Best SEO tools for 2025: AI to the rescue?

In some industries, you can get by with just a laptop and a clever mind or skilled hands. But in content marketing, you can’t do your work without the most effective SEO software and tools.

In some industries, you can get by with just a laptop and a clever mind or skilled hands. But in content marketing, you can’t do your work without the right SEO tools.

To help our customers in their journey to create and distribute their content, we asked and reviewed the SEO tools that real SEO experts use and how they use them. For our own blog and across many of our clients, we compiled the absolute best of the best SEO tools that exist today. Here’s what we found:

• StoryChief - All-in-one content marketing platform with SEO tools
• SEMrush - Best SEO tool for BULK research without limits
• Ahrefs - Great for tracking performance and results over time
• Screaming Frog - Best for technical SEO
• Keywords Everywhere - Cheap keyword research right in the SERP
• Perplexity - AI SEO assistant
• RankIQ - Best SEO content analysis to rank higher

📊 Comparison Table

Effective SEO software for content marketing

1. StoryChief

StoryChief is a content marketing platform that helps businesses create, distribute, and analyze content. StoryChief includes all the essential SEO tools digital marketers use to optimize their stories: keyword research, SEO content editor, readability and word count SERP analysis, Google search console integration, and more.

StoryChief offers a seamless Google Search Console integration and a robust Content Audit tool to enhance your website's performance. By connecting to Search Console, you can access key insights such as ranking keywords, top pages, and search metrics, helping you understand how your site performs on the Google SERP.

The Content Audit tool provides a thorough site analysis to discovr on-page seo issues, improve website content and drive better website optimization. It evaluates your target keywords and provides detailed reports on how well your content aligns with your keyword strategy. This tool also helps you assess competitors' websites, enabling competitor analysis to identify valuable fresh keywords and content gaps.

StoryChief is a helpful tool for conducting a site analysis, refining your SEO strategy and boost your Google search results.

Here are some examples of the SEO reports you can find in StoryChief:

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If you want to optimize your content for SEO while killing it at content promotion, then you need to try StoryChief. Bring SEO, writing, review, publishing, and promotion together in one beautiful platform.

2. Frase

Frase is an AI-powered content optimization tool designed to help you create SEO-friendly content quickly. It builds outlines and briefs based on current search results (SERPs), helping writers match what Google already ranks.

Key Features:

• Topic modeling: Suggests subtopics and questions to include.
• SERP analyzer: Evaluates top-ranking pages for any keyword.
• AI content summaries: Summarizes competitor content for faster ideation.
• Content brief builder: Automatically generates briefs based on SERPs.
• AI writing assistance: Helps speed up drafting and editing.

Pros:

• Very user-friendly and fast for content creation.
• Strong at understanding what’s ranking and why.
• Speeds up writing and planning process for SEOs and content teams.

Cons:

• Lacks broader SEO functions like backlink tracking or technical audits.
• Content quality may still require human refinement.

3. MarketMuse

MarketMuse is a content intelligence platform that helps you plan and optimize content using in-depth topic analysis. It focuses on building topical authority by showing what to write, how deep to go, and what you're missing.

Key Features:

• AI-generated content briefs: Detailed outlines based on competitive data.
• Content scoring: Grades your drafts for topic coverage and quality.
• Gap analysis: Identifies content opportunities and weak spots.
• Competitive audit: Compares your content against top performers.

Pros:

• Excellent for comprehensive, long-form content strategy.
• Helps build topical authority in competitive niches.
• High-quality, AI-assisted suggestions.

Cons:

• Expensive compared to many alternatives.
• Learning curve for non-SEOs.

4. BuzzSumo

BuzzSumo is a research and discovery tool that identifies trending content, analyzes performance, and finds influencers. It's ideal for content marketing and social media planning.

Key Features:

• Trending content finder: Spot viral articles and videos.
• Influencer discovery: Identify key voices in your niche.
• Topic research: Find content gaps and opportunities.
• Content alerts: Get notified when certain topics or competitors trend.

