
- Surfer SEO — AI Assistant for Search Engine Optimization
- Diib — useful analytics powered by Artificial Intelligence
- CanIRank — AI-based website optimization advisor
- Hotjar — universal platform for website analysis
- Ahrefs — full-featured SEO platform with AI assistance
- Is it necessary to pay for AI services
Search engine optimization, despite significant changes in algorithms, remains an effective way to attract potential customers to a website. However, renting hosting, buying a domain name, and installing a CMS is not enough — you still need to collect keywords, develop a site structure, write optimized texts, create a link-building strategy, and constantly analyze results.
The best AI services for SEO can simplify these tasks by automating routine processes, saving time, and allowing you to focus on developing new and improving existing strategies for promoting your web project. Today, you will learn about the 5 best artificial intelligence platforms that should be used for both work and personal projects.
Surfer SEO — AI Assistant for Search Engine Optimization
Surfer SEO is an online service that analyzes Google search results for your keyword query and gives recommendations on how to write or optimize content to get into the top search results. Users get SEO analytics, machine learning, and AI copywriting all in one product. The interface is available in English, but the service itself supports the Ukrainian language.
The main features of Surfer SEO include:
- Content Editor — analyzes the finished text and provides suggestions on the optimal number of keywords, the best structure, and ideal heading lengths;
- Auto Internal Links — automatically adds relevant internal links;
- Content Audit — identifies reasons why an already published page is not in the top results, offers advice on improving structure, headings, and keywords;
- Keyword Research — searches for relevant keywords based on SEO value;
- Surfer's AI Detector — a reliable way to check whether a text written by a human contains AI-generated content;
- Surfer AI Humanizer — rewrites texts created with AI services to make them sound authentic.
These are just some of the capabilities of Surfer SEO — a functional tool for marketers who want to improve search engine optimization. However, you’ll have to pay a lot for these features: $99 per month for tracking 200 pages on a website, writing and optimizing 30 articles, and instantly creating 5 optimized articles.
And for website owners who want to track up to 1000 pages and write and optimize up to 100 articles per month, the price is $219 per month. There is no free plan — only a 7-day money-back guarantee.
Diib — useful analytics powered by Artificial Intelligence
Diib is a platform that uses artificial intelligence to analyze your website and provide personalized recommendations for improvement. All you need to do is register and connect analytics, and the AI algorithms will analyze various aspects of the web resource and deliver detailed reports to better understand its strengths and weaknesses.
Important features of Diib include:
- Answer Engine — personalized tips based on your site’s data;
- RankGuard — your web resource’s keyword rankings and opportunities to improve positioning;
- Daily Health Score — a daily assessment of site health based on speed, security, and SEO metrics;
- personalized goals — tasks for improving search engine optimization and increasing traffic, taking into account the specifics of your project, industry, and target country;
- competitor analysis — tracking up to 6 competitors with detailed data about their keywords and backlinks.
You can start using the platform in just a few clicks: go to the homepage, enter your website address, and click “Next”. On the new page, enter your name, email, and create a password. At the next step, if your web resource already has Google Analytics connected, you can click “Import from Google Analytics”, or I'll do it later to upload the data later. We choose the first option.
After granting permissions, the system will load the data and additionally analyze your web resource, then redirect you to your dashboard. On the main page, you will see data about site health, number of active users, and pageviews per user. Below that — results of the technical audit with the main parameters.
One of the most useful tools is “Keyword Explorer”. Go to the corresponding section, enter a keyword and select a country.
The system provides not only data about the keyword you entered but also a list of similar keywords, along with frequency, difficulty, and cost-per-click for each one.
Important! We did not find an option to save or download the discovered keywords. This limitation may exist only in the free plan, but even in the official Diib documentation, the ability to export keywords via “Keyword Explorer” is not mentioned — only “My Keywords”.
A distinctive feature of Diib AI is its quite useful free version. Right after registration, you get a growth plan (daily recommendations), monitoring (unusual traffic drops, spammy backlinks, etc.), RankGuard (1 keyword ranking check in Google), research of 100 keywords per month, backlink analysis, performance comparison with competitors, daily health score, and the ability to track up to 30 web resources at the same time.
The paid version of Diib AI gives unlimited access to the growth plan, monitoring, keyword explorer, backlink analysis, and other tools. And it costs only $14.99 per month, which is significantly less compared to other mentioned SEO tools.
CanIRank — AI-based website optimization advisor
CanIRank is an SEO platform that uses artificial intelligence to provide recommendations for improving your website’s visibility in search engines. Unlike platforms that simply collect data and give general advice, it offers specific actions to achieve better results, taking into account the characteristics of your web project.
CanIRank offers the following features:
- Personalized keyword research. The AI analyzes competitors and identifies the best keywords for your web resource.
- Ranking probability assessment. The AI forecasts your website’s chances of ranking high for specific keywords.
- Competitor analysis. Provides detailed insights into competitors’ strategies, including their keywords, backlinks, and content.
- Rank tracking. Monitors your website’s rankings for selected keywords and reports significant changes.
