Evaluating the 10 Best Content Optimization Tools Out There

All you want from a content optimization tool or SEO tool is that it helps you:

• Target the right topics to stay competitive
• Find opportunities to beat out the competition
• Keep up best practices for technical SEO
• Accelerate the writing process with AI, the right way

Lots of tools out there claim to be the best, but a lot of them fall short of fully executing on these goals.

To help you suss out which tool will be best for you and your SEO rankings, we've compiled this list of ten popular content optimization tools, their key features, who they're best suited to, and where they fall short according to customers.

Remember, SEO is changing, and you need to onboard tools that will help you put people first and get ranking.

So, What is a Content Optimization Tool?

Content optimization tools are software or online platforms that assist in improving the quality and search engine visibility of content. These tools offer features such as keyword analysis, suggestions for technical SEO improvement such as internal linking opportunities, and content monitoring.

They should help you create content that's better than what's out there already — and if they're worth their salt, help you target net new information to stand out and get ranking.

Why Use an Optimization Tool to Optimize for SEO?

Content itself is valuable for customer education and will help your customers buy from you.

But unless it's seen, it's useless, and just rots on your site.

You can and should distribute via email and social, but those are ephemeral channels. You don't want one-hit wonders.

You've already spent the money and time creating the content. The best chance at getting it seen is with SEO. SEO-optimized content is evergreen and can attract visitors forever from Google.

Why?

• Clean technical SEO makes it easier for search engines to find and index your content
• SEO is a demand capture channel. People are looking for solutions and you need to get your content in front of them, and create the best content out there

1. Letterdrop

Founded by former PMs on the Google Search team, Letterdrop is one of the first people-first SEO assistants, helping you identify and automatically optimize for search intent, relevant topic coverage, and new perspectives. The assistant is built into a highly marketer-friendly editor connected to a full-service content management platform and AI-assisted workflows.

This helps you close all gaps out there on the SERPs today to give your readers a complete answer to end their search journey.

Its suite of SEO tooling can also identify and auto-fix SEO issues both on-page and across your site, taking technical SEO off your hands.

What's more, it can push content from the editor directly to any CMS or custom site, including Webflow, WordPress, Contentful, Sanity, Strapi, and Medium.

Key Features

In a nutshell, Letterdrop's SEO tool semantically understands content across your site and can:

1. Identify Search Intent and let you know you whether the search is informational, navigational, commercial or transactional. It analyzes top pages and suggests the best format you should use to get ranking
2. Provide insight into what has been covered on the SERPs so that you know what needs to be addressed. You can auto-generate unique sections into your content and compile research from the SERPs
3. Suggest topics and new angles that haven't been covered yet so that you optimize for Information Gain.
4. Give you an EEAT guide specific to your content to make sure all your bases are covered.
5. Automatically fix over 60 on-page technical SEO rules, such as internal links, keyword placement, alt text, and more
6. Auto-add, fix and publish links across your site
7. Monitor your pages for you with detailed reports for necessary refreshes

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Who is Letterdrop Best For?

Letterdrop is best suited to companies with:

• A full-time Content Marketing Manager
• A dedicated operation around content marketing

It's also for content teams who hope to optimize content no matter the search changes that get thrown their way in the coming years. The tooling is consistently updated to reflect changes in the search climate, including making sure you optimize for Google's SGE and Perspectives.

What Customers Say About Letterdrop

Pro

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"What I love so much about Letterdrop is how forward-thinking [they] are in terms of SEO.

It is very easy to say "here's a number of keywords to have in a blog."

What [they] do is focus so much more around intent and creating a piece of content that someone wants to read. There's emphasis on gaining information that's accurate and useful. [...] They're so prioritized around how Google is evolving." — Lauren Funaro, Head of Content at Scribe

Con

"Since they're new, there are definitely still some bugs." — Lauren Funaro, Head of Content at Scribe, from G2 Review

2. Clearscope

Clearscope is an AI-powered keyword research and content optimization tool that's been on the market since 2016. It was one of the first tools to implement Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI) keywords.

Its core offering is an editor where you paste your content for Clearscope to analyze, grade, and make suggested improvements according to top results on the SERP for your chosen keyword. The analysis shows you:

• which top or relevant terms you've included
• which top or relevant terms you've left out
• which top or relevant terms you should include in your headings

This helps give you some more direction to close in on any topical gaps on the SERPs and win you a competitive advantage.

