The top 8 AI tools that will elevate your SEO game

The last year has seen loads of exciting developments when it comes to AI. With all these developments, we’ve seen new tools powered by AI pop up left and right. Tools that can help with loads of different things. From writing to keyword research to fact-checking, AI seems to be at home in all markets. The rise of this phenomenon can no longer be denied. Let’s take a look at 8 great AI tools that can help you when it comes to working on your SEO!

We’ve listed 8 tools that can help you with your SEO in different ways. But I do want to note that it’s important to maintain a healthy balance between utilizing AI and your input. AI can help us a lot, especially with getting started and saving time on easy tasks. But keep in mind that authenticity and trustworthiness are important for your audience and SEO. Don’t let AI do everything and take your unique point of view out of the equation. Don’t underestimate your importance in this process and make sure to always stay critical of the output. Check the tone of voice, check the facts and rewrite whatever needs to be rewritten. In the end, this human element will be what gets you to the top of the search results.

1. ChatGPT (Plus)

Let’s start with a tool you’ve probably already heard of: ChatGPT. This is a text-based AI model that interacts with you in a conversational way to answer any question you have. Or fulfill any content request you have. This means that the range of what ChatGPT can help you with is quite wide. Although it is limited to text-based answers, you can ask ChatGPT a lot of different things and it will always try to help you with your request.

Another great feature is the possibility to tweak your request along the way. So if you ask ChatGPT to write an introduction for a blog post on a specific topic and the answer it comes up with is too long, you can then ask it to shorten it and it will do so. If you’re not happy with the tone of voice, you can ask it to change that. Or if you don’t like it at all, you can ask ChatGPT to rewrite it altogether. You can also give it prompts to instruct the tool more specifically and get a better result from the start. This allows you to keep tweaking the text until you’re satisfied with it.

There is a free version of ChatGPT, which in itself is already a powerful tool. There is also a paid option that unlocks a few additional features and faster response times, ChatGPT Plus. This can be interesting if you use ChatGPT quite a lot and have more complex requests that you need help with. But if you’re just getting started, we would recommend trying out the free tool first.

2. Jasper

Another AI tool that you can use to produce content is Jasper. But it is more focused on producing marketing content like blog posts, social posts, email and website copy. Where ChatGPT targets a wider audience, Jasper focuses on people working in marketing and entrepreneurs who do their marketing themselves. Utilizing the AI tool works pretty similarly, where you put in a request and Jasper provides you with content specifically created for a newsletter or post (or something else).

It also allows you to upload a style guide or examples of your content so that it can learn your preferred tone of voice. In addition, you can also give it information about your company like the products or services you provide, your audience and even a campaign brief. Jasper uses all of this to understand the goal of the content you’re requesting and to create content that is on-brand and detailed. What’s also cool about this tool is that it also comes in the form of a browser extension. Allowing you to use it while you’re working on your content in WordPress, Gmail and other places.

It’s good to know that Jasper works with a monthly (or yearly) subscription plan, so this is a paid tool. They have a few options you can check out and a free trial if you want to give it a try before subscribing.

3. Keyword Insights

A vital but time consuming part of SEO is keyword research. That’s why one of the AI tools we’ve picked is focused on that specifically. You can use Keyword Insights to find new keyword ideas and cluster them. By filling in a keyword it gives you loads of related keywords and their search volumes. Keyword Insights also helps you categorize keywords by clustering them properly and it allows you to upload other files to get those keywords in there as well. It gives you a nice overview of all your keywords per cluster and all the relevant data to figure out which ones you want to work on. The tool actually uses an algorithm to quickly show you which keyword is the best choice at the moment.

After you’re done with that, you can actually use the writing assistant to get started with writing. What’s cool about this writing feature is that it gives you an overview of the top headings of other websites that rank high on that keyword. Or it can even generate an outline for you. Which can be great inspiration to get started with the structure of your text. It also helps you write the text by suggesting relevant content for the article you’re working on.

