of those removed URLs made it back into the AIO later that month
When everything’s this unpredictable, how are you supposed to handle SEO anymore?
From what I’ve seen, many SEO strategies and SEO tools that people are still pushing on you just don’t work these days!
I used to help clients with SEO content strategy and SEO writing. Now I do everything SEO content-related as my full-time job, plus I keep working on this website, which will hit its 5-year mark in July 2026.
Just going off my gut and experience, I’ve tested more than 20 SEO tools since I started in 2019. I’m going to tell you what I think doesn’t work anymore in this AI SEO era and where you’d just be throwing money away.
In this post, I’m sharing:
The best AI SEO tools in 2026, based on my experience
What actually works in real SEO workflows
Which tools sound helpful but rarely move rankings
My hands-on results after testing the tools
If you’re trying to choose the right AI SEO software, this comparison could help you avoid expensive mistakes and focus on tools that support search visibility.
AI SEO tools that sound helpful — but rarely improve rankings
Most AI SEO tools don’t directly improve rankings.
Some speed up workflows.
Some help with research.
Some generate content.
After testing multiple AI SEO platforms in 2026, I noticed a pattern: tools that generate content fast don’t necessarily help pages rank better. What matters is how well they support strategy, topical depth, internal linking, and search intent alignment.
Here’s what tends to underperform and why.
1. SEO optimizers, AI Humanizers, and On-page SEO tools.
They promise better rankings by tweaking content and adding “missing” keywords, but it’s honestly a very old-school SEO.
There are so many paid and free AI SEO tools that focus on content optimization, so I can’t possibly list them all here.
But they all work in a similar way. They compare your article to top-ranking pages and tell you which keywords or topics you should add to “close the gap.” This might have worked in the past, but not anymore.
Let me give you a real example. I’ve seen this happening way too often for it to be a coincidence.
After Google’s January 2026 update, my article on the best AI SEO tools dropped from the top spots. Naturally, I tried using SEO optimizers to see what they’d suggest.
Below, you can see the SEO content score of my article, even though the rankings had clearly fallen. I didn’t feel like doing a full rewrite, so I added a few recommended keywords instead — no improvement at all!
Some creators believe that paraphrasing existing content and adding a handful of keywords will fix rankings, but that’s just not how SEO works anymore.
Eventually, I had to step back, look at the top-ranking pages (most of them had nearly identical titles and promises), and create something different and better.
Fresh, high-quality content written from real experience beats any optimizer, and it usually works faster too.
2. AI content generators, no matter how fancy they are.
I don’t see much value in paying for AI SEO tools that create content when you already get free access to LLMs like Claude.
If you’ve tried generating content with Claude, you know its output can be pretty solid, as long as your prompt is clear. That’s exactly how I used it to create my AI SEO statistics blog post.
I’m still tweaking the prompt, but one thing is already obvious: you have to train the AI on your past writing, explain your tone, and feed it real insights from your own experience if you want to get good content.
3. AI visibility tracking tools that ask you to manually input prompts for tracking.
The idea is that they’ll monitor where your content appears when people use those prompts in ChatGPT, Claude, or other LLMs.
But there’s a big problem with that approach. We don’t actually know which prompts to track! It’s not like traditional keyword research, where you, in most cases, know the search terms.
Prompts are way more conversational and long-tail than regular search queries. People might ask the same thing in dozens of different ways, and each variation could pull up completely different results.
Collecting all these prompts manually would take forever! You’d basically need to guess every possible way someone might phrase a question related to your topic. That’s just not realistic.
I’ve tried some AI SEO tools that work this way and quickly realized I was spending more time thinking up prompts to track than actually improving my content. Total waste of time and money.
What you actually need are tools that offer prompt research capabilities for your specific topics and can automatically detect when your brand gets mentioned or cited.
These tools crawl LLM responses across various prompts and alert you when you show up, instead of making you play a guessing game about what to track.
I’ll share some of the better options that actually work this way later in the post.
My results from testing AI SEO tools
Here’s what I pay attention to when testing AI SEO tools:
- Pricing check: First, I look at the pricing because let’s be real – budget matters. I want to know if what they’re charging actually makes sense for what you get.
- Promises vs. reality: Then I dig into what the tool promises versus what it actually delivers. Sometimes the marketing sounds amazing, but the reality? Not so much.
- Direct contact: I reach out to team members at these companies. Getting clarifications directly from the people building the tool helps me understand what’s going on under the hood.
- Reddit research: Reddit is honestly one of my favorite places to check. Real users don’t hold back there, and you get the unfiltered truth about what’s working and what’s not.
- Hands-on testing: I’ve personally used all the tools mentioned below. I’ve tried the main features and run reports.
Below is a list of AI SEO tools I’ve either used before or still use today, like Semrush, for my SEO and AI-related work.
I’ve kept the descriptions detailed on purpose, so you can clearly see how each tool works and decide if it’s the right fit for you.
| Tool | Best For | Pricing |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Semrush One | Combines Semrush’s SEO toolkit with new AI search features to help your brand be found in AI. | Starts at $199/month. Includes 50 prompts tracking across ChatGPT, Gemini, AI Mode, and AI Overviews. MCP access. 500 keywords tracking. Free trial: 14 days. |
| 2. Surfer SEO | Content SEO toolkit + AI features for monitoring visibility in AI search results. | Starts at $99/month. With a Pro plan ($219/month), you can track 50 prompts across popular LLMs and AI Overviews. No free trial. |
| 3. Search Atlas | All-in-one AI and SEO platform and an alternative to Writesonic. | Starts at $99/month. With a Growth plan ($199/month), you can track visibility across ChatGPT, AI Mode, and Gemini. 50 keywords for tracking. Free trial: 7 days. |
| 4. Writesonic | AI SEO automation tool with a built-in AI agent. | Starts at $49/month for SEO + Content automation toolkits. The Professional plan at $249/month is required for AI search-tracking tools. 100 prompts tracking. Free trial: 7 days. |
| 5. Indexly | Speeds up indexing and helps you track technical SEO issues automatically. | Starts at $49/month. A Growth plan ($99/month) is required for AI visibility tracking. 50 prompts. Free trial: 14 days. |
| 6. SE Ranking | Covers pretty much every SEO task and lets you automate the processes. | Starts at $129/month to track 2,000 keywords and 100 prompts daily. An add-on available at $71.20/month for an additional 200 prompts. Free trial: 14 days. |
| 7. Ubersuggest | For small teams’ and startups’ SEO needs without enterprise-level pricing. | Starts at $29/month for the Individual plan, or $290 one-time for lifetime access. The Starter plan includes 10 prompts for one domain and 125 keywords. Free trial: 7 days. |
| 8. OtterlyAI | For solo marketers, hobby bloggers, startups, and small site owners who want to start tracking AI visibility without a large investment | For $29/month, you can track one domain using 15 prompts across major platforms like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot. There are other pricing plans to track 100 or more prompts. Free trial: 14 days. |
P.S. This post includes a few affiliate links. If you decide to try any of these tools, I might earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. Just being upfront about it! I’m only recommending tools I’ve used myself and truly believe in.