Key Features:

1. The "Optimize" feature, which scans your pages, evaluates them against top pages on the SERP, and assigns a letter grade based on your inclusion of important keywords
2. Integrations with WordPress and Google Docs to take your content on the go
3. Integration with Google Search Console for relevant keyword data

After the initial analysis, you're assigned a letter grade based on your inclusion of relevant keywords, how readable your content is, and how close your word count is to top pages.

There are plenty of Clearscope alternatives out there today who took the concept of content scoring and ran with it — although the focus on keyword relevance alone can leave major gaps in your SEO strategy.

Who is Clearscope Best For?

Clearscope is best used as a one-off tool for signing off on basic SEO checks. This lets teams scale content quickly.

This makes it best suited for:

• Medium to large businesses looking to run basic SEO checks and scale content fast
• Companies working with freelancers and agencies

What Customers Say About Clearscope on G2

Pro

"I love that it aggregates all the secondary keywords in one place, so adding them into an existing document is easy and user friendly. The additional research features are also very helpful, and this makes on-page SEO super easy." — Amica G, Sr. Content, Social Media, and Reputation Manager (Small-Business, less than 50 employees)

Con

"If I had to say I dislike anything with Clearscope it would be that sometimes you have to manually filter irrelevant terms from it’s algo." — Nick B (Small Business, less than 50 employees)

3. Frase

Frase was started in 2017 and is a content writing assistant that offers AI writing, content generation, and article optimization features.

It helps save writing time by helping you research topics, generate content outlines, and use AI to write content.

Key Features

1. Keyword Context in the Optimize Tool. When it comes to keyword suggestions, Frase has a more rounded approach than its closer competitors. It shows you which keywords you're missing from top pages, offers you more context for these suggestions, and can auto-generate these context snippets into your writing.
2. Real-time SEO suggestions and scoring as you write in the editor based on competitor analysis
3. AI templates for briefs, outlines, blogs, and individual paragraphs to further speed up writing

Who is Frase Best For?

We would recommend Frase to:

• Small and medium-sized content teams
• Freelancers

What Customers Say About Frase on G2

Pro

"The outline builder makes it quite easy to compare existing content and understand what is ranking already. The content optimizer further helps in completing our content gaps to ensure a high quality output overall." — Anonymous Verified User (Small Business, less than 50 employees)

Con

"The Frase AI writer is not as strong as other AI writers. I don't use it on my Frase subscription." — Zaid F, Blogger (Small Business, less than 50 employees)

4. GrowthBar

Founded in 2020, GrowthBar strips SEO down to the basics: it scrapes the SERPs and evaluates user content against top page keyword coverage, word count, URL structure, heading structure, and more.

It then gives recommendations for improvement based on this information, or generates an outline for you with AI.

Key Features

1. Basic research tools such as Keyword Research and Rank Traffic that help you evaluate keyword difficulty, traffic estimates, and backlink profiles
2. The Content Generator can help you write the foundation of outlines and drafts based basic SEO principles such as word count, keyword coverage, and heading structure. You can also use the AI to elaborate on points and give examples while writing
3. The Optimize feature sets optimal content targets based on top-page keyword analysis
4. The tool suggests headers based on competitor pages as well as relevant images, which you can easily drag-and-drop into the editor
5. Auto-generated meta titles and descriptions, as well as a recommended word limit to optimize your meta information
6. GrowthBar scans your website for relevant internal links as you write, giving you appropriate recommendations

It's important to note that GrowthBar is primarily a generative AI assistant than a serious SEO tool. You can scale content quickly and check off on very basic SEO.

Who is GrowthBar Best For?

GrowthBar doesn't offer data as comprehensive as other research tools like Semrush and Ahrefs, but can be used to do sanity checks on SEO basics.

We'd recommend it to small teams of marketers who are just starting out in SEO and need to check off on SEO basics on a budget.

What Customers Say About GrowthBar on G2

Pro

"As a new website (on a low budget), GrowthBar has helped me get tons of backlinks opportunities. Not only that but also their Ai Content generator is one of the best. GrowthBar is one of the easiest to use SEO tools for me, and if you are new to SEO, you're going to love it." —Tofunmi A, Startup Business Consultant (Small Business, less than 50 employees)

Con

"The Site Inspector is too basic compared to other SEO tools out there." — Deyan G, Manager (Mid-Market)

5. Surfer SEO

Surfer is one of the most recognized SEO tools out on the market today.

It's built to streamline SEO content creation with a workflow, offering features for keyword research, an AI outline generator, a content editor, and competitor insights to help you outrank what's out there.

