For many years, WPBeginner team members have been using tools like AIOSEO, Clearscope, Semrush, Ahrefs, and others to optimize our WordPress guides and articles for SEO.
Our experience has convinced us that, when used correctly, content optimization tools like these can improve search rankings in a big way. Because these tools have different strengths and features, it’s often better to use several tools that complement one another.
In this article, we will share our experiences using the very best online content optimization tools so you can decide the ones to use to grow your website traffic.
Quick Pick: The Best Content Optimization Tools
If you don’t have time to read our whole review, then here’s a quick overview of the top options:
| Tool | Best For | Price | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🥇 | All in One SEO | Advanced SEO features | Free or $49.60/year |
| 🥈 | SEOBoost | Affordable, on-page SEO tools | $30/month |
| 🥉 | Semrush SEO Writing Assistant | Comprehensive SEO suggestions | $139.95/month |
| 4 | Surfer SEO | Audit shows actionable steps | $79/month |
| 5 | Thrive Optimize | Super easy to use | $199/year |
| 6 | Frase | Affordable, smart outline | $12/month |
| 7 | MarketMuse | Personal difficulty score | $99/month |
| 8 | Ahrefs | Keyword explorer and rank tracker | $129/month |
| 9 | Headline Analyzer | Free, improve headline copy | Free |
What Is a Content Optimization Tool?
When you optimize your posts for SEO, you can improve your search engine rankings and consistently get more traffic to your WordPress website.
That’s why we created a handy checklist of tips to optimize your blog posts for SEO. This is a list of all the steps we use on our own blogs, such as keyword research, crafting effective titles, internal linking, improving readability, and much more.
But even using our checklist, optimizing your content is a lot of work. Luckily, there are handy online tools that can recommend specific steps you should take to improve your content so that it ranks higher on search engine results pages.
That being said, let’s take a look at the best online content optimization tools for WordPress.
How We Test and Review Content Optimization Plugins in WordPress
Here’s how we reviewed different WordPress content optimization plugins:
- We looked at the most popular options. We reviewed the most popular content optimization plugins for WordPress, thoroughly evaluating their pros and cons.
- Real-World Experience: Our team has firsthand experience writing and optimizing content on several WordPress websites. We have used and tested these plugins extensively to ensure they meet our high standards of reliability, ease of use, and security.
- Comprehensive Research: We conduct thorough research to stay up-to-date with the latest WordPress developments. We regularly evaluate new plugins and update our recommendations accordingly to ensure readers have access to the best options available.
Why Trust WPBeginner?
WPBeginner is a dedicated team with more than 16 years of experience in WordPress, marketing, and design. Our WordPress experts research, test, and evaluate each tool on real websites. For more information, see our editorial process.
1. All in One SEO
All in One SEO (AIOSEO) is the best SEO plugin for WordPress websites. It’s beginner-friendly and, at the same time, comes with advanced optimization features and gives you SEO insights from your WordPress dashboard.
Once you finish setting up All in One SEO, it will automatically perform an SEO audit so you can see the overall SEO health score for your website.
It will also give you a detailed report with practical suggestions to improve your SEO score.
AIOSEO will also help you find semantic keywords for your focus keyword, and the headline analyzer tool will give your headline a score and offer tips to make your headline even better.
There’s even a built-in ChatGPT integration to help you automatically generate high-quality post titles and meta descriptions. It will offer 5 relevant suggestions based on your content, and you can add your preferred suggestion in one click.
The plugin’s Link Assistant offers suggestions for relevant posts you can link to and the anchor text to use.
Simply click the ‘Add Link’ button, and the link will automatically be added to your post.
All in One SEO will also automatically analyze readability issues and make suggestions for you in the analysis section. It also lets you take your XML sitemaps to the next level and allows you to add schema markup for your WordPress website.
In addition, AIOSEO seamlessly integrates with SEOBoost to add a powerful writing assistant directly in the WordPress editor. This makes it easy to optimize your content for search engines and outrank your competitors.
For example, you can uncover terms (LSI keywords and synonyms) related to your target keyword to improve search intent and rank for multiple keywords.
Pricing: Starts at $49.60 per year for the Basic plan that supports one site. You can also get started using the free plugin, which offers fewer features.
2. SEOBoost
SEOBoost offers a wide range of tools that help you optimize your online content. For example, it can show you the keywords you should use, the questions you need to answer, how to structure the article, how long the post should be, and how to improve readability.
You can create a Topic Report by typing in a focus keyword, and SEOBoost will analyze relevant content from your competitors to determine what should be included in the post, like important words and phrases, alt text, and much more.
Next, you can paste the contents of your article to see how it can be improved. This will show you the length of your post compared with the typical length of your competitors’ posts and the readability level.
You will see a list of important keywords, and those you have already included will have a green checkmark next to them. In the top left of the screen, you will see a content score, and you can improve your grade by adding keywords that are not already in the post.
SEOBoost also comes with other helpful tools like a Content Brief Editor to help you quickly structure your content. Plus, you can easily collaborate with other team members and assign them to specific content campaigns.