1. Semrush One
- Best for: In-house marketing teams, agencies managing multiple websites, individual site owners, and businesses.
- Best features: Personal recommendations with AI Assistant, Keyword Magic Tool, On-Page SEO Checker, SEO Audit, Keyword Strategy Builder, AI SEO Toolkit, and more.
- Pricing: Starts at $199/month and includes the traditional SEO Toolkit + AI Visibility Toolkit. 14-day free trial for Semrush’s One.
Semrush is an all-in-one tool you can use to manage every aspect of your website growth, from SEO and content marketing to social media and paid advertising.
As an SEO specialist and content writer, I’ve used Semrush for years to conduct site audits, track my website performance, run niche keyword research, and create optimized content.
Semrush has come a long way. It’s not the same tool it used to be.
Today, it has over 55 features for all kinds of marketing tasks, grouped into seven toolkits so you can quickly find what you need for your project.
Additionally, Semrush has been acquired by Adobe. This was totally unexpected news. So I’m guessing we’ll see Semrush grow even faster and roll out even more AI-powered marketing features soon.
Here’s a quick overview of every existing Semrush toolkit:
- SEO Toolkit: This one combines all SEO-related features for keyword research, domain analysis, link building, and site auditing to help you create an SEO strategy and boost organic search rankings.
- Content Toolkit (former ContentShake AI): This toolkit can help you optimize your content production process, from content brief generation to content creation and optimization.
- AI Visibility Toolkit: A newer addition that lets you track how your brand shows up in AI search results. It contains 100M+ prompts, which power the Visibility Overview, Prompt Research, and Competitor Research reports. It also covers 6 new regions for ChatGPT, AI overview, AI mode: US, UK, Canada, Australia, India, Spain.
- Social Media Kit: This one can help you manage all your social platforms in one spot.
- Advertising Toolkit: Research, plan, launch, and optimize your online ad campaigns.
- Local Business Kit: This one will help you manage your Google Business Profile and online reviews.
- Traffic and Market: This one can help you spy on your competitors (in a friendly way) to see what works for them and how they grow.
Semrush’s old Pro and Guru plans now only give you access to the SEO Toolkit. So if you want to use it, you’ll need to upgrade to at least the Pro plan, which starts at $139.95/month.
But if you’re interested in both SEO and AI, I actually recommend checking out Semrush One. It’s the newest toolkit that blends classic SEO tools with AI features to help you track and improve your brand’s visibility in AI search results. You can monitor up to 50 prompts and 500 keywords per day across five domains, which is pretty solid.
One thing I appreciate about Semrush is their fast support. If your card ever gets charged by mistake (it happened to me once), they refund it within a day. You just fill out a form, and they email you once it’s processed.
Before committing to any plan, I suggest trying their free trials first. It’s the easiest way to see if a tool actually works for you.
Here’s a little perk: My partner link gives you a 14-day free trial to Semrush One instead of the usual 7 days. Just a small way to get more time to explore and see if it’s a good fit! 
Below, I’ve put together a quick overview of Semrush’s AI and SEO features you’ll likely find helpful:
Semrush Copilot: It’s an AI-powered assistant that provides recommendations about your website’s SEO. In particular, you can receive suggestions on technical issues, keyword opportunities, dropped keywords, competitor ranking changes, lost backlinks, broken pages, organic search visibility drops or increases, and more.
Basically, it notices important changes before you do and keeps you in the loop. Honestly, it’s one of my favorite features!
Key Topics: Instead of digging through competitor pages one by one, this handy report shows you their top-performing non-branded topics by traffic. Super useful for finding new content ideas without wasting hours. Note that it works for the Semrush Guru plan users.
AI Visibility Overview: In the Domain Overview tab, you can now see your domain’s AI Visibility score with the number of mentions and citations updated daily. You can also see how well your brand appears in AI-generated search results across different countries.
I also find the Google SERP Positions Distribution report super insightful. It shows a share of your domain’s SERP positions across organic results, featured snippets, and AI.
Personal Keyword Difficulty: It’s an AI-powered metric that shows how difficult it will be for your domain to reach the top 10 of the SERP for a specified keyword.
Topical Authority: This metric shows the relevance of your domain to the target keyword.
Keyword Strategy Builder: It uses AI to research and recommend topic clusters for your website based on relevance and traffic potential.
I’m planning to build a pillar page around the keyword “AI SEO.” Semrush has already suggested a bunch of related keywords. I won’t use all of them, but a few are a really good fit for my site.
Position Tracking: It’s one of my most favourite Semrush’s features that shows the ranking changes daily. Recently, they’ve made it possible for you to monitor your website’s visibility within AI Overviews.
If you have a Semrush One Pro+, you can also track your brand’s visibility in ChatGPT and Google’s AI Mode.
Site Audit: Besides tracking conventional technical issues, Semrush has recently added the AI Search Health report that shows you how well your website is optimized for LLMs.
A higher report score means your content is more accessible, better structured, and more likely to be shown in AI search engines.
If you’re looking for more in-depth insights into your AI SEO efforts, Semrush’s AI Visibility Toolkit (included in Semrush One) can help you automatically evaluate your brand’s visibility across AI Overviews, and LLMs like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity.