Pros:

• Excellent for social media and viral content strategies.
• Strong influencer database for outreach.
• Easy to research what's working now.

Cons:

• Not built for technical or on-site SEO.
• Less useful for keyword ranking or backlink analysis.

Most effective all-in-one SEO software

5. SEMrush (web)

SEMrush is an all-in-one SEO tool suite and enhances online visibility and provides marketing insights to SEO marketers. It offers comprehensive tools for SEO, PPC, SMM, Keyword Research, Competitive Research, PR, Content Marketing, Marketing Insights, and Campaign Management.

Overall, SEMrush helps in monitoring and managing organic rankings, developing compelling PPC campaigns, general keyword research, and search engine optimization efforts.

It also provides key data on competitors' paid and search strategies, offers keyword and link building suggestions, and generates relevant site audits with critical issues that need attention.

Pros:

• All-in-one SEO/PPC/competitive research suite
• Bulk keyword & domain analytics
• Excellent site auditor

Cons:

• High cost at scale
• Pricing can overwhelm casual users

Features:

• Keyword Magic, Organic Research, Backlink Checker
• Position Tracking
• Site Audit & Traffic Analytics

6. Ahrefs (web)

Ahrefs is an all-in-one SEO toolset that helps grow search traffic and optimizes websites for SEO. It crawls the web, stores vast amounts of data, and makes it accessible via a user-friendly interface.

As a complete suite, Ahrefs offers tools like Keywords Explorer for relevant keyword ideas and traffic estimations, Rank Tracker for tracking desktop and mobile rankings, Site Audit for analyzing your website for common SEO issues, and Alerts for keeping you notified of new & lost backlinks, web mentions, and keyword rankings.

Finally, Ahrefs also provides a lot of free SEO tools like a Meta Description Generator that uses a language model to generate human-like meta descriptions, which can improve website ranking and click-through rates on search engine result pages.

Pros:

• Extensive backlink index & domain explorer
• Robust keyword research + rank tracking
• Comprehensive site audit tool

Cons:

• Relatively expensive for small teams
• Search volume data may not be exact

Features:

• Keyword Explorer (volume, difficulty)
• Rank Tracker with geo-segmentation
• Content Explorer for trending content

7. Majestic

Majestic is a dedicated backlink analysis tool known for its proprietary metrics like Trust Flow and Citation Flow. It's great for understanding a website’s link profile.

Key Features:

• Trust Flow & Citation Flow: Custom metrics to judge link quality and quantity.
• Historic Index: See backlink history over time.
• Topical Trust Flow: Understand link relevance by topic.
• Link context: Shows where links are placed within content.

Pros:

• Deep backlink analysis capabilities.
• Useful for evaluating link-building prospects.
• Strong historical backlink data.

Cons:

• Lacks on-page and keyword tools.
• Interface can feel outdated compared to newer tools.

8. Linkody

Linkody is a straightforward backlink monitoring tool that helps you track gained and lost links, check anchor texts, and manage your link-building efforts.

Key Features:

• Backlink monitoring: Track live, lost, and new links.
• Anchor text analysis: Understand how sites are linking to you.
• Email alerts: Get notified of changes to your backlink profile.
• Disavow file generation: Simplifies spam link removal for Google.

Pros:

• Very simple and clean interface.
• Affordable option for small teams.
• Good for monitoring link-building campaigns.

Cons:

• No keyword or content optimization tools.
• Limited analytical depth compared to Ahrefs or Majestic.

Related article: 6 Best Rank Checker Tools: Free, Tested, and Reviewed

Effective software for technical SEO

9. Screaming Frog (web)

Screaming Frog is a website crawler that allows SEO experts to fetch key onsite elements to analyze from an SEO perspective. It's particularly famous for its SEO Spider tool, a highly flexible and efficient tool for quickly analyzing, auditing, and reviewing a site from a technical SEO perspective. It provides insights into potential SEO issues, such as broken links, duplicate content, or missing meta descriptions.

