With the latest release of DeepSeek in China, the world experienced yet another AI-related shock. The news has suddenly made it clear to everyone that the path to advanced AI can be much shorter and cheaper.
The intensified AI competition sent shockwaves across every sphere of our lives, including digital marketing and SEO. The pressure to learn AI SEO tools and applications has reached new heights. After all, AI is the main driving force behind search engine progress and the indispensable skill that SEO specialists must learn to stay competitive.
To help you maintain a competitive edge, we’ve reviewed nine trending AI SEO tools to use in 2025. Mastering them will give you an advantage and a reliable safeguard against losing your job to merciless digital marketing automation.
AI-Powered Keyword Research & Content Optimization
Much of what we do in SEO revolves around keyword research. For instance, optimizing website content for higher search engine rankings is impossible without thorough keyword research. It was like that 20 years ago, and it’s doubtful that it will change in the next decade.
As of the start of 2025, several SEO tools boast impressive AI power and can help you with researching keywords.
Surfer SEO
Among the rival AI tools for SEO research, Surfer SEO stands for its abundant AI integration. It’s the tool you should master first if you want to boost your resilience as an SEO specialist for what is coming – a shifting focus toward generative search optimization (GEO).
The latter is named after GPT (generative pre-trained transformers) or the latest large language models, like ChatGPT and DeepSeek.
In particular, Surfer SEO leverages machine learning and natural language processing (NLP) to analyze SERPs and provide precise recommendations.
Below are the key features of Surer SEO:
- Keyword Research – based on SERPs analysis and up-to-date rankings, Surfer SEO utilizes AI to generate user intent-driven keyword suggestions.
- SERP Analyzer – analyzing the to-ranking competitor SERP, the tool suggests targeted improvements to website content.
- Grow Flow – an AI-powered assistant that helps you with daily SEO tasks, as well as with overall SEO strategy.
Surfer SEO’s intelligent automation capabilities allow for easier workflow and predictive SEO – a highly sought-after feature that is sadly lacking in many competitor tools.
There is one significant bottleneck in Surfer SEO, though – off-page SEO capabilities. Surfer SEO tends to prioritize on-page research and lags behind on backlink analysis and some other off-page tasks.
Frase
Frase seamlessly integrates AI-assisted writing with SEO research, making it a powerful AI-based SEO tool for content marketers looking for end-to-end solutions.
Unlike other AI SEO tools that focus solely on keyword analysis or content generation, Frase strikes a perfect balance between the two. It allows users to quickly move from keyword research to optimized SEO articles.
Key features:
- AI-Powered Research – even in the free version, Frase can analyze top-ranking content and relevant SERP data, giving you plenty of content insights.
- Automated Topic & Title Generation – with this feature, Frase helps challenge the readers with provoking and engaging article titles and overcome the fear of the “write for us section” on any guest posting website.
- AI Writing & Editing – assists with writing, rewriting, and improving content for best readability and enhanced engagement.
What also makes Frase stand out is its ease of use. The recent 2025 update simplifies the entire SEO content creation process, making it intuitive even for beginners. The developers call it a “repeatable content creation process” — we simply call it addictive.
There is always a fly in the ointment, sadly. In the case of Frase, it’s double-fold: the limited grammar-checking functionality (when using its AI engine for content writing) and not a very functional free-trial version.
NeuronWriter
NeuronWriter is a relatively new player in town. It features advanced NLP (natural language processing) algorithms, making it a capable assistant for digital marketing automation specialists researching long-tail keywords. Such keywords are often based on users’ natural language queries and can better match with user intent.
Key features of NeuronWriter:
- NLP analysis in SERP – it’s able to quickly locate the intent behind user queries and provide actionable insights into competitors’ results in SERPs.
- Internal & External Linking Suggestions – if you are in need of link-building, NeuronWriter should be your top choice.
- AI-Assisted Content Optimization – helps you optimize your content, including topic ideas, title and headline suggestions, structure, and keyword placement.
The downsides are a rather steep learning curve (complex UE interface), limited AI-writing capabilities, and keyword placement suggestions that always require human oversight. Well, no tool is perfect, after all.
AI for SEO Automation & Site Auditing
The current stage of AI, often characterized as a narrow AI, brings automation to many SEO processes. It’s not full autonomy, as we have yet to see the emergence of agentic AI by 2026, but a sufficient degree of automation to perform routine SEO operations, such as website and content auditing.
Meet the powerful AI SEO digital marketing automation tools. If you’re accustomed to using Chat GPT and SEO links, you will find the tools below even more helpful in tackling everyday SEO tasks.
SEMrush AI Writing Assistant
Previously criticized for the lack of AI functionality, SEMrush didn’t want to fall behind for long in the AI revolution. This is why it came with a handy add-on – AI Writing Assistant.
The SEMrush’s AI Writing Assistant is seamlessly integrated into the broader SEMrush ecosystem, but primarily focuses on the process of content creation/writing.
Here is what the assistant is capable of:
- SEO Score Analysis – Can evaluate content in real-time, focusing on keyword optimization, text readability, originality, and absence of plagiarism.
- Topics and structure suggestions – The built-in AI engine suggests relevant topics based on keywords and industry choices. It can also make outlines.
- Google Docs & WordPress Integration – Can nicely integrate with your favorite content platforms, whether Google Docs or WordPress.
The limitations of SEMrush AI Writing Assistant stem directly from its benefits. The main concern is the imperfections of AI content writing, i.e., its lack of originality. So, if you rely too heavily on AI in writing and editing your text, you risk losing out on SEO quality and ranking lower in SERPs.
Alli AI
Alli AI is an ideal AI-based SEO tool for established businesses and large enterprises looking to automate their complex marketing processes. The tool relies on AI to handle all technical, on-page, and off-page SEO tasks, including link-building and real-time content improvement suggestions.