It includes:
- 1 domain for brand performance analysis
- 300 daily queries in AI Analysis reports
- 25 prompts for prompt tracking
- AI Search Checks in Site Audit for up to 100 pages
- 6 new regions for ChatGPT, AI overview, AI mode: US, UK, Canada, Australia, India, Spain, Japan, and Mexico.
- 213 million prompts in Semrush’s AI search database
In a nutshell, Semrush shows you how AI search engines see your brand compared to your competitors. Then, it gives you smart suggestions to improve your business, product, and marketing so you can meet people’s needs better and show up more often in AI-generated search results.
If you’re a content creator or site owner, this is an essential AI SEO tool you can add to your stack.
I recently published a new article reviewing my hand-picked AI visibility tools. Check it out if interested.
Semrush MCP
With the Semrush MCP server, you can connect Semrush data to AI tools like Claude, Claude Code, Cursor, Visual Studio Code, Gemini, and ChatGPT.
In simple terms, your answers are powered by real Semrush data, not just generic AI responses.
MCP access is now open to regular Semrush users, not only enterprise accounts like before. So you can use all 50,000 API credits when working with LLMs.
I recently started testing the ChatGPT, Claude, and Semrush integration myself. I’m still exploring it, so I don’t have a full review yet. But so far, it looks like you can ask almost anything, and LLMs pull insights straight from Semrush data to give you answers.
Since I create content strategies for clients almost every day, I wanted to see what would happen if I used Claude together with Semrush to create one.
With Semrush integration, you can research and analyze keywords, review competitor performance and backlink profiles, and track organic trends without even logging into the platform. That’s already a strong starting point!
With Claude, I can also connect Google Search Console, pull real performance data, upload client notes, and include my draft strategies. I no longer have to juggle all that information in my head when creating a custom plan. AI takes care of it.
Below is a snippet from a 13-page SEO content strategy for my own site, Self Made Millennials, generated using Claude to reach one goal: grow my website’s revenue from $40k to $100k by the end of 2026.
I shared everything with Claude, including my 2025 affiliate and partnership earnings, top-performing partners, revenue-driving pages, my draft plan, and more.
The outcome was a detailed strategy with a clear, step-by-step breakdown of how to reach that goal. I was genuinely impressed.
You can learn more about my experience with using various Semrush features in this Semrush review.
If you’ve been thinking about trying Semrush One, here’s a little perk:
My partner link gives you a 14-day free trial to Semrush One instead of the usual 7 days.
Just a small way to get more time to explore and see if it’s a good fit!
2. Surfer SEO
- Best for: In-house marketing teams, SEO content writers, individual site owners, and agencies that publish content at scale. If you regularly create content and want it to rank in organic search results and AI search results, Surfer is a go-to option.
- Best features: Surfer AI, AI Tracker, Topical Map, Content Editor, Content Audit.
- Pricing: Starts at $99/month, which includes optimizing 30 pieces of content and tracking 25 prompts daily in ChatGPT. If you want to track more prompts across LLMs and AI Overviews, the Pro Plan is available at $219/month.
I’ve always thought of Surfer SEO as an on-page tool for researching, writing, and optimizing content to rank better. But honestly, it’s grown into so much more and offers plenty of helpful features for site owners.
Here’s a quick overview of Surfer’s tools and AI features:
Content Editor: This is basically your AI-powered writing assistant. It can help you improve and optimize a draft you already have, or it can generate and optimize new content based on your needs. When your draft is ready, Surfer checks it against your competitors and suggests related keywords, structural improvements, and even internal links.
If you use the Auto-Optimize feature, it will automatically add missing keywords and content sections. I suggest reviewing the draft afterward to ensure the content sounds human and it’s not over-optimized.
In my example below, I added a pretty detailed outline to generate the content with Surfy and optimize it based on the suggestions. And if the text feels a little too robotic, you can run it through the AI Humanizer to quickly make it sound more natural.
If you ever feel like your content is missing something, Surfer’s Coverage Booster feature can help. It suggests facts based on what the top-ranking posts cover, so you don’t leave out important details.
Overall, it’s a handy feature that gives you plenty of content ideas. My tiny suggestion is to double-check the facts for accuracy before adding them to your content. Additionally, as an SEO content writer, I’d also recommend including something original that your competitors haven’t talked about yet. That’s what makes your piece more valuable and helps it stand out.
Here’s a quick look at Surfer’s Coverage Booster in action. All you have to do is accept the recommended improvements if they add more value to your content piece.
Content Audit: Once you connect your website via GSC, Surfer analyzes the performance of your web pages and recommends improvements to boost the organic visibility of every individual page.
Honestly, it feels like this report replaces the need for those long manual content audits we used to do to spot low-hanging opportunities. Instead, Surfer checks your pages daily and points out what you can improve. You can make the changes yourself or let the Auto-Optimize tool handle it for you.
Topical Map: This report helps you see how well your content clusters are covered and points out gaps you might be missing. If you notice a topic that fits your site but you haven’t written about yet, just add it to your content plan.
With Surfer, you also get the usual SEO must-haves like Rank Tracker to follow your keyword rankings daily and Keyword Research to explore content clusters and see their traffic potential.
On top of the usual SEO and content toolkit, Surfer’s team has also added AI-powered features to keep up with the latest AI SEO updates — Surfer AI and AI Tracker.
Surfer AI can help you create long-form content (2,000+ words) that’s optimized for rankings. Once you input your prompt and hit “Write with AI,” you’ll have a complete article ready in 15–30 minutes.
Right now, it works smoothly in multiple languages, including English, German, Dutch, Polish, French, Spanish, Danish, Swedish, Portuguese, Brazilian, Portuguese, Italian, Czech, Japanese, and Norwegian.
AI Tracker is like your personal radar for brand visibility. It tracks mentions of your brand, products, or target prompts in AI-generated search results across Google’s AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity.
Here’s how it works:
- Add your brand, prompts, and language
- Review and update the prompts if needed
- Let AI Tracker analyze your domain name
- Get visibility insights every week
AI Tracker is included in the Scale plan (up to 5 prompts). If you want more, you can purchase it as an add-on $95/month and track 25 prompts with daily updates.
