So your website has a decent amount of published content, but it’s not performing as well as you’d like?
Using the right content optimization tools could well be your catalyst to claim those top spots in search engine results pages (SERPs).
These tools help you transform regular website content into something more SERP-friendly.
Through AI technology that analyzes loads of data, these tools help you gain critical insights and make content adjustments that you wouldn’t have thought of otherwise.
It’s one of the best ways to get your content ranking.
But how do you know which tools are with investing in?
I’ve researched and reviewed a range of SEO and content optimization platforms to uncover the best for your business.
Find out what these tools are good at, where their functionality ends, how much they cost, and whether they're worth your time.
What are content optimization tools?
Content optimization tools are software solutions that help you write web content that is search engine-friendly. A lot goes into successful SEO content writing, and content optimization software gives your articles better chances of ranking at the top of search results.
SEO content optimization tools gather large volumes of data from search engines. They determine which URLs rank highest and what is required for your content to compete against them. The software then provides insights to help you produce content that has a better chance of ranking.
This could include offering suggestions around:
- Keyword usage
- Creating a better outline for your content
- Suggestions around the length of the content
- and more
You can use website content optimization tools to audit your existing content and find ways of updating it for better results.
Content marketers and writers regularly use the tools to uncover insights to make their content more SEO-friendly, more relevant, and ensure it’s doing everything it can to rank on page one.
However, it’s also important to understand the limitations of these tools.
Content optimization platforms use data from search engines to help optimize writing. But they still can't fully grasp the “quality” of your content and how it matches the user's search intent.
To address these issues, you’ll need to work with an experienced SEO content agency, writer, or editor.
Best content optimization tools on the market
Finding the right SEO content optimization tool to work with isn’t always straightforward. There are many options, and every platform has unique functionality, pros, and cons.
To help you out, here are some of the best content optimization tools available right now:
1. Surfer SEO
Surfer SEO is one of the most popular SEO writing tools to hit the market. The AI-powered software includes some really useful features for planning, writing, and updating SEO content.
While Surfer is best known for its content editor tool, which you can use to write more SEO-friendly content, the platform also has an excellent audit feature.
This feature reviews your published articles based on their target keywords and compares them with the competition. The platform then makes suggestions based on all of the data it gathers.
This can help you update your content in various ways. Some suggestions include:
- Internal linking opportunities
- Backlink opportunities to consider
- Keywords and phrases to include
- Better keyword placement
- What the optimal length of the content should be
- How many images you should include
- And more
It’s a handy content optimization tool for gaining direct data insights on your web pages vs. other web pages. Use it to optimize your existing text around a target keyword.
Of course, you can also use Surfer’s other features to really make the most of this content optimization tool. There are features to write new content from scratch, identify writing opportunities, and make your existing text more powerful.
Surfer also comes with some nifty extensions for Chrome and Google Docs. These let you analyze text directly in the search results and use the tool while you update your articles in Google Docs. It’s a convenient way to gain fast insights as you work.
Read our full Surfer SEO review for more insights.
What I like
Surfer makes direct suggestions on how you can improve your existing content. This includes things like what internal links you can use and keywords you can include in writing. It’s very intuitive and straightforward.
Surfer’s AI-powered SEO toolset is also pretty versatile and can help with content planning, writing new articles, as well as updating your existing content. All of Surfer's suggestions come from actual data pulled from the SERPs.
Surfer can also be used across the entire lifecycle of your content strategy. From the initial planning and keyword research stages to optimizing your updated content, Surfer has a lot to offer. This makes it a worthwhile investment for many businesses.
What I don't like
Surfer has some limitations on how many content audits you can run. If you want to update every page on your website using the tool, it can get pretty expensive.
Surfer SEO is not able to consider the context of your content either. This means you could have outdated stats, old links, and irrelevant content published, which the tool would ignore. Instead, Surfer only focuses on things like keywords and article length.
This means Surfer doesn't truly understand the context of your content as it grades it. You could keyword stuff a blog post and score high points without actually helping this post perform well on search engines.
Pricing
Surfer’s Basic pricing plan starts at $49 per month. This increases significantly if you want to extend the possibilities of the software beyond being an SEO content optimization tool.