- Opportunity identification. The AI identifies promising pages, offers a detailed breakdown, and specific actions to improve rankings in search results.
To receive a site analysis and useful recommendations, go to the CanIRank homepage, click Register, enter your name, email, and password. After registration, you’ll need to connect your web resource, and the AI service will analyze it, then provide your first report and suggestions for improvement.
In the Dashboard section, you’ll see daily tasks, content ideas, keyword analysis, information about backlinks, and pages on social media.
One of the most useful sections of the CanIRank AI platform is “Opportunities”. It gathers pages of your site with high potential, information about new competitor publications, and potential platforms for acquiring backlinks. Although our web resource is new and has very little content, we’ll move on to completing a task for better understanding.
We select a task, click “Do”, and it immediately moves to the “In Progress” category.
Now click on the task title in the “Opportunity Title” column — under the description, you’ll see a list of specific steps. You can click on each of them to view helpful information on how to best complete the action.
After registration, you automatically receive the basic plan. With it, you can analyze 1 site, get 5 keyword and SEO reports, a limited number of content ideas and rank tracking, 20 link-building opportunities, and marketing research.
Paid CanIRank plans provide access to working with more websites, reports, content ideas, and backlink opportunities. You can also receive personalized instructions for improving social media and building authority, expanded competitor analysis, and tracking your project’s progress.
Even the free plan is quite useful, especially for beginners who want to focus on the most effective strategies to achieve higher rankings in search engines.
Hotjar — universal platform for website analysis
Hotjar is a service for analyzing user behavior on a web resource and in a mobile application. It allows you to see exactly what users are doing on your online project, identify weaknesses and improve usability, and collect feedback from visitors. It is not a fully AI platform, but many elements of automation and analytics operate using artificial intelligence.
Key features of Hotjar include:
- heatmap — visualization of clicks, scrolls, and mouse movements;
- session replay — video recordings of user navigation on the site;
- feedback — conducting tests, surveys, and interviews;
- funnels — analyze at which step the target audience loses interest in your product;
- integrations — collect data and enhance analysis with Google Analytics, OpenAI, Mixpanel, and other tools.
Hotjar is gradually integrating artificial intelligence into its analytics mechanisms. It uses automated detection of behavior patterns, such as multiple clicks on the same element. There is a “Smart Insights” feature that helps detect unusual user behavior.
Hotjar is a powerful tool for visualizing user behavior that perfectly complements Google Analytics. At the same time, the free plan is suitable for websites with up to 20 000 sessions per month. It provides access to session replays, unlimited heatmaps, access to all tracking data for 1 month, standard filters, integrations, and dashboard creation.
Read also: What is a Search Engine Robot and How to Manage It
Ahrefs — full-featured SEO platform with AI assistance
Ahrefs is one of the most powerful SEO platforms that allows for in-depth website analysis, detection of technical errors, competitor research, keyword and backlink analysis. It cannot be considered a fully AI platform, but it has begun gradually introducing AI features, particularly in content analysis and recommendations following a technical audit.
Ahrefs offers an incredible number of useful features:
- Site Audit — technical site analysis: indexing, speed, metadata;
- Site Explorer — backlink research, organic traffic, pages;
- Keyword Explorer — keyword selection, difficulty and potential analysis;
- AI Insights — webpage analysis with recommendations for improvement;
- Content Grader AI — content quality evaluation with SEO optimization tips;
- AI audit summaries — condensed reports with explanations of key areas to focus on.
The service itself is quite expensive: the minimum plan costs $129 per month. With it, you get the ability to work with 5 projects, 6-month history retention, tracking of 750 keywords, and access to unlimited full analysis of your site and competitors.
For professional SEO specialists, business owners, and experienced webmasters, this price may seem reasonable. But for someone just starting out with websites — for example, registering a domain and buying hosting for the first time — such expenses can be quite significant. Therefore, we recommend using the free plan — Ahrefs Webmaster Tools, which provides access to technical audits, backlink and traffic analysis. You can even use the AI tools mentioned above.
Example of page analysis using Ahrefs AI Grader
Is it necessary to pay for AI services
No, you don't have to spend hundreds of dollars on artificial intelligence platforms. We aimed to describe services with basic plans, whose features should be sufficient for performing routine tasks.
Moreover, there are free tools that can replace or at least partially cover the functionality of premium platforms:
- Google Search Console — a must-have for traffic monitoring, indexing, and technical SEO;
- Google Analytics — website traffic analysis and report generation;
- Microsoft Clarity — a free AI alternative to Hotjar for behavioral analytics with heatmaps;
- Ubersuggest (basic plan) — keyword and competitor analysis, basic SEO analytics;
- ChatGPT, Copilot, Perplexity, Gemini, and other universal AIs — content plan development, writing texts and meta tags, competitor page analysis.
AI services have become indispensable tools for SEO: from market research and idea generation to content creation and site analysis. They significantly speed up routine processes, increase efficiency, and allow you to focus on strategy and creative work. You can use the basic plans of the mentioned AI platforms or their free alternatives, and later invest in the solutions that actually generate revenue and save time.