I tried a dozen AI-based SEO tools: Here are the 6 best for 2026

The market for AI SEO tools is rapidly expanding. A new platform seems to pop up every week, promising to automate your entire content strategy. However, the output quality can vary, with some tools producing content that requires significant editing.

Identifying a tool that genuinely enhances the workflow from research to a publish-ready draft requires careful evaluation. We have experience with this process.

I’ve tried several SEO tools, but most either have bugs, lack important features, or are way too complicated to use effectively.

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That's why I wrote this article. I personally tested over a dozen platforms to identify the tools with the most practical features. We'll walk through the top 6 tools for everything from content creation to optimization, starting with the AI blog writer we built at eesel AI. It's the same tool that helped grow our own traffic from 700 to 750,000 daily impressions.

What are AI-based SEO tools?

What exactly are AI-based SEO tools? They're platforms that use artificial intelligence to automate or just make SEO tasks a lot easier. And it goes way beyond just writing blog posts.

These tools can help with everything: keyword research, competitor analysis, content optimization, and even technical site audits. What's really important now is that they're also key for tracking your visibility in the new AI answer engines, like Google's AI Overviews and chatbots like ChatGPT.

They've come a long way from the old content spinners. Now, they're smart enough to analyze search engine results pages (SERPs), understand search intent, and help with something called Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). That’s just a fancy way of saying you’re optimizing your content so AI models are more likely to find and cite it in their answers, as illustrated in the graphic below.

Look for tools that go beyond just content generation and focus on actionable SEO insights like keyword clustering, on page optimization, and competitive analysis. If you want to boost your visibility on AI powered platforms specifically, MentionDesk has some features around optimizing for answer engines and AI search that you might find helpful.

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How we chose the best AI-based SEO tools for this list

I want to be upfront about how we picked the tools for this list. We didn't just read marketing pages; we actually used them.

Here’s what we looked for:

• Real-world use: We put these tools to the test on our own content projects. We wanted to see how they performed in a real workflow, not just in theory.

• End-to-end workflow: We favored tools that handle more than one part of the SEO process. The idea was to find platforms that take you from research to a finished article without needing ten different subscriptions.

• Quality of output: This was a big one. We assessed whether the AI-generated content was close to publish-ready or required extensive rewriting.

• AI visibility features: With AI search becoming so important, we looked for tools that help you track and optimize for platforms like ChatGPT and Perplexity. In today's world, this is a must-have.

Comparison of the top AI-based SEO tools in 2026

Here’s a quick side-by-side look at the top platforms we tested. Each tool has its own unique strengths, from all-in-one powerhouses to specialized content generators that get you from idea to published in minutes.

The 6 best AI-based SEO tools I tested in 2026

After spending way too much time testing over a dozen platforms, here are the six that really stood out. They were easy to use, powerful, and, most importantly, delivered tangible results.

1. eesel AI blog writer

The eesel AI blog writer is designed for generating complete, publish-ready SEO content. It aims to turn a single keyword into a complete, SEO-optimized blog post with all the media included. The main difference is that it’s not just a drafter; it's a publisher. We actually built it to solve our own content bottleneck, and it's the tool we used to grow our traffic from 700 to 750,000 daily impressions in just three months. It automatically scans your website to get your brand context, creates assets like images and infographics, and even pulls in social proof like Reddit quotes and relevant YouTube videos. You end up with content that's actually readable and ready to rank in both traditional search and the new AI answer engines.

Pros: Its ability to produce a nearly publish-ready article in one go, with all the assets included, saves hours of formatting, finding images, and embedding videos. It’s also optimized right away for both SEO and Answer Engine Optimization (AEO). Cons: It’s laser-focused on blog content, so you won't find features for technical audits or backlink analysis.

Pricing

• It's completely free to try.

• The paid plan is simple and affordable at $99 for 50 blog posts.

2. Surfer

Surfer has earned its reputation as a go-to tool for on-page optimization and AI search visibility. Its Content Editor is fantastic; it analyzes the top-ranking pages for your keyword and gives you real-time feedback on keyword usage, article structure, and word count. One of its standout new features is the AI Tracker, which lets you monitor your brand's visibility on AI answer platforms like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity. This makes it a great tool for managing your presence in both traditional and AI-driven search.

The newer thing I’m keeping is Meridian. Not as a replacement for classic SEO, but because more of our traffic now starts in AI answers. Seeing where the brand even shows up in ChatGPT or AI Overviews has been eye-opening. It changed how we prioritize content.

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Pros: Surfer gives clear, data-driven advice for improving existing content or creating optimized new drafts. The way it combines workflows for traditional SEO and AI search is a significant advantage. Cons: Adhering strictly to its suggestions can sometimes lead to content that is over-optimized and may not read naturally. Its keyword research tools are more focused on content optimization than comprehensive market analysis.

Pricing

• The Essential plan starts at $99/month.

