What Are the Best AI SEO Tools for Small Business Owners?

What Are the Best AI SEO Tools for Small Business Owners?

In the dynamic world of digital marketing, small business owners are constantly seeking the edge in SEO tools to boost their online presence. We’ve gathered insights from industry experts, including digital marketing managers and marketing directors, to highlight their top recommendations. From the intuitive ease of Surfer SEO to the full-featured affordability of Mangools, explore the twelve best AI SEO tools that these professionals stand behind.

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Surfer SEO: Finding Intuitive Use

One of the best AI SEO tools for small-business owners is Surfer SEO. I recommend this tool for its intuitive interface and advanced features that cater specifically to small businesses. Surfer SEO utilizes artificial intelligence to analyze top-performing content in a given niche, providing actionable insights on keyword usage, content structure, and optimization recommendations. 

After evaluating the AI tool, I have assessed that it’s user-friendly and easy to operate. The content editor helps to create SEO-friendly content by offering real-time suggestions, ensuring that even those with limited SEO expertise can produce high-ranking content. 

Overall, AI-driven insights and advanced features make Surfer SEO an invaluable tool for small-business owners looking to boost their online presence and outperform competitors.

Nitesh Savaniya, Digital Marketing Manager, BrainerHub Solutions

Frase: Content Briefs for SEO

I would recommend Frase to help small-business owners write great content that is SEO-friendly. It does a great job of analyzing the pages that are ranking for your target keyword. Then, its AI creates full-length content briefs to guide your writing and make creating content easier. 

What’s great about Frase is that it acknowledges that AI isn’t meant to do the whole job. It’s just there to help expedite the research and briefing process. Also, it’s incredibly affordable if you don’t need much, making it accessible for small-business owners on tight margins.

David Begazo, Owner, PRismatic SEO

MarketMuse: Content Strategy Partner

MarketMuse is an AI SEO tool that feels like a content partner. I worked with a small-business owner with an alcohol store whose online presence wasn’t as she desired, despite her best efforts. 

I used MarketMuse to come up with a content plan and untapped topics. It went beyond basic keyword research and analyzed the content strategies of other local businesses and larger chains. It looked into the content ecosystem, including structure, topics, and audience engagement. The report showed the site lacked content targeted toward health-conscious consumers. I used the optimization option to analyze the content and got suggestions on improvements we needed to make—readability, structure, and technical SEO. 

In six months, the organic traffic doubled, and they had a +36% increase in income. MarketMuse is an affordable content partner for any small business looking to work on their online presence and outsmart their competitors.

Valerie Lavska, CMO, Promodo

Jasper AI: Versatile Content Creation

In my role covering artificial intelligence and machine learning, I’ve tried many AI tools, but Jasper AI really stands out. My experience with Jasper AI has shown it’s not only a time-saver for marketing teams, but it also frees them up to focus on crucial aspects of their strategy like performance tracking and refining their messaging. It’s particularly effective for creating SEO-optimized content, which is key for driving traffic and improving search engine rankings.

Jasper AI excels at understanding complex language and context, ensuring the content it produces is on-topic and stylistically appropriate. It’s versatile, useful for creating a range of content including blog posts, social media updates, and email newsletters. One feature I find invaluable is the plagiarism checker, which helps me ensure my content is unique and avoids copyright issues.

As a content creator, Jasper AI has made my work significantly easier. It offers various templates for different types of content like blogs and social media posts, which are great time-savers. They help me quickly generate quality content with minimal hassle. While the AI-generated writing isn’t perfect and typically requires some human editing, it’s impressively natural and aligns well with the intended brand voice. Jasper AI considerably reduces the time needed to draft content.

Precious Abacan, Marketing Director, Softlist

SE Ranking: Budget-Friendly SEO Suite

For small businesses looking for a more budget-friendly AI SEO tool, SE Ranking is a fantastic choice, and it is actually what we use. It offers a comprehensive suite of SEO tools, including keyword research, website audits, and competitor analysis, at a more accessible price point than some alternatives. 

SE Ranking’s user-friendly interface and scalable features make it ideal for small business owners who need to optimize their online visibility and competitiveness without breaking the bank.

Juan Carlos Munoz, Co-Founder, CC Creative Design

SEMrush: Comprehensive Digital Marketing Suite

From my journey in the digital marketing and software development sector, especially with Anthem Software, I have observed the transformative power of SEO and AI tools in propelling small businesses to new heights. 

One AI SEO tool I strongly recommend for small business owners aiming to enhance their online visibility and competitiveness is SEMrush. This recommendation is rooted in a plethora of successful case studies we’ve been part of, where SEMrush’s comprehensive features have significantly uplifted businesses’ digital presence.

SEMrush stands out because it is not just an SEO tool but a complete digital marketing suite that offers deep insights into competitors’ strategies, keyword research, content marketing analysis, and much more. 

For instance, working with a client who was fighting to gain visibility in a saturated market, we leveraged SEMrush to identify valuable but underutilized keywords within their niche. By crafting content that addressed these keywords and optimizing their website accordingly, we witnessed a substantial increase in their site’s organic traffic and, more importantly, in conversion rates.

Moreover, SEMrush’s AI-driven content marketing platform has proven instrumental in understanding and surpassing competitors’ content strategies. With features like the SEO Writing Assistant, businesses can improve their content’s SEO friendliness in real-time, ensuring that every piece published is optimized for maximum visibility. This was particularly beneficial for a small eCommerce client struggling to make their mark. By following SEMrush’s recommendations, they were able to enrich their product descriptions and blog posts, resulting in a noticeable improvement in their search engine rankings.