The tool requires minimum human oversight, as its AI engine is designed to handle most functions autonomously. Its self-learning algorithms continuously develop to align with the best SEO and search engine practices.
The key features of Alli AI are:
- Bulk SEO Editing – an automated process of content optimization across multiple pages simultaneously, saving SEO specialists time and effort.
- Technical SEO Fixes – the tool spots and corrects UE bottlenecks, crawl errors, broken links, and other site optimization issues.
- AI-Powered Link Building – replaces manual outreach with automated one, acquiring backlinks and improving domain authority.
However, there are some other things about Alli AI that you should take with a grain of salt. For example, its excessive automation in content creation and link-building can result in poor SEO performance over time. This is because the current state of AI tools for SEO is not good enough to strategize and conduct long-term planning in general.
Rank Math
Rank Math represents a collection of AI-powered plugins for WordPress and an integration module with Google Search Console, all in one place.
Once you install it on your computer, you can instantly access various SEO-focused modules for local SEO, schema markup, SEO image-generating module, sitemap, and others.
Here is what Rank Math can do:
- Automated Internal Linking Suggestions – runs a complete site audit and suggests ways to optimize internal links (along with relative URL management tools).
- Real-Time SEO Analysis – users can run on-demand or scheduled content analysis for SEO.
- Google Search Console & Analytics Integration – keyword research results and analytics insights right at your fingertips on WordPress.
The multitude of modules and integration features are not without drawbacks. The key ones are occasional performance issues (on slower PCs), overwhelming to learn for beginners, and reported compatibility issues with some page builders and caching plugins.
Read Also: Collaboration Tools for Developers-Why are they Important?
AI-Powered Backlink & Competitor Analysis
Backlinks are as indispensable in SEO as veins are in a living organism. Their primary function is to transfer authority across domains and web pages. In SEO terminology, this value is called link equity or link “juice.”
Modern AI tools can automate SEO tasks related to link-building. Some also feature powerful competitor analytics, as backlink analysis usually starts with evaluating how your competitors perform in this domain.
Link Whisper
Many people don’t even realize how much untapped internal linking potential their websites hide until they run specialized AI SEO software. Link Whisper is one of such software tools. It quickly audits your website for broken and outdated internal URLs and poorly optimized anchors.
The benefits of using Link Whisper include higher website usability and better search rankings, as search crawlers pay much attention to the indexability of a website.
Link Whisper stands out for the following features:
- Bulk Link Editing & Management – effortlessly add and manage internal links on your website with AI-powered suggestions in live mode.
- Smart Anchor Text Optimization – Link Whisper’s algorithms suggest optimal anchor text usage, enhancing keyword usage and website SEO.
- Orphaned Content Detection – identifies content with poor linking utilization and structure and provides suggestions to fix the issues.
Despite its utility, Link Whisper is not without limitations. To start off, it’s not suitable for all-around link-building SEO strategies, as external or absolute URLs are not part of its functionality.
Additionally, it is as good as the latest AI models are, meaning that it has a limited contextual understanding, and not all of its linking suggestions fully grasp semantic relationships like a human would.
SE Ranking
If versatility is your priority in AI SEO tools, and you are not afraid of learning new stuff, then SE Ranking is your candidate. It is equally capable of effective link-building, competitor analysis, and many other SEO functions.
The good news is that the amount of manual operations you’ll have to do with SE Ranking is next to zero. It utilizes AI algorithms in keyword optimization, identifying broken links, building new ones, and helping you craft perfect SEO-optimized content.
The best features include:
- Competitor Research & Domain Analysis – give it your competitor names, and the tool will run a comprehensive SEO strategy analysis, including top-ranking keywords, backlinks, and even PR campaigns.
- Backlink Analysis & Monitoring – have a full overview of your backlink profile at any given moment, plus insights into their impact on ranking.
- Website & Technical SEO Audits – monitor the “health” of your on-page and technical SEO, including website design, missing meta tags, broken links, and indexing issues for better search ranking.
If you are entirely new to AI for SEO applications, SE Ranking would not be your optimal choice due to its rather steep learning curve. Additionally, its backlink database is not as extensive as that of famous competitors like SEMrush and Surfer SEO.
Moz AI Tools
Moz has traditionally been a trusted brand in SEO. With the spread of AI technologies, the company decided to be a part of the race and started implementing AI add-ons across the platform. This enabled Moz to bring a new level of intelligence and automation to SEO.
Moz AI Tools empower every single aspect of search engine optimization, from keyword research and link-building to competitor analysis and SEO content optimization.
Key features of Moz AI tools:
- AI-Powered Keyword and Link Explorers – utilize the best AI algorithms to power keyword strategies and step up link-building.
- MozBar AI Assistance – real-time AI assistance when browsing the Internet, displaying SERP metrics and page authority scores.
- Spam Score Detection – assesses the health of backlinks and offers optimization suggestions in real-time.
The downsides of Moz AI tools are not the most competitive pricing (kudos to the famous brand name) and not fully automated AI features like with Frase and Surfer SEO.
The Bottom Line
To be successful at SEO in 2025, you must learn relevant tools and software. However, learning everything in digital marketing automation at once is not the best approach. Suffice it if you pick a few simple tools that best fit your current needs and learning capabilities, then gradually walk your way up to more advanced and complex ones.
Never stop scanning the SEO world for new AI solutions that offer more intelligence and simpler interfaces. The new player in town is the so-called Generative Engine Optimization (GEO), and whichever AI tool addresses it first will dominate the market.
If you are looking to hire a remote development team or developers on contract, look no further. At GraffersID, we make your vision our mission. With talented developers on board, we assure you that there will be no gaps in the outcome. Let’s partner together and start growing!