Surfer assigns a score to both SERP content and your own written content on the basis of:

• Inclusion of relevant LSP keywords
• Word count
• Image count
• Page structure (headers and paragraphs)
• Keyword density
• Page speed
• Backlink count and quality
• Meta tag structure

Key Features:

• The ability to customize SEO targets — such as targeted competitors, structural goals, and relevant "People Also Ask" boxes to optimize for. This is unique to Surfer
• Real-time feedback with the SEO Audit, which includes all the above SEO basics as well as linking suggestions
• Integrations with Chrome, Google Search Console, Google Docs, and WordPress to take your writing and SEO checks on the go

Who is Surfer SEO Best For?

Given that Surfer is able to help kickstart SEO campaigns and scale content, we recommend it to:

• Small and medium-sized content teams
• Freelancers

What Customers Say About Surfer SEO on G2

Pro

"The content editor is excellent, it makes writing and editing an article fun. I especially like they give the option to underline the keywords to know which I need to use more or less frequently. Surfer's audit function is also very helpful for grading old content and gaining improvement ideas." — Caroline N (Small Business, lesss than 50 employees)

Con

"I dislike that SurferSEO does not have a comprehensive tool that allows you to create briefs based on an analysis of what competing sites and articles that rank high on Google's SERP are doing. I would ideally like to use SurferSEO as the only tool in our content creation process." — Jan K, Sales and Marketing Specialist (Small business, less than 50 employees)

6. MarketMuse

MarketMuse is another popular content optimization and creation tool and is powered by AI and machine learning.

With it, you get an in-depth analysis of published content, covering keyword research, content gap analysis, and competitor insights.

Key Features:

1. An AI-generated Draft Builder that uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to generate content based on specific KPIs and subheadings
2. A series of applications to plug into your SEO strategy, including one that scans your pages and suggests relevant internal links
3. A Content Inventory where the tool identifies prime opportunities to close topical gaps, including "Related Questions"
4. Deeper and more personalized suggestions for content, including distribution suggestions, more in-depth analysis of topics, and projected ROI of topics

Who is MarketMuse Best For?

We recommend MarketMuse for agencies and large content teams with fast-growing websites.

What Customers Say About MarketMuse on G2

Pro

"The MarketMuse briefs are a must! At my company, along with listicles, I write detailed articles about health issues requiring research and the briefs easily create an outline and suggest related links. [...] Following the brief and checking my SEO targets with the optimization application makes writing so much easier!" — Anonymous Verified User (Small Business, less than 50 employees)

Con

"I have run diagnostics for my personal site (not for work) and found some of the insights confusing. I would also love the ability to delete/ignore certain words it serves as allegedly required for ranking on Google. No, MarketMuse, the "all rights reserved" is not a phrase I need to rank on. I could also use some guidance on what to put into headings." — Janet G, Mid-Market

7. Semrush

Semrush is arguably one of the most popular keyword research and SEO tools on the market today.

Aside from powerful and in-depth keyword and competitor research, it does offer some technical SEO and content marketing features.

Key Features

1. In-depth keyword research and competitor analysis tools that help you understand keyword difficulty, keyword gaps, SERP features, identify basic search intent, and more
2. The On-Page SEO Audit compares a page to ten competitors and based on that suggests ideas, semantically related words to include on your pages, target content length and readability, and backlink prospects
3. The Site Audit lets you see surface-level issues like duplicate content and broken links, and in-depth analysis of AMPs, HTTPS, crawlability and indexability
4. The SEO Writing Assistant evaluates your content against:
   1. Readability, based on top page word count
   2. Basic SEO checks, such as keyword inclusion and image alt text

Who is Semrush Best For?

You can use Semrush in combination with other tooling (such as Letterdrop) to cover your SEO bases, but generally it's recommended to small to medium-sized businesses getting into SEO.

What Customers Say About Semrush on G2

Pro

"Their SEO dashboard is excellent for a birds eye view on everything that is right & wrong with your website. 

Another tool i like is their backlink audit - you get a nice filter through which you can quickly browse & decide what action you want to take.

Apart from these, there is the keyword research and organic research tools. Their keyword research tool is regarded as one of the best in the market right now." — Quratulain H (Small Business, less than 50 employees)

Con

"Probably it can be TOO overwhelming at times.

Also I did come across a few areas that were broken - some tools had been disconnected and they were still accessible. So that just needs a bit of cleanup. (ie, the content audit tool)" — Jessica C, Enterprise

8. Dashword

Dashword has been around since 2020, and once again offers a content editor, live SEO suggestions, and AI writing assistance.

Much like most of the above tools, the SEO suggestions are based on the keyword coverage and word count of top pages on the SERP for your target keyword.

It assigns top results and your own content with a letter grade based on the above data.