What sets SEMrush apart for me, and by extension for my clients, is its ability to break down the walls of SEO complexity and present actionable insights that businesses of any size can implement for growth. This direct experience guides my recommendation, emphasizing SEMrush’s role as an invaluable asset for small businesses looking to claim their space in the competitive digital world.

Joe Amaral, Founder & COO, Anthem Software

ChatGPT: User-Friendly SEO Content Aid

ChatGPT has rapidly become one of the most favored AI tools around, thanks to its impressive language-processing capabilities. What many don’t realize is that ChatGPT is also a potent AI tool for SEO content creation, as well as aiding in planning and research. The great thing about it is its user-friendliness—you don’t need to be a tech whiz to get the most out of it. Just give it the right prompts, and it takes care of the rest. I’m aware of numerous small businesses that depend on ChatGPT for various marketing efforts, including SEO tasks, making it a highly valuable asset for SMBs.

The quality of the output from ChatGPT largely depends on how well you phrase your prompts. It’s important to be clear and specific with your questions or instructions. ChatGPT can be used for generating content, analyzing sentiment, translating languages, summarizing text, and answering questions. The pricing model is particularly appealing for small businesses. There’s a free plan allowing up to 100 conversations per month, and the paid plans start at just $20 per month.

Lucas Ochoa, Founder & CEO, Automat

Piggy: Enhance Visibility with Web Stories

One of the best AI SEO tools for small-business owners is Piggy to enhance their visibility and competitiveness. This tool helps in web story generation, which can help the small-business owner’s website to be included in Google Discover, thereby increasing their visibility and overall traffic to the site. I recommend this AI SEO tool because it’s easy to get started with minimal effort.

Mohammad Arman, Local Marketer, Mohammad Arman

KeywordInsights: Discover Hidden Keyword Gems

KeywordInsights is my go-to recommendation for small businesses looking to step up their SEO game. It’s an AI tool that does more than just keyword research; it finds those hidden gems of keywords that not everyone is using yet. 

Plus, it helps you understand how to group your content around topics that matter to your audience, making your site a go-to resource. It’s easy to use and can really make a difference in getting your business noticed online.

Marco Genaro Palma, Content Marketing Manager, PRLab

Ahrefs: Detailed Industry Competitive Insights

In my role as the founder of First Pier, an E-commerce Growth Agency, I’ve leveraged a multitude of SEO and online marketing tools to help online businesses achieve remarkable growth. From this extensive experience, I recommend Ahrefs as one of the best AI SEO tools for small business owners looking to enhance their online visibility and competitiveness. The reason for this recommendation is multifaceted, rooted in both the comprehensive capabilities Ahrefs provides and the tangible results I’ve observed across various projects.

Ahrefs excels in offering detailed insights into the competitive landscape of your industry. Its Site Explorer and Keywords Explorer, for instance, have been indispensable in our strategy sessions, allowing us to uncover our clients’ top competitors’ strategies and identify high-potential keyword opportunities. 

One concrete example comes from a client in the highly competitive niche of sustainable home goods. By utilizing Ahrefs to conduct a thorough competitor analysis and keyword research, we were able to pinpoint overlooked long-tail keywords, leading to a 65% increase in organic search traffic within six months.

Furthermore, Ahrefs’ Content Explorer tool has proven extremely valuable for content marketing strategies. It enables businesses to identify popular topics within their niche that haven’t been extensively covered, presenting an opportunity to create high-value, SEO-optimized content that attracts and retains customer interest. This approach has been a game-changer for many of my clients, transforming their blogs from mere placeholders to significant drivers of organic traffic.

The utility of Ahrefs extends beyond just its analytical capabilities. The tool also provides actionable recommendations for on-page SEO, backlink strategies, and content optimization, making it an all-encompassing solution for small businesses aiming to navigate the complexities of SEO. Through its regular use, we’ve consistently observed improvements not just in search engine rankings but also in user engagement and conversion rates. 

Thus, Ahrefs stands out as a comprehensive, intuitive tool that I believe every small business aiming to ramp up its online presence should consider deeply integrating into its SEO and content strategy.

Steve Pogson, Founder, First Pier

SERPstat: Budget-Conscious, Comprehensive SEO

I recommend SERPstat as the top choice for SEO, especially when considering alternatives to Ahrefs. It’s particularly suited for marketers operating on a budget and with straightforward needs. Sometimes, I feel that Ahrefs and Semrush are overkill for what’s required, especially when you factor in their cost. SERPstat, on the other hand, offers a more limited but well-suited range of features at a more accessible price. For my requirements, it stands on par with Semrush or Ahrefs.

The reason I recommend SERPstat is due to its comprehensive suite of features, including keyword research tools, website audit functions, competitor analysis, and backlink tracking. It’s also proficient in PPC campaign analysis, enabling easy tracking and adjustments to campaigns as needed.

With pricing starting at $69 per month and scaling up based on service needs, SERPstat is more budget-friendly and perfect for small businesses. While it may not offer the depth of advanced analytics found in other, more expensive software, it compensates with a user-friendly interface, making it ideal for beginners or those who do not require complex, data-driven insights from their SEO tool.

Henry Brook, Founder, The Page

Mangools: Affordable, Full-Featured SEO Tool

Mangools is my top pick. I recommend this AI SEO tool because of its large suite of automated features, including backlink analysis, rank tracking, keyword research, and more. Despite its affordability, the platform does not hinder its features, offering functionality that rivals more expensive alternatives. 

Beyond this, its interface and intuitive tools also make it accessible to users with varying levels of SEO expertise. This tool is the best bet for small-business owners to optimize their websites effectively and stay competitive in their markets.

Matias Rodsevich, Founder, PRHive

Best AI SEO Tools

Having the best AI SEO tools at your disposal will help your small business outperform the competition online. There’s no doubt that using any of these tools will get you found in search and drive revenue for years to come.