AI Won't Save Your SEO. But It Might Help.
Most "AI SEO tools" are wrappers around ChatGPT with a markup. Some AI applications actually help. Here's how to tell the difference.
The AI Content Warning
Mass-producing AI content is a short-term play with long-term consequences. Google's Helpful Content Update specifically targets sites with "content created primarily for search engines."
AI can assist your content creation. AI shouldn't be your content creation. The sites getting hammered are the ones that thought they could scale AI content without human input.
Claude
Not an "SEO tool" - a general AI assistant. But the best one for content work. Better at nuance, less prone to hallucination, follows instructions better than GPT for long-form content. Use it for research synthesis, outline creation, editing, and technical documentation. Not for generating publishable content.
General AI Assistants
More useful for SEO work than most "AI SEO tools."
Claude
USE ITBest for content work. Synthesizes research well, handles long contexts, writes in a more natural style. Use for: content briefs, outline generation, competitor content analysis, technical explanations, meta description variations. Don't use for: publishable first drafts.
HubSpot AI Search Grader
SITUATIONALCheck how your brand appears in AI search results across ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini. See visibility, sentiment, and competitor comparisons in AI-generated answers.
Gemini
SITUATIONALGoogle's AI. Has direct access to Google Search, which is useful for quick research. The search integration means more current information. Quality is catching up to competitors.
Keyword Clustering & Research
Where AI actually adds value - processing large keyword lists.
Keyword Insights
USE ITAI-powered keyword clustering and content brief generation. Actually useful for grouping thousands of keywords by search intent. Saves hours of manual clustering work. The briefs are a starting point, not final product.
AI Content Generation
Use with extreme caution. These can help or hurt depending on how you use them.
SEO.ai
SITUATIONALAI writing with SEO optimization built in. Better than raw ChatGPT for SEO purposes. Still requires heavy editing for quality. Use for drafts and outlines, not final content.
Scalenut
SITUATIONALAI content platform with keyword research and optimization. Combines content generation with SERP analysis. Output quality varies. Treat as first draft generator, not publisher.
Byword
DANGERBuilt for "programmatic SEO" - mass AI content generation at scale. This is exactly what Google's Helpful Content Update targets. Can work short-term, but you're building on a foundation that Google is actively trying to destroy.
Koala
DANGERAnother mass AI content generator. Same warning as Byword. These tools attract people looking for shortcuts, which means Google is highly motivated to detect and penalize this content.
SEO Automation
For developers automating SEO workflows.
Playwright
USE ITBrowser automation framework. Not AI, but essential for automating SEO tasks: crawling JavaScript sites, taking screenshots, testing rendering. Modern, fast, and reliable.
Puppeteer
SITUATIONALGoogle's browser automation library. Chrome-only but tight integration. Playwright is generally preferred now, but Puppeteer is still solid.
Selenium
SITUATIONALThe original browser automation. Cross-browser support, but slower and more complex than Playwright. Use if you have existing Selenium infrastructure. New projects should use Playwright.
How I Actually Use AI for SEO
What works:
- Research synthesis - Feed it competitor content, get summaries and gaps
- Outline generation - Get structure ideas, then heavily edit
- Meta description variations - Generate 10, pick and edit the best
- Technical explanations - Explain complex topics in different ways
- Keyword clustering - Group large lists by intent
- Schema generation - Generate structured data from content
- Hreflang help - Complex international SEO configurations
What doesn't work:
- Publishing AI content directly without heavy editing
- Mass content generation (Google is coming for this)
- Expecting AI to understand your unique business context
- Trusting AI for facts without verification
The AI Content Arms Race
Google isn't anti-AI. They're anti-garbage content. The problem is that most AI content is garbage because people skip the editing step.
The sites winning with AI are using it as a tool, not a replacement. They generate drafts, then add expertise, experience, and editorial judgment that AI can't provide.
The sites losing are the ones mass-producing AI content thinking they've found a shortcut. There are no shortcuts. There are only tools that make the work faster.