Looking for the best content writing tools for SEO? You’re in the right place.
I’ve been writing content for almost a decade now. And in that time, I’ve tried dozens of different tools to help get my articles to rank—so I know what works and what doesn’t.
In this post, I’ll be revealing what I think are the 10 best tools to help you optimize your written content so it stands the best chance of ranking on the search engine results pages (SERPs).
The best content writing tools for SEO compared
TL;DR:
- SE Ranking – Best overall.
- Surfer – Best for content marketers.
- Scalenut – Best value for money.
- Frase – Best for teams.
#1 – SE Ranking
SE Ranking is my overall favorite content writing tool for SEO. The reason it’s my top pick is because it’s feature-rich, robust, and affordable. It’s an all-in-one platform that brings all the tools you need to plan your SEO strategy, write content, optimize it, and track its performance together under one roof.
If you could only have one tool in your stack – it should be this.
The tools you get with SE Ranking include a content editor (with real-time scoring and SEO tips), an on-page SEO checker, a content audit tool, a content ideas finder, a competitor analysis tool, a white-label SEO report builder, a rank tracker, a backlink monitor, and more.
So instead of having to piece together a bunch of different apps, you can manage your entire content writing workflow from one platform.
For example, your workflow might look something like this:
First, enter a keyword into the ideas finder tool to have SE Ranking come up with some related keyword clusters and topics that you might want to target in your content strategy.
From there, select the keywords/topics you want to write about and open them up in the content editor.
Next, SE Ranking’s writing assistant will analyze the top-ranking articles in the SERPs for those keywords/topics to determine the optimal content parameters, and suggest some words/phrases you might want to include in the content to give it the best chance of ranking.
Then, it’ll load all those suggestions inside a brief in the content editor. And as you write your content in the content editor, it’ll update in real-time to tell you your current ‘content score’, which indicates how well-optimized the content is, and what you need to do to improve.
Plus, it’ll also analyze your text for grammar, punctuation, stop-word ratio, and readability. You’ll be able to see your current score in all of these areas and the errors you need to fix inside the editor.
Once you’ve optimized your content and published it to your site, you can use the built-in rank tracker to see how it’s performing in the SERPs, and the report builder to showcase your ranking data.
Key features
- Content editor. Write your content in the built-in editor with real-time SEO scoring and optimization tips
- AI writer. Generate content from scratch in one click
- Keyword research: Discover keywords for your content and group them together
- On-page SEO checker. Check your existing content against on-page ranking factors for optimization tips
- Other SEO tools. Website auditing, competitor research, backlink analysis, rank tracking, and more.
Pros and cons
Pricing
Plans start at $55/month, get 20% off when you pay yearly. Get started with a 14-day free trial.
#2 – Surfer
Surfer is a powerful content writing tool that helps you to research, plan, write, and optimize SEO content. It’s something I use day in, day out here at BloggingWizard and part of the reason so many of this site’s articles rank well on Google.
Surfer’s core feature is its Content Editor, and I honestly think it’s one of the best-kept secrets in the SEO industry.
It tells you exactly how to optimize your content for the target keyword that you’re trying to rank for, based on AI analysis of the articles that are already ranking on Google.
For example, it gives you a long list of related keywords/NLP terms to include in the content to boost its topical authority, tells you what questions to answer; how many headings, paragraphs, and images to include, and what the total word count should be.
As you write, it scores your content in real-time so you can see at a glance how well-optimized it currently is on a scale of 0-100.
I also like that it tells you what the average Surfer score of the top 10 competitor articles that are already ranking on Google is, so you know where the goalposts are. You’re aiming to make sure your score is higher than your competitors. That way, you’ll stand a much better chance of ranking.
Of course, that’s not all Surfer can do. It can also automatically generate writing briefs and outlines, help with keyword research and clustering, audit your existing website content, generate content from scratch with AI, check for plagiarism, and more.
Key features
- Content editor. Write better content with real-time guidelines and optimization scoring in the Surfer editor
- Keyword research. Discover and analyze keywords for your content strategy
- Audit. Optimize existing articles on your website.
- Surfer AI. Generate written content and automatically optimize content with the power of AI.
Pros and cons
Pricing
Plans start from $89/month and save up to $480 with yearly billing. Get started with a 7-day free trial.
#3 – Scalenut
Scalenut is a good choice if you’re on a budget. It’s another comprehensive content writing and SEO tool with everything you need at a very affordable price point.
You can use Scalenut’s content planning tools to discover keywords, combine them into topic clusters, and generate content plans/briefs.
Then, you can write and optimize your content in the built-in Docs-style editor, complete with real-time SEO scoring, optimization tips, and suggested NLP key terms.
My favorite feature is the ‘Fix It’ tool—it significantly speeds up the process of optimizing your writing. Instead of having to manually edit your content to optimize it, you can just click ‘Fix It’ next to any suggestion in the editor, and Scalenut’s AI will do it for you.
For example, let’s say you need to add more NLP key terms to the text to improve your SEO score. Sure, you could go through manually and figure out a natural way to insert each term one by one, but that can take a long time.
But if you just click ‘Fix It’, Scalenut’s AI writer will suggest a natural way to insert each term and edit/rewrite/add the necessary sentences for you. All you have to do is accept the suggested changes, and it’s done—it only takes a couple of clicks.
Key features
- Content planning. Conduct keyword research, brainstorm topic ideas, and generate briefs and outlines for your writers
- Content editor. Write and optimize content in Scalenut’s document editor, with scoring, tips, and NLP suggestions.
- Automatic optimization. Use the Fix It tool to automatically add keywords to your content and improve your SEO score
- Cruise Mode. Speed up the writing process and produce SEO-friendly blogs in under 5 minutes with Cruise Mode.
Pros and cons
Pricing
Free SEO writing tools available. Paid plans start from $39/month, get 50% off when you pay yearly, and try premium features free for 7 days.
#4 – Frase
Frase is another great content writing tool for SEO teams and marketing agencies. Like SE Ranking, it includes lots of tools to help you research, outline, write, and optimize content.
Frase’s workflow is similar to SE Rankings: You start by entering the search term you’re trying to rank for so Frase can analyze the SERPs to extract insights and SEO recommendations.
Then, you write and optimize your content inside the built-in editor, with real-time scoring and optimization suggestions based on the SERP analysis.
But there are a few things that make Frase special. First off, its SERP analysis capabilities are second to none. It gives you a much deeper level of insight into your competitors, pulling all their content into the sidebar of the editor so you can research as you write.
Secondly, its built-in AI writer is excellent. It can pull in sections from your competitor’s articles and rewrite them for you from scratch with completely original output. Plus, improve/paraphrase your own writing, and even generate entire article drafts in seconds.
I particularly like how you can prompt the AI to write each section of your content individually. So instead of entering just one prompt for the whole post, you enter a separate prompt under each header in your article, and the AI will follow the instructions header-by-header to the letter.
Also, Frase offers a Team plan that’s fantastic value for money.
It lets you add up to 3 users and write & optimize unlimited articles, so you don’t have to worry about exceeding your plan usage caps. It also comes with useful collaboration features like team project folders, easy document sharing, project status tracking, etc.
Key features
- AI writer. Generate, edit, and paraphrase content using the power of artificial intelligence.
- Content editor. Write and optimize your content inside Frase’s document editor
- SERP analysis. Automatically analyze the search results for your target keyword and extract insights from your competitors
- Document management. Share documents with your team and keep them organized in shared project folders.
Pros and cons
Pricing
Plans start from $14.99/month, and discounts are available when you pay annually. Get started with a 5-day trial for $1.
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