Before recommending Surfer as one of the AI SEO tools in this article, I also checked what current and past users say about it.
Surfer has more than 419 reviews on Capterra with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5. Many users point out how easy it is to use, the helpful features, and the solid customer support.
For me, what stands out is Surfer’s wide range of on-page optimization tools and its new focus on AI-powered features that are supposed to make the content creation process more productive and help brands see how visible they are in AI-driven search results.
If you want to test Surfer yourself, keep in mind that they don’t offer a free trial. Instead, they have a 7-day money-back guarantee. So if you sign up for one of their monthly plans (Essential or Scale) and feel it’s not the right fit, you can contact their support within a week and get a full refund.
3. Search Atlas
- Best for: SEO professionals, In-house SEO teams, SEO agencies, individual site owners
- Best features: OTTO SEO, an automated SEO AI assistant, AI Content Writer, Site Auditor
- Pricing: Starts at $99/month for the Starter plan with 2 user seats and 5 site projects. AI visibility tracking features are available on the Growth plan for $199/month. 7-day free trial. Credit card required.
Search Atlas is a new all-in-one SEO platform that came out in 2024, and it’s already making waves as a fresh alternative to industry giants like Semrush and Ahrefs.
With Search Atlas, you can:
- Analyze any website’s traffic, keywords, and backlinks
- See which pages and keywords bring in the most traffic for your competitors
- Dig into their backlink profiles
- Discover the suitable keywords to target
- Optimize your content and track how it ranks
- Run technical SEO audits
- Find link-building opportunities and even automate outreach
- Save time with their WordPress plugin and SEO OTTO automation tool
- Speed up content creation using their SEO Content Assistant
- And honestly, a lot more!
I’ve also published an in-depth Search Atlas review recently to help you get a detailed overview of the tool’s features and data accuracy.
What’s great is that you don’t have to bounce between a bunch of different tools since everything’s right here in one place.
I haven’t used it for long, but from what I’ve seen so far, it feels like a strong competitor to Ahrefs and Semrush.
And if you’ve used Ahrefs before, you might notice the interface looks familiar. It also shares some features with Semrush, which makes it pretty easy to get used to.
I tested the Search Atlas Growth plan ($199/month) in March 2026. It comes with a solid set of features, but I noticed that Search Atlas sometimes crashes, and some reports take a while to load.
Here’s a peek at the Site Explorer feature.
I had to refresh the report several times just to view my website’s performance data because the tool kept crashing.
It’s also worth saying a few words about one of Search Atlas’ standout features — OTTO SEO.
OTTO is like your personal AI assistant for your website. Once you add a tiny pixel to your site, it gets to work behind the scenes, checking for technical issues, analyzing your content, and offering ways to improve.
I don’t recommend relying on the tool to automatically fix your website issues. There’s always a chance something could go wrong.
Instead, you can use OTTO’s suggestions and then decide whether it’s worth implementing to improve your site’s performance, but at that point, it mostly functions like a standard SEO audit report.
I also checked out what people are saying about Search Atlas on Reddit and LinkedIn. The feedback is mixed.
Some users say it takes a bit of time to get used to the tool, and a few wish the support team were a bit faster and more helpful.
I think any solid tool comes with a bit of a learning curve. Since Search Atlas is an all-in-one SEO platform, it makes sense that you’d need a little time to get comfortable with it. But honestly, if you’ve used Ahrefs before, the interface should feel pretty familiar and easy to navigate.
Here’s what Casey Cornell, the Founder of Pool Journals and Digital Consulting Owner, shared about Search Atlas:
“We use Search Atlas as our primary seo tool now as a replacement for expensive Semrush, I will say, it’s been buggy at times since they’re moving fast and always rolling out new products.
I connected it to my WP site to make changes on their 2.0 model and I didn’t like that if you removed the script at all, it will all go back to the old content. Make hard changes.
I think like anything SA is a “tool” and should be used as such. Not make it your entire SEO strategy in a single product.
I use their growth plan ($199/mo) I also don’t use their AI content because it wasn’t good a while back. I think gem and Claude are prob better not tbh. I like using it for auditing, KW data, local SEO & the GBP scheduler & maps.
A lot of our clients fall under the “local seo” blanket so it’s great for what it offers there.”
I actually had a chance to meet Fidan and other Search Atlas team members in person at the SEO IRL conference in Toronto in Fall 2025.
4. Writesonic
- Best for: SEO specialists, Content writers, small and mid-size businesses.
- Best feature: GEO, Chatsonic (AI agent), AI Article Writer.
- Pricing: Starts at $249/month for SEO, content, and AI search tracking + optimization. Comes with a 7-day free trial (no credit card needed). There’s also a free plan.
Writesonic is an automated SEO software platform. I’d heard a lot about it before and briefly tried it last year, but it didn’t really click for me at the time.
In January 2026, I decided to give it another shot and signed up for the Writesonic Professional plan at $249/month. This plan bundles SEO tools, content creation, and AI search tracking and optimization.
They do have cheaper plans, but those don’t include the AI features. And honestly, $249+ per month is a big commitment, so the tool really has to earn its place in my stack.
If Writesonic can genuinely support AI-driven SEO workflows, then it might be worth the price. That’s why I upgraded and jumped straight in.
I’ve been testing two automated AI workflows so far, and I want to share my early impressions.
Using SEO automation for content creation
I’ll give credit where it’s due: Writesonic has one of the most detailed content creation workflows I’ve seen.
It’s clearly designed to help you “train” the AI to create content that matches your exact needs and tone. Even if you plan to build your own AI SEO agents one day, this workflow is worth exploring.
The content process has 10 steps. It starts by choosing the article type (I picked a listicle) and how the AI should gather research.
Since I already create detailed briefs and know exactly what I want, I chose “Custom Resources.”
The workflow itself is very well thought out. If you don’t like the suggested outline, you can update it, even in terms of how deep each paragraph should go.