2. Frase
Frase is designed to help you plan and write better for SEO. You can use Frase for briefing, writing, and optimizing content, as well as accessing some useful analytics and insights around the content.
As a content writing tool, Frase offers some cool features like an AI writer. However, we’re interested in Frase from an optimization perspective.
In this regard, Frase stacks up pretty well. The tool reviews your published articles based on their relevant keywords and compares them to the top competitors. With all the data it looks at, Frase makes suggestions to help you strengthen the text and include more relevant information.
This includes offering suggestions around elements like keywords, article length, and headers. Frase also analyzes the top questions your audience is asking. This is to help you better understand their search intent and ensure your content covers all the right information.
Check out our side-by-side comparison of Surfer SEO vs. Frase for more details.
What I like
Frase helps you identify related question keywords to answer and topic clusters to write about. This helps you create more relevant and in-depth articles compared to your competition.
The platform also generates detailed briefs for updating your content around. It’s even got an AI writing feature if you need help getting started.
Besides that, the analytics the platform offers are really useful. And I like that Frase is one of the most affordable content optimization tools available.
What I don’t like
Frase helps to point you in the right direction, but it doesn’t offer as many direct suggestions as other tools.
It’s more useful for planning new posts, but as a content optimization tool, it could do with more specific suggestions for improving your writing.
Pricing
Frase starts its pricing at $14.99 per month. This increases based on the number of articles you want to optimize monthly and how many users you will have.
3. Clearscope
Clearscope offers AI-powered SEO content optimization software to increase your chances of ranking. The platform can be used for creating new content, as well as refreshing your existing text to help it perform better on search engines.
Like the platforms above, Clearscope is easy to use and offers quality suggestions on how you can improve your existing content.
The tool analyzes text against a target keyword and compares it to the top-ranking articles. It then pulls actionable data from this to offer suggestions you can use to revamp the content.
These suggestions include things like what questions your writing should answer, what keywords you can use, how long your articles should be, and how you can improve readability.
This is all made available through a Clearscope report, which also grades your content and highlights areas you can improve.
If you're starting from scratch, the platform provides a helpful feature for outlining and structuring your content. This structure can also help you when updating your existing articles.
Clearscope is certainly loaded full of features. However, due to the price, it’s not as accessible for small businesses and is better suited for large-scale content operations.
What I like
Clearscope is very user-friendly. The suggestions the tool makes can help you quickly improve your content's quality. The WordPress plugin also makes it easy to update your published articles directly through WordPress.
Besides that, Clearscope offers some insightful metrics around your web pages, which can help you make updates more efficiently.
What I don't like
While the platform offers a lot of great functionality, it’s costly. It could also give your content the highest possible grade by simply keyword stuffing - something that won't help you to rank better.
Pricing
Clearscope’s monthly pricing starts at $170. It increases to custom pricing levels if you want to add more users and access a customized account setup.
4. MarketMuse
MarketMuse is one of the best SEO content optimization tools for writing and refreshing your content. The platform offers a wide range of features that can help you plan your posts more efficiently, increase your content output, and improve the results of any existing articles you’ve published.
This includes a valuable feature for automating your content audits by organizing and analyzing your existing pages. You can save a lot of time identifying the exact areas that need attention.
Like the other content optimization tools, MarketMuse analyzes your keyword information and gathers data from the top-ranking search engine results.
The tool also considers content metrics like authority, user intent, and keyword difficulty, which other optimization platforms don't really dive into.
What I like
MarketMuse includes a practical SEO writing assistant to help you update your content to make it more search engine-friendly. The platform’s metrics are helpful, and you can automate areas of your content audits.
It’s also one of the few free content optimization tools, as you can get started with the basic plan at no cost.
What I don't like
While the free plan is attractive, it’s also very limiting. If you want to audit a greater volume of content, you need to commit to a pretty expensive package.
MarketMuse does not offer a Google Docs or WordPress integration either. So all content needs to be optimized on their platform, then transferred back to your site.
Pricing
MarketMuse offers a free plan for one user and ten queries per month. Beyond this, the paid plans start at $149 per month.
5. SEMrush
When it comes to SEO tools, SEMrush is one of the originals. This platform gives you a lot of power in terms of planning and managing your website.
Use SEMrush for keyword research, analyzing your competitors, running a complete site audit, managing your website’s backlinks, and more.