Pricing: Starts at $30/month for the Essential plan, which is for 3 users. You can upgrade to the Team and Agency plans for more user seats. There’s also a 14-day free trial so that you can test out the software.
Alternative: Clearscope
3. Semrush SEO Writing Assistant
SEO Writing Assistant is a content optimization tool created by Semrush, which is one of the best SEO tools on the market. You can use it to check your content in real-time for SEO suggestions and improve the overall SEO score of the content on your WordPress website.
You start by entering a focus keyword to generate content templates based on the top 10 results for that phrase. After that, you will be given scores for readability, SEO, originality, and tone based on rival results.
Next, you look for ways to improve your content. For example, you can use Writing Assistant to optimize your article headline, include recommended keywords, adjust the article length, make sure the tone sounds natural and casual, and check for plagiarism.
We show you how to do all of this step-by-step in our guide on how to use the SEO Writing Assistant in WordPress to improve SEO.
Pricing: Starts at $139.95/month for a Pro account. A free trial is available.
4. Surfer SEO
Surfer SEO helps you write articles that read well and rank high. It helps you structure your posts, provides a list of relevant keywords you should include, and offers a content score and real-time feedback on how to optimize your content.
This software offers many of Clearscope’s features at a more affordable price. For example, when you paste your content into the app, it will give you a content score, show you which keywords you are using and which you aren’t, and display an outline of the post’s structure.
Surfer SEO also offers an audit showing actionable steps to improve your content, a keyword research tool, and a page speed comparison so you know whether you need to improve your page’s load time.
Pricing: Starts at $79/month for the Essential plan when paid annually. This plan supports up to five users. There is a 7-day money-back guarantee if you are not satisfied.
5. Thrive Optimize
Thrive Optimize is one of the best content optimization tools and is super easy to use. It is part of the Thrive Themes suite, which includes an ecosystem of WordPress plugins focused on boosting conversions on your site.
It lets you easily conduct experiments and A/B test two or more different versions of your landing pages to see which one is converting better. This is easy to do without needing to add code snippets, so you can get started in no time.
Simply design a landing page using the visual builder and then create a variant. After that, pick a conversion goal, which includes page visits, opt-in form submissions, and revenue. Once that’s done, go ahead and run the test.
The best part is that you don’t have to switch between tabs or windows to view the results of your experiments. Instead, Thrive Optimize shows a report inside your WordPress dashboard.
This lets you quickly see which variant is converting the best. Besides that, you can create as many variations of a landing page for testing as you want. The plugin also picks a winner and shows the best variant.
You can see our complete Thrive Themes review for more details.
Pricing: Thrive Optimize is part of the Thrive Themes suite, which costs $299 per year and includes 9 other powerful conversion tools. You can also purchase the Thrive Optimize bundle for $199/year.
6. Frase
Frase is an affordable content optimization tool that identifies relevant content you should include in your post and provides a smart outline for your content.
Once you write or paste your content, smart insights will pop up on the right of the screen. It will also be given a content score so you can see how much it needs to be improved.
The app can autocomplete or rewrite sentences for you using artificial intelligence, suggest transition words that add interest to your writing, and recommend topics to include in your post by analyzing the most popular Google search results.
Pricing: Starts at $12/month for the Solo plan when paid annually. A 7-day free trial is available.
7. MarketMuse
MarketMuse is another excellent content optimization tool, but its pricing makes it more suitable for enterprise-level companies than small businesses. It offers applications to help you research, compete, optimize, and more.
You will see a personalized difficulty score of your existing content so you can see how your content competes with articles on other sites. It uses natural language rather than keywords to suggest content you should add to your post.
It also offers tools that perform keyword research and competitive content analysis.
This will show you the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors’ content in a chart so you can add content that they are missing.
Pricing: Starts at $99/month for the Optimize plan, which supports one user. There is also a limited free plan for one user so that you can test the software.
8. Ahrefs
Ahrefs is an excellent keyword explorer and rank tracker tool and comes with a site audit tool to optimize your entire website.
Using the Keyword Explorer, you can come up with keyword ideas by simply typing a keyword into the search box. You will then see a whole list of keyword suggestions.
Its Rank Tracker feature lets you add the keywords you want to track to your Ahrefs dashboard. It shows you an overview of your search engine rankings. You can see your visibility percentage, average position, traffic, SERP features, and changes in position.
You can also use Ahrefs to see the keywords that your competitors are ranking for, so you can create new content pieces targeting keywords related to those subjects.
The Content Explorer feature finds the most popular content for any keyword or topic. You can see why those posts rank higher and replicate their strategy in your own content.
Pricing: Starts at $129/month for the Lite plan. Pay annually and get two months free.
9. Headline Analyzer (Free)
Headline Analyzer is our free tool that helps you evaluate your headlines and improve the copy to make it more engaging and click-worthy. It provides data-driven insights and suggestions for creating irresistible SEO titles.
It can be tricky for beginners to come up with a headline that instantly captures your users’ attention and gets them to click your website link. This is where you can use the headline analyzer tool.