Once you fill in all your requirements, which takes a lot of time if you want decent output, the AI generates content while:
- Analyzing your links to understand your writing style
- Reviewing competitor content for your target keywords
- Adding internal links automatically (up to 15 per article)
- Including quotes based on your preferences
- Matching your tone of voice
- Optimizing the content for SEO
At the end, you get a full article with images. The images actually looked good, but they didn’t fit my brand, so I removed them.
Chatsonic also added quotes from competitor sites. Since those weren’t real expert quotes, I deleted them too.
My take on the content quality
Before generating content, I spent some time collecting my writing samples, sharing about 300 words on my background and experience, and writing a very detailed prompt for listicle creation.
Writesonic lets you upload all of this to customize the AI’s writing style, which is honestly a great feature. Still, I didn’t end up using the content. It just didn’t meet my personal quality bar.
That doesn’t mean Chatsonic is bad. My content quality standards are very high, and I know many people would be totally fine publishing the content as-is.
What this really tells me about Chatsonic and any AI SEO agent is this:
Everything depends on how well you train the AI to match your voice and include your real experience.
That’s it. Nothing more.
Yes, prompts matter. But what matters even more is helping the AI truly understand you before expecting strong results.
If you want to learn more about its functionality and performance, I’ve published a detailed review of Writesonic with my honest feedback.
Writesonic’s AI Search Visibility (GEO) tools
Writesonic also offers GEO functionality for AI search and visibility tracking.
Let me tell you that I had a rough start. The feature didn’t work for almost two weeks after I upgraded. I emailed the founder, but didn’t hear back. I also contacted support, but they don’t offer live chat, which was frustrating.
When support finally replied, they gave me a list of steps to fix things on my end. Interestingly, the feature started working right after their response, so it seems like the issue may have been on their side.
Here’s what you can do with the GEO feature:
- See how your site ranks in ChatGPT, Perplexity, and AI Overviews compared to competitors
- View AI citations and which of your pages are being cited
- Track brand mentions
- Use suggested prompts based on your niche or add your own
- Research prompts using the Topics & Prompts feature
- Track AI bot visits and errors using AI Bot Analytics (requires a WordPress plugin)
Overall, the AI search tracking is solid. I started by tracking citation share for my site, but the numbers don’t match what I see in other tools.
For example, Semrush shows 117 mentions and 179 cited pages worldwide. Writesonic shows just 1 cited page and 0 mentions. If this changes over time, I’ll update the article, but for now, something feels off.
If you’re curious about Writesonic, I’d recommend testing it before committing long-term. The 7-day free trial helps with that.
If you do try it, go straight for the Professional plan. The cheaper plans don’t include AI features, and that’s really where Writesonic is meant to shine.
5. Indexly
- Best for: Website owners to get their sites indexed faster, ecommerce websites, website owners on a budget
- Best features: Instant Indexing, Bulk Index, Page Inspect, LLM Indexing Toolset
- Pricing: Starts at $14 monthly for 3 websites, there’s also a 14-day free trial. To access Indexly’s LLM Indexability feature, try the Business Plan for $79 per month.
Many content creators assume their content becomes searchable right after hitting “Publish,” but that’s not the case.
If you’ve just launched a website or run an online store with multiple product pages, you may encounter a common issue: “Crawled – Not Indexed” or “Discovered – Not Indexed.”
This is why new URLs or product pages often remain unnoticed.
To keep track of your pages’ indexing status effortlessly, I recommend Indexly.
I use Indexly to get my website pages indexed faster (usually within hours).
Think of it as a VIP lane for search engines to quickly discover, index, and rank your pages faster than usual!
One standout feature is auto-indexing, which monitors all page statuses in a single report and automatically submits new pages for indexing. This way, you won’t miss anything—super convenient!
I believe Indexly is a game-changer for new sites that usually wait weeks to get indexed (like mine did).
It’s also ideal for ecommerce sites with many product pages, as some can get overlooked by web crawlers.
With the Instant Indexing report, for instance, I can spot problematic pages and use “Index” to instantly submit them if I think they should rank on Google and other search engines.
Indexly has recently introduced more tools for rank tracking, keyword analysis, and LLM indexability tracking. It’s a super helpful feature on top of everything else technical-SEO-related.
Even though it takes some time to get ranking updates, you can use Indexly to track impressions, clicks, CTR, and position for your target keywords.
I’m in touch with Deepti Masurkar, the founder of Indexly.ai. Here’s what she shared with me about the tool:
“Our goal is to improve your pages’ indexability. Additionally, keyword ranking and audit insights will help you refine content, reducing the risk of deindexing by Google.”
6. SE Ranking
- Best for: SEO professionals, in-house SEO teams, Small businesses, and mid-size SEO agencies.
- Best features: On-page SEO Checker, Content Marketing Tool with AI Writer.
- Pricing: Starts at $65 per month for 1 user seat, 5 projects and 500 tracked keywords. 14-day free trial, no credit card required.
SE Ranking has been in the SEO and digital marketing tool market for years. I’m sure you’ve stumbled upon SE Ranking while trying to find solutions for keyword research, site audits, rank tracking, and more.
Besides offering standard SEO toolkits, it has recently implemented a vast range of AI tools to help SEO pros build and implement effective strategies.
In particular, SE Ranking offers an AI toolkit that can help you:
- Analyze LLM results for your target keywords
- Track your brand visibility and positions among AI citations
- See how your competitors rank in AI-generated search results
- Analyze and track AI Overviews
Besides AI SEO and SEO automation features, SE Ranking offers a Content Marketing toolkit with two features: Content Editor and Content Idea Finder.
Similar to Semrush, you can check your content score against top-performing pages in the SERPs and get suggestions to make your content more optimized based on what works best.
On top of that, SE Ranking uses AI to analyze search results for your target keyword, estimate potential organic traffic, and give you reliable data and insights.
I’ve been familiar with SE Ranking for years and am currently using their 6-month plan. It’s a solid SEO platform, supported by 1,300+ reviews on G2 and an impressive 4.8/5 rating.
I’ve published an in-depth post about SE Ranking alternatives in case you are looking for other solutions.
Take a look at my detailed comparison of Semrush vs. SE Ranking if you are wondering which one is worth using.