Pros:

• Powerful technical crawler
• Detects broken links, duplicates, metadata issues
• Free version for up to 500 URLs

Cons:

• Paid license required for full crawl
• Technical interface may intimidate beginners

Features:

• Crawl visualization
• GA/Search Console integration
• Supports custom extractions

10. Google Search Console (GSC)

GSC is Google’s own free SEO tool that provides vital insights about your site’s performance in search. It’s a must-have for every site owner.

Key Features:

• Performance reports: Clicks, impressions, and rankings by query/page.
• Index coverage: See which pages are crawled or have issues.
• Core Web Vitals: Page speed and UX metrics.
• Manual actions & security issues: Google alerts for penalties or hacks.
• URL inspection tool: Real-time crawl/indexing status.

Pros:

• 100% free and directly from Google.
• Essential for monitoring visibility and crawl issues.
• Integrates well with other Google tools (GA4, Data Studio).

Cons:

• No backlink comparison or keyword discovery tools.
• Limited to your own site only—no competitor data.

Grab your website’s free SEO analysis today. Easily monitor your website's SEO performance, gain valuable insights, and receive actionable recommendations to increase your traffic.

11. ContentKing

ContentKing monitors your site in real-time for technical SEO issues, providing instant alerts and historical tracking of changes.

Key Features:

• 24/7 monitoring: Detects changes or errors immediately.
• Change tracking: Logs every page and content update.
• Collaboration tools: Assign tasks and track SEO issues across teams.
• Audit reports: Instant overview of technical issues.

Pros:

• Ideal for large, frequently changing sites.
• Real-time alerts save time and prevent SEO losses.
• Great for agencies or in-house teams.

Cons:

• Doesn’t offer keyword research or backlink data.
• Can be overkill for smaller websites.

12. Sitebulb

Sitebulb is a desktop-based technical SEO auditing tool with a focus on visualization and usability. It helps SEOs find site structure issues and optimization opportunities.

Key Features:

• Website crawl visualization: Understand internal linking and site structure.
• Structured data testing: Validates schema markup.
• Internal linking analysis: Spot orphan pages and weak navigation.
• Audit prioritization: Clear recommendations with severity scoring.

Pros:

• Easy to interpret results with great visuals.
• Powerful technical insights, especially for developers.
• Affordable one-time pricing model.

Cons:

• Desktop-only; not cloud-based or real-time.
• Requires a local machine to run crawls.

Effective software for SEO keyword research

13. Keywords Everywhere (chrome extension)

Keywords Everywhere is a chrome extension for keyword research. This SEO tool shows users how often certain keywords are searched for, how competitive these search queries are, and what people are searching for around those topics. This tool helps SEO professionals to optimize their content around relevant keywords, improving their visibility in search engine results.

14. Serpstat

Serpstat is an all-in-one SEO platform offering keyword research, site audits, backlink analysis, and rank tracking at a lower price than top-tier tools.

Key Features:

• Keyword database: Discover new ranking opportunities.
• Backlink checker: Evaluate your or competitors' link profiles.
• Site audit: Find on-page SEO issues.
• Rank tracking: Monitor keyword performance over time.

Pros:

• Budget-friendly, especially for small businesses.
• Solid mix of tools in one dashboard.
• Frequent updates and support.

Cons:

• Smaller data set than SEMrush or Ahrefs.
• UI/UX can feel less refined.

15. Keyword Hero

Keyword Hero helps solve the “(not provided)” problem in Google Analytics by matching organic keywords with your traffic data.

Key Features:

• Keyword attribution: Matches GA traffic with search queries.
• Intent grouping: Categorizes keywords by user intent.
• Conversion tracking: See which keywords drive results.
• GA4 integration: Works seamlessly with new Analytics setup.

Pros:

• Unlocks hidden keyword data in GA.
• Useful for conversion-focused SEO.
• Automates keyword-to-page connection.

