The 10 Best AI SEO Tools in 2026

AI summaries have become a hot topic among SEOs, who are concerned that AI is taking up more space in the SERPs.

Search engine optimization is changing, but it’s not becoming obsolete. You just have to adapt. AI SEO tools incorporate AI features to help with content writing, keyword clustering, implementing technical fixes on your website, tracking your performance in AI tools, and much more.

I searched for the best AI SEO tools and put them through their paces. This article highlights everything that stood out.

1. Surfer

Surfer offers a complete suite of search engine optimization tools for traditional "blue-link" SEO as well as AI-powered search optimization.

I like the integrated workflow, which means you don't have to take any extra steps to optimize content for AI-powered answer platforms. You can conduct research, optimize content, and track results for both SERPsand AI results all in one place.

Since we know that tools like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity rely, at least in part, on Google's search index, it makes sense to optimize content for traditional search engine results.

Surfers Recommendations are an easy way to identify and plan topics that users might enter into AI response platforms.

You want to make sure your website covers relevant topics, since AI tools rely heavily on a website’s credibility within a niche. Surfers Topical Map does an excellent job of showing the areas where you already have authority.

In this way, covering related topics improves the chances of appearing in both traditional and AI-generated answers.

You can select keywords based on their difficulty level and search volume. Here, for example, is a selection of topics for which the website below can rank.

Surfers AI Tracker also helps track visibility in AI-generated results in three ways:

• The mention rate shows how often your brand is mentioned
• The average position shows your own average ranking
• The Visibility Score is an overall metric that indicates the brand’s appearance and ranking in AI-generated results
  
  

You can also monitor competitors and other sources that appear alongside your own pages. And see how your brand appears on the most important LLM platforms, including ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Google's AI responses.

What excites me the most is the ability to track prompts that users enter on platforms like ChatGPT .

You can add prompts you'd like to appear for and track your AI visibility for those keywords.

Surfers' Optimization Score metric helps you navigate the use of entities and information to improve your chances of appearing in AI responses.

I like the fact that you don't have to buy a separate tool for other SEO tasks, since Surfer handles everything on a single platform.

2. Writesonic

Writesonic is an AI-powered SEO/GEO platform that helps users rank in both traditional search and on various LLMs.

Its suite of tools includes the SEO AI Agent, a chat-based LLM that integrates with 10 popular marketing and SEO tools to assist with SEO strategy.

For example, if you have a specific keyword you want to rank for but aren't sure how to proceed, you can ask the AI agent to create a strategy.

He then uses Ahrefs (or another tool of his choice) to identify top-ranking pages, conduct competitor analysis, and create topic clusters using other features of Writesonic. The result is a comprehensive content strategy, including a breakdown of the current SERP landscape for the keyword, supporting content clusters to target, and more.

Writesonic also offers an AI writing tool that leverages the platform's existing content optimization features to create an article from scratch.

There are two approaches: You can provide step-by-step instructions on how the article should be structured, which competitors should serve as references, and what writing style should be used. Or you can provide a simple breakdown that includes only the topic, the research method, and the article type, and let the tool handle the rest.

3. Semrush

Semrush has long been a favorite among marketers looking for a platform that covers everything related to search engine optimization, from keyword research to technical audits.

One of the most important AI features is Semrush Copilot, the platform’s built-in assistant that makes common SEO tasks easier to handle. For example, it can flag technical issues, identify toxic backlinks, highlight traffic drops, uncover keyword gaps, and much more. Copilot also provides an explanation of exactly why a problem is a problem and how it affects the website, in case you’re unsure.

As soon as Copilot flags a problem, you can jump directly to the linked function to fix it and set things right.

Semrush also offers the Visibility Overview tool, which shows how your website performs in ChatGPT and AI overviews. It provides a breakdown of your overall AI visibility score, how often your brand is mentioned, and how often it is cited as a source.

You can also view the exact prompts you're ranking for, see the response generated by the LLM, and filter results for both AIOs and ChatGPT. To add custom prompts that you want Semrush to track, navigate to the "Prompt Tracking" tab.

4. SE Ranking

SE Ranking offers traditional SEO tools such as keyword research, rank tracking, and backlink profile tracking, but has also integrated many AI features into its platform.

This includes the Google AI Overview Tracker, which shows whether your website ranks in AIOs, along with metrics such as the overall AIO presence percentage, the proportion of mentions or links in AIOs, how often you’re cited in the top 3, and for exactly which keywords.

You also get a clear chart where you can filter this information by a specific time period, plus the option to sort by:

• AI Overview Page: The total number of keywords that trigger AIOs
• Organic-AI Overlap: The percentage of the top 20 organic pages that also appear in AI overviews

SE Ranking also offers an AI results tracker that monitors performance across ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity. To use it, you manually add the prompts you want to track, and SE Ranking regularly checks how well you appear in AI search results.

The catch, however, is that the scope is limited to the number of prompts entered.

5. Phrase

Frase is primarily a content optimization tool that also offers many other useful AI-powered SEO features.

This includes the AI Writer, which analyzes SERP results for a specific keyword to show how competitors structure their content. It then generates an outline for your own article using these insights.

You can then use Frase's AI features to generate a complete article. It draws on its SERP analysis and outline to create a draft that you can refine. You can also set content guidelines (such as brand voice, tone, and style) to determine how the AI-generated content turns out.

You can then optimize your content by incorporating the suggested keywords. The more keywords you add to the article, the higher the phrase score will be.