7. Ubersuggest
- Best for: Small businesses, website owners, startups.
- Standout features: AI Search Visibility, AI Keyword Overview, AI Prompt Ideas.
- Pricing: $29/month for the Individual plan, or $290 one-time for lifetime access. The Individual plan includes one user and one website. Need more? Business is $49/month (7 sites, 2 users), and Enterprise is $99/month (15 sites, 5 users).
For $290, most AI SEO tools give you… maybe one or two months of access. With Ubersuggest, that same amount gets you lifetime access for one website.
I bought the Individual plan back in December 2024 because I wanted something affordable for my personal site. In February 2026, I’m still using it regularly for performance tracking.
In my opinion, Ubersuggest is a great fit if you’re running a small business or doing SEO for your own website and don’t want to burn money on expensive tools. Neil Patel bought Ubersuggest back in 2017 with the goal of creating an SEO tool that could actually compete with the big (and pricey) players.
Here’s what you get for $29/month or $290 lifetime:
- One user seat for one domain
- 150 searches per day
- Track 5 competitors
- Analyze competitors’ top pages and keywords
- Crawl up to 1,000 pages per domain
- Up to 20,000 keyword suggestions
- 200 content ideas
- Track up to 2,000 backlinks from the past 3 years
- See new and lost backlinks over the last 30 days
- Track 10 AI prompts per project
- Research up to 25 prompts at a time
- Track up to 125 keyword rankings
That’s a pretty generous plan for the price, if you ask me.
For some of my target keywords, Ubersuggest provides more accurate updates than Ahrefs, which surprised me. If you are interested in how Ubersuggest compares to Semrush, I shared my insights in the Semrush vs Ubersuggest post.
AI Keyword Overview
Ubersuggest introduced a new report called AI Keyword Overview, and it’s part of their keyword research tools. It’s similar to the regular keyword report, but with extra data focused on optimizing for AI search.
Since I’m on the Individual plan, I don’t get access to everything, like the AI summary. Nevertheless, the data I do get is still very useful.
In the example below, you can see which brands show up most often in AI Overviews and LLMs for keywords like “AI SEO.” You can also check the main sources AI uses when answering prompts.
Fun fact: my site, Self Made Millennials, showed up as the second source, which I was pretty happy about.
The report also shows the top 10 traditional search results, and interestingly, they don’t always match what AI Overviews and language models are surfacing.
AI Prompt Ideas
Another feature I find helpful is AI Prompt Ideas. It suggests relevant prompts based on your seed keyword.
I use it when writing FAQ sections for my blog posts. It saves me a ton of time because I don’t have to dig around elsewhere for prompt ideas.
For $29/month, you’re getting a pretty solid mix of SEO and AI-focused tools if you’re managing a website.
AI Search Visibility
Like other AI SEO tools, Ubersuggest also has an AI Search Visibility report that shows how your brand appears in AI search results. However, it works a bit differently.
On the Individual plan, you can track two broad topics. When I added “AI SEO,” Ubersuggest suggested a list of prompts to track. I’m not sure whether those prompts are real user queries or generated ideas, but I accepted them and moved on.
Here’s how prompt tracking breaks down:
- Individual: 2 topics, 10 prompts per topic, updated monthly
- Business: 3 topics, 15 prompts, updated biweekly
- Enterprise: 4 topics, 20 prompts, updated weekly
If you want to track more prompts, you can add 5 extra prompts per topic for $5/month.
Overall, I like the AI Visibility report. It’s clean, easy to read, and gives you a quick snapshot of how your brand is doing in AI search.
As of February 2026, you can only track prompts for ChatGPT, but Ubersuggest clearly shows that Gemini and Perplexity are coming soon.
You can also manually add your own prompts if you already know what you want to track, instead of relying on suggested ones.
I also checked Reddit to see what other users are saying. There are quite a few unhappy comments from the past year, and one in particular stood out as detailed and fair.
I actually agree with the general takeaway: Ubersuggest is “fine, not great.”
It works well for small teams and startups that want a decent AI SEO tool but aren’t ready to commit serious budgets yet.
I met Neil Patel at the Full Circle Conference in Toronto, April 2026, and asked him a question many SEOs are thinking about right now: Does traditional SEO differ from AI SEO?
His answer was simple, only about a 10–20% difference, and the fundamentals haven’t really changed. What stood out even more was his take on Google. It’s not going anywhere. Usage is still growing, and he expects it to remain one of the main discovery channels, right behind social media.
What has changed is how people search. Users now jump between multiple platforms, often six or more, before making a decision. They read, watch, compare, and validate across different channels. That means SEO can’t live on your website alone anymore.
To me, that “10–20% difference” is really about this shift. We’re moving from traditional SEO to something broader—showing up wherever your audience is already looking. Not just Google, but across platforms and formats.
8. OtterlyAI
- Best for: Solo marketers, hobby bloggers, startups, and small site owners who want to start tracking AI visibility without a large investment
- Pricing: From $29/month
- Free trial: 14 days
Otterly AI is one of the more affordable AI visibility tools on the marketю Not everyone is ready to spend $100–$300 per month just to test AI visibility, and this tool offers a much lower entry point.
For $29/month, you can track one domain using 15 prompts across major platforms like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, and Microsoft Copilot.
Despite the lower price, it still offers daily performance updates, which is something many more expensive tools don’t provide.
With Otterly AI, you can monitor brand mentions and citations across platforms such as ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Perplexity, Google AI Mode, Gemini, and Copilot. It also lets you analyze brand visibility trends over time, compare your presence against up to five competitors, track your average position across AI platforms, and export data or connect via API on higher-tier plans.
How AI SEO works
One marketer I really respect, Omid Ghiam, put it perfectly when talking about AI and SEO:
“AEO, AI engine optimization, matures as good SEO. But good SEO isn’t common!”
I was at the gym watching one of Omid’s videos when this hit me, and I knew I had to share it here. It’s something a lot of SEO folks and website owners miss completely.
Being visible in LLMs, AI Overviews, and AI Mode eventually comes down to doing SEO the right way — the way it should’ve been done from the start.