Beyond the technical SEO tool kit, SEMrush also includes a content marketing platform to help with on-page optimization. This is great for those who want to make their existing articles more SEO-friendly.
You can use SEMrush to access insights on your content's performance and compare it to the competition. You can also discover new keyword and topic opportunities to optimize your writing around.
SEMrush is not quite like the other content optimization tools on this list. It’s not designed to create content as much as it’s focused on gaining SEO insights around your website. Although, these insights are essential if you want to make smarter writing decisions.
What I like
SEMrush offers you a lot of information. You can gain detailed insights into the SERPs, and the keyword research tool is excellent.
If you’re optimizing your content against the competition, SEMrush is really helpful. It’s also an excellent tool for technical on-page optimizations.
What I don't like
SEMrush does not offer an editor tool like the other content optimization platforms mentioned in this guide.
It’s a useful platform for planning your content. But it doesn't provide much data as you optimize and create content.
It’s also expensive.
Pricing
SEMrush pricing plans start at $119 monthly and increase steeply for those needing additional projects, keywords, and reports.
6. Google Search Console
Google Search Console is an essential platform for any website owner, and it’s free.
Although it’s not explicitly geared toward content optimization, if you update your web content, Search Console will be one of the most powerful tools in your SEO arsenal.
Search Console displays detailed insights into how your site is performing on Google. This includes insights like what search terms your different pages rank for and how many clicks and impressions you get from those search terms.
You can also monitor how your core web vitals are performing.
Content optimizations and updates should start with Search Console. This lets you see how your pages are indexed and discover potentially valuable keyword opportunities you might have initially overlooked.
Search Console is also important for monitoring the progress and results after updating your content.
While it’s an incredibly useful tool, you can’t rely on Search Console alone to help you optimize your website. You probably want to use other tools in this list to help you gain more detailed and actionable insights.
What I like
Google Search Console is free and easy to use. It offers essential insights into your website’s performance on Google, which is necessary for anyone looking to improve their rankings.
What I don’t like
Search Console provides a more high-level overview of your website content and how it’s performing on Google. However, it doesn't offer many actionable insights on how to change or update your content.
It’s a helpful starting point for any content optimization, but you probably need more data to make informed updates.
Pricing
Google Search Console is free and should be used by every website.
Conclusion
There you have it; details on some of the best content optimization software available.
These tools have many similarities but are also all unique in their own ways. It’s crucial that you understand the full potential of each platform. This will help you choose one that offers the most value to your business when you update and optimize your content.
It’s also important to understand the additional SEO and content functions these tools offer, as they can all be used beyond simply updating your existing content.
Content optimization is a crucial aspect of running a website, and you need to get it right to achieve consistently good SEO results. Simply using the right tools isn't enough - you also need to have a deep understanding of content marketing.
Feel free to chat with us at Contentellect. We’ll help you strategize, optimize, and create winning content that boosts your search engine rankings in Google and other search engines. We combine these tools with years of experience to ensure the best content marketing results.
FAQs
How do I optimize my content?
You optimize your content by ensuring every article is correctly structured around your target keyword. The writing should meet search intent and offer enough value to outrank the competition.
Ensure that all information in your content is up to date. Every topic you write on should include the right sections, questions, and keyword variations. Using content optimization tools will help you achieve this.
What is an example of content optimization?
An example of content optimization is changing your content's on-page elements to ensure they’re more relevant to the target keyword. This could include adding new sections, updating the page title, updating your meta description, inserting more related keywords, optimizing the content length, and more.
What is the difference between SEO and content?
Search Engine Optimization (SEO) refers to the technical processes you use to ensure your website and web pages perform well in search engines. SEO is all about optimizing these on the back and front ends to attract more high-quality organic traffic.
Content refers to the resources your brand publishes to attract and engage customers. It’s essential that your website content uses SEO best practices to gain better results.
What should I avoid with SEO content optimization?
There’s a lot to consider when doing SEO content optimization. Some common SEO mistakes include the incorrect use of your target keyword, slow site speed and technical issues, outdated content, broken links, and duplicate content.
Most importantly, you need to ensure that your content properly addresses your target keyword’s search intent and offers enough relevant value to the user.