• The AI Tracker is available as an add-on starting from $95/month or is included in their higher-tier Scale plan.

3. Semrush

Semrush is a comprehensive SEO platform, and they've done a solid job weaving AI features into their already huge platform. The AI Visibility Toolkit is built to help you track your brand in AI search across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Google AI Overviews. They also have Semrush Copilot, an AI assistant that gives you practical recommendations on everything from technical problems and keyword ideas to what your competitors are doing. It’s a genuine all-in-one solution for teams that want everything in one place.

Pros: Semrush's biggest strength is its comprehensive functionality. It combines extensive traditional SEO data with new AI insights, reducing the need for multiple tools. Cons: The platform can be complex for beginners. Also, its AI content generation isn't as focused on creating a complete, media-rich article as some specialized tools.

Pricing

• Semrush One, which includes the AI features, starts at $199/month.

4. Writesonic

Writesonic focuses on fast content creation and Generative Engine Optimization (GEO). It calls itself an "AI Search Visibility Tracking & Optimization Platform." Its main selling point is a sharp focus on Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), a term they came up with for optimizing for AI platforms. The AI SEO Agent is pretty neat, connecting with tools like Google Search Console and Semrush to give you data-backed content ideas and track your brand's visibility in AI search results, all from one dashboard.

Pros: Writesonic is great for whipping up first drafts quickly and has solid AI visibility tracking. Its real-time data integrations are a big plus for creating timely content. Cons: The first draft can sometimes feel a bit generic and usually needs a good amount of editing to fit your brand's voice and personality.

Pricing

• While there are lower-tier plans for basic writing, the Professional plan with GEO features starts at $199/month when billed annually.

5. Frase

Frase is a huge time-saver for rapid research and GEO content optimization. It quickly scans the top SERP results for your keyword and builds a detailed content brief, pulling in competitor headings, common questions, and topics you should cover. Lately, Frase has added GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) features, which give you scores for AI platforms like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Claude. This helps you write content that's more likely to be cited in AI answers.

Pros: Frase is fantastic at automating the boring work of manual SERP analysis. Your team can create solid outlines in minutes, not hours. Its clean interface is also easy to get the hang of. Cons: Its strategic advice isn't as deep as the big all-in-one platforms, and its AI drafts may be less detailed than those from other generators.

Pricing

• You can start with a free trial.

• Paid plans start at $38/month when billed annually.

6. Search Atlas

Search Atlas is an all-in-one platform for automated SEO fixes with a cool AI assistant called OTTO SEO. What's interesting about OTTO is that it doesn't just recommend SEO fixes, it can also deploy them to your site (with your permission, obviously). It handles a lot, from technical audits and content optimization to tracking your LLM Visibility (their term for GEO) in AI-generated answers.

Pros: The biggest plus here is the ability to automate a ton of SEO grunt work, like fixing broken links or updating meta descriptions. That's a huge time-saver. It's also easier on the wallet than paying for several different tools. Cons: As a newer tool, users may experience a learning curve, and its data sets are continually expanding.

Pricing

• Plans start at $99/month.

Tips for getting the most out of your AI-based SEO tools

It doesn't matter which tool you pick if you don't use it right. Here are a few tips to make sure you're actually getting your money's worth.

• Don't skip the human touch. Think of AI as an assistant, not a replacement for a strategist. Always review and tweak AI-generated content to add your own expertise, experience, and brand voice. This is what E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) is all about.

• Give it good context. The quality of what you get out depends on the quality of what you put in. Use tools that let you feed them brand guidelines, audience details, and specific angles. The eesel AI blog writer does this for you by automatically analyzing your website to learn your style.

• Use AI for more than just writing. Get these tools to help with brainstorming topic clusters, creating outlines, summarizing competitor research, and even writing all your metadata.

• Focus on structure. AI search engines love well-structured, scannable content. Use your AI tool to generate clear headings, bullet points, and FAQ sections that make your information easy for AI models to grab.

  

  The best practice suggests to employ AI for giving thoughts and drafts that would then be manually refined and cross-validated with actual search behavior. AI can make the process of SEO faster but still, it is strategy and relevance that determine the ranking.

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For a more visual walkthrough, check out this video which reviews several popular AI SEO tools and how they can be used in a real-world workflow.

This video reviews five of the best AI-based SEO tools, focusing on how they can be used for keyword research and content creation.

The best AI-based SEO tools are the ones that get content published

While all these tools have unique strengths, the whole reason to use AI for SEO is to get high-quality, optimized content published on your site, consistently.

A common challenge with many tools is that their drafts require significant editing before they are ready for publication. The real win is finding a tool that actually gets you from an idea to a published article without all the back-and-forth.

This is why we built the eesel AI blog writer. It’s not meant to give you a rough draft; it’s meant to generate complete, media-rich articles that are ready to go live. We used it to scale our own content and traffic, and you can try it for free to see how it works for you.