SEO was always supposed to be about making content that matches what people are actually looking for and gives them real value. Google just needed more time than we thought to fine-tune things, so quality, human-created content wins over generic stuff.
What actually matters for AEO, GEO, or whatever label you want to use, is the same stuff that’s always mattered for SEO:
- Fresh content
- High-quality content
- Schema markup
- Strong technical performance
- Meeting Google’s EEAT standards
There’s nothing groundbreaking here. The problem is that most people take shortcuts instead of doing SEO properly. And that’s exactly why opportunities still exist.
Semrush’s latest study on AI Mode reveals even more insights on the impact of AI on SEO:
- AI Mode and other LLMs pull data straight from Google’s top 10 results.
- Perplexity.ai matches Google’s top 10 domains in over 91% of cases! 🤯
- Roughly 92% of AI Mode answers show a sidebar with about 7 links. These links have a 51% domain overlap and 32% URL overlap with Google’s top 10 search results.
- Reddit appears in 40.11% of results across AI Mode, AI Overviews, ChatGPT, and Perplexity, often beating brand websites.
All this tells me is that Google still relies on someone’s content to answer people’s questions.
So where is all that information coming from?
From our content.
Which brings up the real question: How will Google choose which pages to recommend? 🤔
I’m convinced it all comes back to E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trust). I repeat it all the time because it’s more important now than ever.
As an SEO expert, I’m actually excited about the future of AI SEO.
It’s no longer just about ranking #1.
It’s about building trust so your content actually shows up when people search for answers.
I met JC, a Senior SEO Strategist at Tripadvisor, during the AI SEO conference in Toronto, and I loved how he summed up the future of SEO in the AI era:
“AI SEO comes back to the fundamentals.”
I couldn’t agree more, as long as SEO is done the right way, the way it always should’ve been done!
So if you want to take advantage of this shift, now’s the time to think about how AI can support your business. And one of the easiest ways to start is by using the right AI tools.
Can AI content rank?
Ahrefs’ study of 600,000 analyzed pages discovered that AI-generated content doesn’t hurt your Google rankings.
When content is genuinely helpful, matches what people are actually searching for, and is optimized properly, it can rank well no matter how it was created.
With AI tools, you can do more on your own without hiring a whole team. But we’re not at a point where AI can consistently create content that’s truly helpful and worth reading.
I honestly believe that it’s good that SEO becomes more personalized and companies are obliged to reveal who’s creating content. This way, I, as a user, make a decision whether their content can be trusted or not.
Google has clear guidance when it comes to AI-generated content on the web. If you haven’t read their statement, here’s the link to their article on “Google’s guidance on AI-generated content” and an excerpt from it:
“When it comes to automatically generated content, our guidance has been consistent for years. Using automation—including AI—to generate content with the primary purpose of manipulating ranking in search results is a violation of our spam policies.”
Basically, Google doesn’t care how you produce content if it’s helpful for people. However, using generated content purely for ranking manipulations is a serious policy violation.
Here’s something you can do right now: make sure your content lines up with E-E-A-T.
You’ve probably seen E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, and Trust) mentioned a lot lately. It’s not new, but it matters more than ever.
The goal behind these updates is pretty simple: Google wants to figure out which websites are actually trustworthy and run by people who know what they’re talking about.
If you’re an expert running a niche site, writing about what you truly know, staying active on social media, and getting quoted or mentioned on other sites — that’s a strong signal. It shows there’s a real person behind the content.
Because of that, Google is more likely to boost websites where it’s clear who created the content and why they’re qualified.
And yes, if you use AI SEO tools, your content can still rank… as long as it’s clearly aligned with E-E-A-T.
How to align content with E-E-A-T (my experience):
- You can add an author bio to your blog posts so readers (and Google) know who wrote the content and why they’re credible.
- Link to the author’s social media profiles or other platforms.
- Mention any awards, certifications, or recognitions you have.
- Credit content editors, if you work with any.
- Share your content on social media and ask your authors to do the same.
- Encourage authors to include case studies, real stories, and personal opinions.
These tips come from testing AI SEO optimization on my own site. I’ve also seen very similar advice shared by other content creators on Reddit, which tells me this isn’t just a one-off opinion.
E-E-A-T matters even more for Your Money, Your Life (YMYL) topics, like health, personal finance, insurance, and investing.
AI tools will unlikely help you create and optimize content for rankings if you operate in these niches since Google prioritizes content written by certified, real-world experts, and that’s not something AI can fake (at least not yet).
FAQ on AI and SEO
Wrapping up an article with an FAQ section is one of my favorite SEO strategies.
It helps you answer the questions people actually search for and gives your content a better chance of landing a featured snippet.
I often rely on AI agents to generate answers, but I always double-check and edit everything myself. It’s that sweet mix of AI support and real human writing.
What are AI SEO tools?
Artificial intelligence SEO tools are basically software that can help you rank higher not only on Google, but also inside LLMs like ChatGPT, AI answers, and AI Mode.
These tools can help you with many SEO-related tasks, such as keyword research, content optimization, SEO content writing, and technical SEO. Plus, some tools offer tips on how to boost your site’s performance in search results.
Some people are scared of AI tools because they worry AI might replace their jobs. In my opinion, this shift is already happening.
For example, one of my former bosses let go of a full-time copywriter because he felt her work wasn’t any better than what ChatGPT could produce. So he switched to AI-generated content instead. I’m sure other companies do the same.
Right now, not every job is being replaced, but the trend is changing fast. It’s something we all need to stay aware of.
If you’re in SEO, take a deep breath! SEO isn’t going anywhere as long as people continue using search engines.
However, search engine optimization has been transforming a lot with Google search generative experience (generative AI). So you, me, and every other SEO specialist need to stay updated and adapt as things evolve.
How does AI impact SEO?
As an SEO content writer, I’ve noticed how AI-generated content is taking over lately. A lot of companies and website owners seem to care more about sharing tons of content instead of making sure it’s actually good, and I have a feeling this trend isn’t going away anytime soon.
Relying too much on AI comes with some risks. For example, sites using mostly AI content could get hit hard by Google’s algorithm updates.