Frase also offers a GEO optimization tool, though it is still in the beta phase. And since this is such a new field, the tool may not be the most reliable, so it’s best to treat the suggestions for what they are—and not as gospel.

Frase also offers several other notable AI-powered SEO tools, including meta title and meta description generators. It also provides other general SEO features, such as the ability to track website performance and discover new content opportunities by connecting the tool to Google Search Console.

6. Ahrefs

Ahrefs has long been one of the first tools marketers think of when it comes to SEO software, so it’s no surprise that they were quick to incorporate AI into the mix. You can use AI on the platform for keyword research, content creation, brand tracking, technical SEO, and localization.

Keyword research allows you to describe the website’s niche and target audience. Ahrefs’ AI then generates a list of keyword ideas along with their associated metrics. A SERP analysis also provides deeper insights into search intent and what readers are looking for on a page.

In addition, when targeting a global audience, Ahrefs can provide keyword alternatives in over 40 languages and dialects, along with their SEO metrics.

Ahrefs' AI also flags poor SEO practices on the website and helps fix them. For example, if meta descriptions or titles are too long, it identifies them and suggests alternatives. It also addresses technical issues such as broken links and offers the option to automatically redirect them to a URL of your choice.

Ahrefs also provides access to other AI tools for SEO, including Brand Radar, which tracks website performance across Google’s AI-powered search results and various LLMs such as ChatGPT and Perplexity.

7. MarketMuse

MarketMuse uses AI to help create SEO-optimized blog posts, and it also offers various other tools to help you rank higher in search results.

The tool performs a SERP analysis and helps you assess what your competitors are doing right. This includes MarketMuse’s AI Score, which shows how well-optimized the content is, along with other useful details such as the number of headings, images, and internal or external links.

The tool also helps highlight important terms and keywords for the content, along with how often they appear. You can also see the exact ranking pages from which MarketMuse obtained this information, as well as a score indicating how it rates them.

In addition, MarketMuse offers other general SEO features that aren't necessarily tied to its core AI suite, including keyword research and keyword clustering tools.

8. Alli AI

Alli AI is another tool on the list of AI-powered SEO tools. It helps users identify and fix technical SEO issues directly through the platform.

It scans the website for on-page issues such as missing H1 tags, untitled links, missing meta descriptions, and more. You can apply the fixes with a single click. If you also want to make changes directly on the website, you can use the live editor, which lets you edit titles, descriptions, or anything else without touching the backend.

Alli AI also offers an AI search visibility engine that makes the website more accessible and searchable for LLMs. If the website doesn't work without JavaScript, or if security systems like Cloudflare block AI crawlers, you might miss out on citations in AI chatbots. This tool helps solve these problems.

Other AI features on the platform include a schema generator and an automatic internal linking tool. Using the schema markup feature, Alli AI scans the website to generate relevant schema markup that helps search engines better understand the website’s content. If existing markup is present, the tool suggests improvements.

The internal linking tool works in a similar way: It identifies missed opportunities for internal linking on the website and recommends additions.

9. Rankability

Rankability uses AI to help create content that has a high chance of reaching the top positions in search engine rankings. Its features include tools for optimizing existing content, generating detailed content briefs, and even writing complete articles using the platform’s AI.

First, it performs a competitor analysis to identify search intent and target keywords and to get an idea of what’s ranking. You can access further details about these competitors via the “Competitors” tab, including their ranking positions and rankability scores.

It then uses this information to generate a content brief.

You can have the AI generate SEO-optimized content or do it manually. The Content Optimizer provides suggestions on which keywords to include and generates a rankability score.

The more terms you add to the article, the higher the score. You'll also see details about the total word count of the content and its readability score.

Rankability also includes a keyword research feature that lets you find terms related to your primary keyword, along with metrics such as search volume, CPC, and keyword difficulty. You can also use it to monitor existing pages on your own website. Simply enter the primary keyword and the page URL, and Rankability will display the current score as well as the recommended score.

10. ChatGPT

Although ChatGPT isn't a traditional SEO tool, it can still be a great resource for SEO efforts. One of its most basic uses is to let the tool generate content ideas.

If you only have a rough idea of the content strategy you want to use, ChatGPT can help smooth out the rough edges and provide actionable insights on how to move forward. For example, here I asked the AI for advice on a hypothetical content strategy for a shoe affiliate website.

It generated a list of related cluster keywords that I could use to build out the suggested main pillar page. However, it’s important to keep in mind that ChatGPT isn’t an SEO tool, so it doesn’t provide metrics like search volume or keyword difficulty. I’d recommend combining it with dedicated keyword research tools to validate its suggestions and confirm whether they’re worth pursuing.

The next best thing ChatGPT does is write content. You provide the tool with detailed guidelines on the tone and style to use, the target audience, the search intent behind the keyword, how the article should be structured, and any other relevant information. ChatGPT has a dedicated Canvas mode for this use case, which makes it easier to edit a specific section.

But here, too, they're missing the SEO aspect. Surfer solves this with an extension that integrates its features directly into ChatGPT, allowing users to include relevant keywords and track the content's SEO score.

Conclusion

Between Google's AI summaries, ChatGPT quotes, and all the other large language models (LLMs) scouring the web, SEO has undergone a major shift over the past year.

The good news? There’s no need to panic. The tools discussed here prove that SEO isn’t dead—it’s just evolving. These platforms help you optimize content for search, track AI visibility, and identify technical SEO issues that you might not have caught manually.

You should choose a tool that covers both traditional search and AI optimization, because that’s the direction we’re heading. The sooner you adapt, the better positioned you’ll be when AI search becomes even more dominant.