Cons:

• Needs Google Analytics access and setup.
• Not a complete SEO tool—complementary at best.

16. Ubersuggest

Ubersuggest is a beginner-friendly SEO tool offering keyword research, backlink tracking, and site audits. Created by Neil Patel, it aims to be affordable and easy to use.

Key Features:

• Keyword planner: Discover new keywords and content ideas.
• Site audit: Technical SEO insights.
• Backlink analysis: View your and competitors' links.
• Traffic estimation: Get an overview of top-performing pages.

Pros:

• Very affordable/free tier available.
• Easy for beginners to navigate.
• Good for small websites and startups.

Cons:

• Data isn’t always as fresh or deep as premium tools.
• Limited advanced features or integrations.

17. AnswerThePublic

AnswerThePublic visualizes keyword suggestions and questions people ask in search engines. It’s designed to help generate content ideas, especially for blogs and FAQs.

Key Features:

• Question-based keyword mapping: Organizes queries by how/why/what.
• Visual keyword wheel: Easy-to-read topic breakdown.
• Export options: Download data for planning.
• Language and region filters: Tailor results to target markets.

Pros:

• Ideal for brainstorming blog topics and FAQs.
• Unique, intuitive visual interface.
• Great for understanding user search intent.

Cons:

• No tracking or ranking features.
• Not ideal for competitive or technical SEO

Best AI assistant tool for SEO

18. Perplexity Pro (AI assistant)

Perplexity AI is a versatile AI tool that can significantly enhance your SEO efforts. It performs well compared to other AI writers and AI chatbots.

One of Perplexity's strengths is its ability to create detailed, SEO-friendly content outlines. By providing Perplexity with a topic or keyword, it can generate a well-structured outline complete with relevant headings, subheadings, and talking points, saving significant time in the content planning process.

While ChatGPT is a powerful language model, Perplexity has several advantages that make it better suited for SEO tools:

1. Real-Time Web Access: Unlike ChatGPT, Perplexity can access and analyze live web data. This ensures your SEO insights are always up-to-date and relevant.
2. Claude 3 Model: Perplexity's Pro plan utilizes the advanced Claude 3 model, which provides more accurate and nuanced outputs compared to ChatGPT. This leads to higher quality SEO recommendations.
3. Source Citations: Perplexity always provides links to the sources it uses to generate responses. This transparency is crucial for SEO, as you can verify information and cite authoritative sources in your own content.
4. Detailed Answers: For complex SEO queries, Perplexity tends to provide more comprehensive and actionable answers compared to ChatGPT. This level of detail is invaluable when developing an SEO strategy.

Bonus: 7 Powerful ChatGPT Prompts to Create SEO Content Faster

In summary, Perplexity AI is an effective SEO software in the SEO professional's arsenal. By leveraging its content outlining capabilities, real-time web access, advanced language model, and detailed outputs, you can supercharge your SEO efforts and achieve better results in less time.

While ChatGPT remains useful for certain tasks, Perplexity is the clear choice for SEO in 2025.

Related article: 6 Best AI Humanizer Tools for Content: Free, Tested and Reviewed

19. RankIQ (web)

RankIQ is an AI-powered SEO tool designed to help bloggers and other online content creators to rank on the first page of Google. It provides a list of low competition, high traffic keywords for a specific blog category. It also gives an SEO report card for each blog post, showing what's been done correctly and what needs improvement.

Bloggers use this RankIQ to research content on the top 10 search engine results on Google and to see what topics they should write about. It also has a handy keyword library and a SEO title analyzer.

Key Features:

• Keyword Library: Pre-vetted keyword suggestions in specific niches.
• Content Optimizer: Grades your draft based on SEO quality and suggests improvements.
• SEO Report Card: Highlights what’s done well and what needs fixing in your blog content.
• Title Analyzer: Optimizes blog titles for both CTR and keyword relevance.
• Top 10 SERP Analysis: Shows what topics top-ranking pages cover.