Another concern is that some websites might start seeing a decline in organic clicks and impressions now that AI Overviews are rolling out in over 100 countries.
The feature just launched in Canada on October 28th, 2024. I’m still testing how it works, but it already shows up a lot for informational searches. That could be a problem for websites that rely heavily on that kind of traffic.
How do you choose the right AI tool for SEO?
When choosing an AI tool for SEO, consider your specific needs and goals, such as content optimization, keyword analysis, keyword tracking, or backlink analysis.
For example, my main goal is to speed up content creation. That’s why I prioritize tools that help me accomplish this. Once the content is drafted, I can either optimize it manually for better rankings or use Semrush to gather keyword suggestions.
So, always start with a “Why?”
What are the best AI tools for keyword research?
The Semrush Keyword Overview report has a built-in AI functionality to help you research keywords your website can realistically rank for. It’s one of the best keyword research tools I’ve used.
How does Koala AI compare to Writesonic for automated SEO content writing?
Both Writesonic and Kola Writer AI can help you generate content with AI.
Unlike Writesonic, which has a 10-step detailed process to ensure your content is customized to your requirements, Koala AI only lets you customize the outline before generating content. However, Koala supports multiple different languages for content generation, while Writesonic can only help you generate content in English.
There’s also a huge difference in price. Writesonic is at least $249/month for its SEO + content + AI features. On the other hand, Koala starts at only at $9/month.
Are there any free SEO tools that incorporate artificial intelligence?
SE Ranking AI Visibility tool lets you check your domain’s AI visibility against competitors up to 5 times daily for free.
Ahrefs and Writesonic have plenty of free AI Writing tools.
Semrush offers a lot of SEO and AI tools as well as content generation tools.
How do you use AI for on-page SEO?
You can use LLMs, like ChatGPT, to generate meta titles, meta descriptions, and schema.org for a page.
LLMs can also suggest keywords related to your main topic that you can add to your content.
What should I consider when choosing SEO software with AI features?
I suggest checking whether you can track AI visibility without manually adding prompts, since that would be too much work.
It’s also very important to research prompts based on your keywords. This way, you’ll be able to optimize your content with questions your audience actually uses in LLMs.
I also suggest making sure your preferred AI SEO software can help you create optimized workflows, since managing everything manually is too much work.
Can AI help in creating more effective SEO content?
AI can help you create decent content only if you train it to do so.
In my case, I train AI tools with my blog posts. This way, AI SEO agents learn my personality and writing style.
What are the top AI tools for creating SEO-rich blog content?
Writesonic (a 10-step content creation process), Semrush Content toolkit, Koala AI, Frase, Surfer SEO, to name a few.
There are lots of tools for content generation, but none of them will create a helpful and unique content piece. Trust me, I’ve tried many solutions. The best you can do is train an AI on your personality and tone of voice, and edit the content manually before publishing.
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7 Responses
Hi Victoria, we have a very unique business and have had no luck and wasted a lot of money on broken promises to help promote our business. I would love to speak with you to see if it’s something you can work with
Hi Victoria,
I hope you’re doing well! I own a small backpackers’ lodge in Botswana, and I truly believe that SEO optimization could make a big difference in helping me gain the worldwide exposure needed to adapt and thrive in the evolving post-COVID tourism landscape.
That said, I’ve had my fair share of promises about great results in the past, but unfortunately, they didn’t deliver much. This has left me hesitant about exploring SEO solutions further, mainly due to a lack of knowledge and the fear of more unnecessary losses.
Would you be able to assist me in finding an optimal SEO solution? I’d really appreciate your expertise in navigating this and helping me make informed decisions.
Looking forward to hearing from you!
Best regards,
Hendrik
Hi Victoria, I run my website for Burnley Plumbing Supplies which did used to rank no1 in the early nineties. Now I am really struggling to understand what tools I need to use to get it ranking again. It’s a WordPress site with a woocommerce store. Is this something you could help with?
Hi Salim,
Thank you for your comment!
Could you please share the details over the email: victoria@website.apostechsolutions.tech
Thank you!
Best,
Victoria
Really enjoyed this roundup, Victoria — thanks for putting it together! 🙌 A few additional thoughts what I’m seeing in the SaaS/AI-SEO world:
* The distinction you made between tools that “do it” vs. those that “do it well” is huge. It’s not enough for a tool to generate content or suggestions — it must *understand* context and intent.
* One thing that’s truly under-leveraged: using AI tools not just to *generate*, but to *test prompt variations* across engines (ChatGPT, Perplexity, Bing Copilot) to see what style or framing the model prefers.
* Also, building out **entity reinforcement** across related content (support pages, FAQs, forum mentions) seems to accelerate surfacing in LLM-responses — even without massive backlink profiles.
* Finally, your take on E-E-A-T is so on point. In my work with SaaS brands, adding author credibility real examples/stories has helped content get picked up by answer-style prompts much more than generic pieces.
Curious: have you tried tracking which prompts your content is already showing in (versus which ones you *want*)? That mapping seems like the starting battle map for AI Search Optimization.
Great post — really helpful for folks looking to move beyond just “what tools” toward “how to win with them.”
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Hey Khadin! This is a really insightful comment. Context is everything when it comes to generating content.
I’m working on a tool called Hypertxt (hypertxt.ai) that learns about your brand/business before suggesting ideas or generating content. It uses personalized content templates to position your business as the ideal choice to potential customers. It also has a built-in keyword research tool for targeting high-intent, low competition keywords.
Would be interested to hear your thoughts if you give it a try 🤘
Appreciate the honest take on what’s actually working vs what’s just hype in AI SEO. I think the biggest shift happening right now is that traditional SEO metrics like keyword rankings are becoming less meaningful as more search traffic moves to AI-generated answers. What I’m seeing is that the sites getting the most AI citations aren’t necessarily the ones ranking #1 on Google – they’re the ones with the clearest, most authoritative content on specific topics. Having proper technical foundations matters too: making sure AI crawlers can actually access your content, having structured data in place, and maintaining fresh content. The tooling landscape for measuring AI search visibility is still pretty early stage but it’s evolving fast.