All you have to do is enter your blog title, and the Headline Analyzer will give it an overall content score along with suggestions on how to improve it.
The tool will also tell you if your title needs to be longer or shorter to make sure it displays properly on SERPs (search engine results pages). It even shows you a preview of how your blog will appear in Google search results.
Aside from the headline analyzer, WPBeginner offers other free content optimization tools, including:
- Keyword Generator – Instantly generate 300+ new keyword ideas from Google that are related to your main topic keyword.
- Keyword Density Checker – Find the most optimized keywords in any content to fix over-optimization and boost rankings.
- Website SEO Analyzer – Performs an SEO audit of your site, finds critical errors, and provides an SEO report to fix them.
Pricing: Absolutely free.
Expert Guides on WordPress Optimization
Now that you have seen the best content optimization tools, you may like to see some other guides related to WordPress optimization:
- Tips to Optimize Your Blog Posts for SEO Like a Pro (Checklist)
- How to Use the SEO Writing Assistant in WordPress to Improve SEO
- How to Do a SEO Content Gap Analysis (Beginner’s Guide)
- How to Avoid Keyword Stuffing & Fix Over Optimization in SEO
- Ultimate WordPress SEO Guide for Beginners (Step by Step)
- How to Check if Your Website is SEO Optimized
- How to Optimize Images for Web Performance Without Losing Quality
We hope this tutorial helped you find the best online content optimization tools for WordPress. You may also want to see our guide on how to increase your blog traffic or our expert picks for the best WordPress landing page plugins.
If you liked this article, then please subscribe to our YouTube Channel for WordPress video tutorials. You can also find us on Twitter and Facebook.
Jiří Vaněk
I’ve tried many of these tools in their free versions, and I’ve only paid for the premium versions of a few. Overall, they are excellent tools. For example, I love AIO SEO, which helps me optimize my content in incredible ways, and I use the PRO version for that. I also really like Semrush, but I only have a free account there because this tool is designed for true SEO professionals, and the price reflects that—it’s very high for a single hobby blog. The issue isn’t with the quality of the tools; most of them are top-notch. The problem is the cost. Until a website is well-monetized and can sustain itself, the prices are really unreasonably high (unreasonably in the context of a single site). Nevertheless, thanks for the great list. For tools I don’t yet know, I’ll be happy to check if they have any limited free accounts I could try. I enjoy exploring new things related to content creation and optimization.
kzain
There are some really powerful options here,
but I can see how the price tags might be a bit steep for new bloggers just starting.
That’s why I love that AIOSEO is included. The free plan offers a ton of features to get your feet wet with SEO optimization, and the paid plans are very affordable compared to some of the others.
This makes it a perfect option for beginners to learn the ropes and see the value of SEO tools before diving into a more expensive option. As your blog grows and your expertise expands, you can always upgrade or explore some of the other tools on this list.
Andrew Wilkerson
Doesn’t anyone use Yoast anymore? I get reports from Ahrefs and others for years now. I often get overwhelmed looking at it all and don’t know how to fix half the things it reports anyway. I’ve also used Diib and get reports from them also. Paid for the premium version once for a few months but still couldn’t really see much value especially when I don’t know what errors are normal and to be expected on an old site and what things I should focus on. For example I spent ages erasing what I figured were bad backlinks and disavowed them, went through a long list night after night. Spent hours on it and then after a few months my website was dropping in the SERPs and ended up ranking worse it has in 20 years. Probably did more damage than good. I won’t do that again.
WPBeginner Support
People still do use the Yoast plugin, we mainly prefer AIOSEO as an alternative for a beginner friendly option. Should you decide to try a content optimization tool again and hopefully one from our list we would recommend checking for any documentation from the tool itself as normally they elaborate on what the specific errors mean and what should be done about them.
You can also reach out to the support for these tools for help understanding what each error means including specific errors that you are unsure how to proceed with.
Admin
Moinuddin Waheed
i used to use yoast seo and infact it was my first tool for seo.
Yeast seo is a good option and has ruled the market for a long time.
But with the recent advancements in the frequent algorithms changes by search engines and frequent updates has left it behind and new market players have occupied the place for the good.
I am currently using AIOSEO and it suffices all the needs of seo.
the best thing about AIOSEO is its frequent updates to keep up to date with the new changes.
Moinuddin Waheed
These tools are so expensive for beginners bloggers and a beginner blogger can’t make a big decision for making a purchase of these.
However, AIOSEO is affordable and even it’s free plan has many things at its end.
one can get started with this and as time passes and one gets expertise can upgrade and can even move to more options to explore.
Dennis Muthomi
Yeah that’s the good thing about AIOSEO. For me I use it along side Surfer SEO which is a bit more expensive but it is worth it.
I like to use more than one tool when it comes to SEO stuff so that I can get to compare data and make adjustments when needed.
uzoma ichetaonye
To me, i will prefer using one paid tool and the free one which is the headline analyzer. I am sure it will help me get a more accurate results as compared to one and it is a bit more economical.
But if one is financially buoyant enough to afford 2 or more paid tools, then that is good on its own. Good luck to you.