Key Features

1. An AI assistant built into the editor that can help you generate an introduction, finish a thought, correct grammar, and rephrase sentences. There's also a helpful meta description generator
2. A brief builder based on keywords and headers from top pages
3. A readability score as well as an SEO score
4. As well as a keyword research tool, Dashword offers a content monitoring feature that plugs into Google Analytics data to show you what content is no longer performing well on the SERPs

Who is Dashword Best For?

Dashword is easy to use and can cover the very basics of writing for SEO. We would recommend it for a small content team or a blogger.

I couldn't find any official reviews for Dashword.

9. Scalenut

Scalenut is an AI-powered content marketing platform and SEO tool.

It's built on GPT models like most of the tools in this list, but it also has proprietary AI and NLP software.

Once you've written your content, it assigns you a score based on your SEO-friendliness and similarity to top pages on the SERP. This includes rating you on:

• Keywords
• Number of links
• Keyword density
• Header inclusion
• URL structure
• Meta tags
• Inclusion of a Featured Snippet

Key Features

• Keyword analysis that includes topic clustering, which can help you improve your topical authority
• Real-time SEO suggestions to improve your content based on the factors listed in the above section
• A long-form AI assistant that can generate an entire first draft for you based on instructions and keyword inclusion
• A Chrome Extension and the ability to plug into the WordPress CMS

Who is Scalenut Best For?

We would recommend Scalenut to:

• Small and medium-sized content teams
• Freelancers
• Solo bloggers

What Customers Say About Scalenut on G2

Pro

"The AI-powered capabilities of Scalenut are top-notch, allowing me to accurately track keyword performance over time, as well as identify new opportunities for growth." — Brian H (Small Business, less than 50 employees) 

Con

"SERP-based fact checks can be improved. If I want to search for "how to do ABC", my keyword would be "ABC" but the search result I'm looking to rank for is "how to do ABC"." — Krunal S, Digital Marketing Executive (Small Business, less than 50 employees) 

10. RankIQ

RankIQ is a niche AI-powered content optimization tool that focuses on low-competition and high-traffic keywords.

Its AI SEO Content Report gives you recommendations on what content to create based on:

• Suggested word count
• An analysis of topics Google wants and LSI keyword and phrases that you’ll want to cover
• Title analysis
• Competition analysis
• Suggested content grade

Key Features

• The tool's keyword suggestions are based on low-competition and high-traffic keywords. This lets you focus on targeting keywords that you actually stand a chance of ranking for
• Your content score is based less on keyword inclusion and more on phrases and topics, which reduces the risk of keyword stuffing
• The Rank Tracker helps you monitor your SEO performance after publishing, allowing you to spot opportunities for improvement

Who is RankIQ Best For?

An independent blogger built RankIQ, and the tool focuses on low-competition keywords. It's therefore catered toward small businesses and other independent bloggers.

What Customers Say About RankIQ on G2

Pro

"RankIQ has changed the way that I create content for my website, they have a simple to use website that allows me to simply choose my niche, key topics and then it lays out the blueprint of what I need to write. For me this blueprint is the best thing about RankIQ." — David H (Small Business, less than 50 employees)

Con

"My blog niche spans several of the niches listed in Rank IQ so it's sometimes hard to zero in on the keywords that are right for me, but with some time and diligent exploring I am able to find what I need." — Julie S (Small Business, less than 50 employees)

Most Content Optimization Tools Promote Keyword Stuffing

Unfortunately, the majority of tools in this list give you high scores for how many times you include keywords from top pages. In other words, they encourage keyword stuffing.

This, as well as arbitrary focus on word count, is useless to your readers. It doesn't help answer their search intent or bring their search journey to an end. What's more, Google's PaLM2 is smart enough to semantically understand pages.

Yes, keywords are a part of SEO. But opting for tools that primarily focus on keywords instead of search intent or complete topical coverage (aka, covering existing topics and closing topical gaps) won't get you ranking in 2024 and beyond.

EEAT (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness and Trustworthiness) is a Google ranking factor for a reason. If you're able to hit all those boxes with your content optimization tool, you're on the right track. If not, you need to

Choose A People-First Content Optimization Tool to Get Ranking

Search is becoming more topical and perspective-focused, so the tools you choose to add to your tech stack should help you accommodate that.

Invest in SEO tools that are actively thinking about the future of search and how to bring unique and valuable insights to the table — or, close any gaps by using multiple tools at once.

At Letterdrop, we've helped companies like Scribe 11x their paid signups with our forward-thinking SEO tooling. Reach out to us and we can help you, too.