Keyword Insights is a paid tool, that has several pricing options depending on your needs. A few of those options also enable team sharing, which comes in handy when you have multiple people working on your SEO. It has loads of interesting features to do keyword research in an organized way. But a very important sidenote is that it can be tempting to let the tool also do all the writing for you. Which might result in a text that is far from original and authentic and will not get you that top result in Google. As it will be mainly based on what’s already out there. So make sure to check out the keyword features, but be mindful of how you use the writing assistant.

4. Semrush SEO Writing Assistant

Another writing tool powered by AI is the SEO Writing Assistant you can find in Semrush. This tool analyzes your text in regards of SEO, readability, originality and tone of voice. It gives you suggestions based on this analysis and also comes with a few features to optimize your text, such as the Rephraser, Compose and Ask AI. What’s great about the Originality section is that this helps you create content that’s not like everyone else’s, something you risk when using AI in your content creation. This can help you figure out whether you need to change your angle and it also checks your content for plagiarism.

Another reason we’re mentioning this tool is because Semrush in general is a great tool for SEO. So having this option in there is a great addition to their set of tools. The SEO Writing Assistant is part of Semrush’s Content Marketing Platform, which you get access to with two (out of three) of their subscriptions. You can also sign up for a free trial to give it a whirl.

5. MarketMuse

When looking at AI tools that can help you elevate your SEO, MarketMuse is another one we want to mention. In short, MarketMuse is content planning and optimization software that comes with loads of SEO and automization features. The idea is that it puts everything you need in one place and automates content audits for you. Helping you suggest what you need to work on next instead of guessing or speculating what does or doesn’t work.

It can help you do keyword research, plan your content and write. All based on personalized data, as they analyze your website and also look at competitors in your field. Which can save you loads of time and help you make informed decisions. Without having to switch between different tools and documents or sheets. It’s all in our place. As most AI tools discussed so far, MarketMuse works with a monthly subscription plan and gives you a few options to choose from.

6. Originality.ai

The name might already be an indicator of what this AI tool can do for you. Originality.ai helps you fact check your text and also checks it for plagiarism. Being trustworthy is an important factor in SEO right now, and will probably remain important, so you need to get your facts straight. And make sure you’re not accidentally committing plagiarism, which is becoming a bigger risk in these AI-heavy times. Funnily enough, it also comes with an AI Content Detector which is pretty good in detecting content written by AI. Even if it has been paraphrased.

Originality.ai comes with a monthly subscription option and a pay-as-you-go option which gives you a bunch of credits to get started. Unfortunately, there is no free trial, but if you go to their website you can find loads of information (and some examples) of how the features work. There’s also a demo of their fact checker if you want to give that a try!

7. Grammarly

Grammarly is a tool that’s quite popular with the writers here at Yoast. It shows you when you’ve made an error when it comes to spelling and grammar, and works on different platforms and in different places. Which is very helpful when you write a lot of online text. Now that Grammarly also comes with the power of AI, it can do even more for anyone who writes online content.

Grammarly now comes with a generative text feature, which allows you to give it a prompt and get a draft right away. It also comes with a rewrite feature to change the tone of voice of your piece of content. You can also teach it what your personal tone of voice is, so that it can give you specific suggestions that fit your communication style. Lastly, it can help you with brainstorming and outlines by giving suggestions based on your task at hand. It’s a neat little AI tool that you can use on the go.

Grammarly has a free plan, which gives you access to their basic AI assistance and 100 AI prompts per month. If you need more and want access to more prompts and advanced features, they have a few paid monthly subscription plans.

8. Yoast SEO & WooCommerce SEO

Naturally, I can’t bring this list to a close without mentioning our own AI features. Not too long ago, we added an AI feature to Yoast SEO Premium that generates SEO titles, meta descriptions and social snippets for you. It looks at the content that’s already there and with the click of a button it gives you a few options. Saving you the hassle of doing it manually and providing you with relevant titles, meta descriptions and social snippets that are all aimed at increasing your click-through rates.

The AI title & meta description generator is part of our paid plugin, Yoast SEO Premium. Which comes with a yearly subscription plan, but an affordable one. As we want to make our features available to as many people as possible.

We’ve also added this feature to Yoast WooCommerce SEO a short while back. This helps you make your products stand out on the search result page and get those clicks to your website. So if you have an online shop and are looking to optimize your products pages, it’s worth taking a look at that product as well.