Pros:

• Excellent for bloggers, solopreneurs, and content creators who want SEO without complexity.
• Saves time by surfacing easy-to-rank keyword ideas.
• Optimizes existing posts for higher rankings.
• Simple, intuitive interface—no SEO background required.

Cons:

• Niche-focused—less useful for large sites or enterprise SEO.
• Limited technical SEO tools (e.g., no site audit, backlink tracking).
• Keyword data is curated, so not as customizable as traditional keyword research tools.

🔗 Outreach & Link Building Support Tools

20. MozBar (Chrome Extension)

MozBar is a free browser extension from Moz that gives instant SEO metrics while you browse. It displays critical data like Domain Authority (DA), Page Authority (PA), link metrics, and keyword analysis directly on Google SERPs and individual webpages—making it a handy tool for quick audits, competitor research, and backlink vetting.

Key Features:

• Domain Authority (DA) & Page Authority (PA): Instantly view how authoritative a site/page is.
• SERP Overlay: Compare DA/PA, link counts, and spam scores across search results.
• Link Metrics: See number of backlinks, followed/nofollowed links, and link types.
• On-page analysis: View page elements like title tags, H1s, meta descriptions.
• Custom Searches: Use filters for advanced Google search operators.

Pros:

• Instantly accessible SEO insights while browsing or searching.
• Ideal for link prospecting and vetting guest post opportunities.
• Lightweight and beginner-friendly tool.
• Integrates with Moz Pro for deeper insights if subscribed.

Cons:

• Many features are locked without a Moz Pro subscription.
• Doesn’t offer real-time backlink or keyword tracking.
• Data may lag behind more robust tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush.

21. Hunter.io

Hunter.io is a popular email discovery and verification platform, built for link builders, outreach specialists, and digital PR teams. It helps find verified email addresses from websites, making it much easier to reach out to potential backlink partners or guest post opportunities.

Key Features:

• Domain Search: Find all publicly available emails associated with a domain.
• Email Verifier: Check whether an email address is valid and safe to contact.
• Campaign Management: Send cold outreach emails and track replies.
• Lead Generation: Create prospect lists based on filters like company size, industry, or domain.
• Chrome Extension: Extract emails from visited websites with one click.

Pros:

• Highly accurate email discovery with verification built-in.
• Saves hours during link prospecting and PR outreach.
• Useful campaign automation features without needing a full CRM.
• Easy integration with Gmail and Google Sheets.

Cons:

• No SEO-specific metrics (e.g., DA, backlink profile).
• Free plan is limited in monthly searches.
• Requires separate tools for email content creation and full campaign tracking.

The most effective SEO software for you

Choosing a single “best” SEO tool is impossible since you need different categories of SEO software to get your job done. Choosing the right software will depend on your niche, the level of your competition, your budget and the size of your team.

• Whether you’re a small business owner or managing a larger enterprise, tools like StoryChief, Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, Yoast SEO, and Deepcrawl offer excellent solutions for site crawling, improving keywords, and website auditors.
• With tools such as HubSpot Website Grader and AWR Cloud, you can evaluate page quality, page speed performance, and website accessibility, ensuring your site meets the highest standards.
• For competitor analysis tools, platforms like SpyFu and Semrush (even with a free Semrush account) allow you to track backlink profiles, analyze high-buying intent keywords, and understand user behaviors. These tools also offer robust backlink analysis and link-building tools to strengthen your domain authority.

Whichever tool you pick, StoryChief can help you seamlessly integrate SEO, writing, review, publishing, and promotion all in one place. Start your free trial today and experience the power of a platform that not only optimizes your content for search engines but also ensures it resonates with your audience.

Tired of playing the SEO guessing game? Access real-time search performance insights, identify decaying content, and discover new content opportunities for increased organic traffic. Try it free.

For a more detailed overview and specific SEO tools, take a look at our SEO tools articles below:

• Tools For SEO agencies
• Marketing tools for agencies
• Best content planning tools
• Social Media Management Tools for Agencies
• Screenshot tools