AI SEO Tools: What Works and What's Just Hype

The AI gold rush is in full swing. Every SEO tool from here to Timbuktu slapped "AI-powered" on their homepage and called it a day.

Problem is, most of it's horseshit.

You know the drill. ChatGPT hits the mainstream, suddenly every software company has an "AI assistant" that's just the OpenAI API with a fresh coat of paint. They charge you $99/month for something you could build in 15 minutes with API credits.

But here's the thing. Some AI tools actually work. Not all the hype is hype.

The trick is knowing which ones are genuine improvements and which ones are just glorified wrappers around ChatGPT. Let's cut through the noise.

The AI Gold Rush (And Why Most of It's Garbage)

In 2024, AI became the magic word that makes investors throw money at you. Every SaaS company added "AI-powered" to their pitch deck. Most didn't change anything meaningful.

Here's what actually happened:

• Tools that were already good at keyword research added GPT-4 to spit out content briefs
• Tools that did technical SEO audits added AI to write alt text for your images
• Tools that tracked rankings added "AI Overviews tracking" because Google's now showing AI summaries
• Completely new tools popped up promising "one-click SEO" and "automated ranking"

The first three? Actually useful in the right hands. The last one? Total scam.

The problem with AI in SEO is the same problem with AI everywhere else. It's really good at looking productive while doing nothing useful. It can write 10,000 words of perfectly formatted, completely generic content that says absolutely nothing.

And Google knows this.

They updated their spam policies specifically to deal with "scaled content abuse". Translation: if you're pumping out thousands of AI-generated pages with zero human oversight, you're getting demoted or deindexed.

But before we get into what doesn't work, let's talk about what does.

What AI Is Actually Good At (When You Use It Right)

AI isn't useless. You just have to know what it's for.

Think of AI as a force multiplier. It makes good people better. It doesn't replace them.

Here's what AI legitimately excels at in SEO:

Content Gap Analysis

This is where AI shines. Tools like Surfer SEO and Clearscope use AI to scan the top 20 ranking pages for your target keyword. They figure out what topics those pages cover that you don't.

Surfer's "Coverage Booster" is a perfect example. It uses LLMs to flag missing facts and subtopics. You're not using AI to write content. You're using it to find gaps in your existing content.

That's the difference between AI as a crutch and AI as a tool.

SERP-Grounded Briefs

Ahrefs released their AI Content Helper in September 2024. It creates content briefs based on actual search results, not just keyword data.

The key word there is "grounded". The AI isn't making stuff up. It's analyzing what's already ranking and telling you what Google wants to see.

Then you - the human - write something better.

Technical SEO Automation

This is unglamorous but incredibly useful. Screaming Frog SEO Spider now integrates with ChatGPT, Gemini, and Claude.

You can run custom prompts during a crawl. Generate missing alt text. Summarize content anomalies. Find semantic similarities.

All the boring, repetitive tasks that take forever but don't require creative thinking? AI handles those. You focus on strategy.

Keyword Research Acceleration

Every major SEO suite - Ahrefs, Semrush, SE Ranking - added AI to speed up keyword research.

It's not doing anything fundamentally new. It's just faster at clustering keywords, identifying intent, and suggesting related terms.

You still need to know what you're doing. AI just helps you do it in hours instead of days.

Link Building Prospecting

Tools like BuzzStream's ListIQ use AI to build hyper-targeted media lists from sources like Google News.

But here's the catch: you cannot use AI to write your outreach emails. Journalists can spot AI-generated pitches from a mile away. They hate them.

You use AI to find the right people to contact. Then you write the damn email yourself.

Where AI Falls Flat (And Will Get You Penalized)

Now for the bad news. There's a lot AI can't do. Or shouldn't do.

Writing Content That Doesn't Sound Like a Robot

ChatGPT writes like a committee. Every sentence is technically correct and completely forgettable.

You know the tells:

• "In conclusion..."
• "It's important to note that..."
• "Let's dive in..."
• "Game-changer"
• Lists that always have 5 or 7 items

Google doesn't explicitly penalize AI content. But they will demote low-value, unoriginal content. And AI without heavy editing is both.

The algorithm can't tell if a robot wrote it. But it can tell if it's generic, derivative garbage with no unique insights.

Building Real Authority

Google's E-E-A-T guidelines matter more than ever. Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness.

AI has none of those. It can't cite original research because it hasn't done any. It can't share personal experience because it doesn't have any.

If you're in YMYL niches (health, finance, legal), AI-generated content is basically worthless without extensive human oversight and fact-checking.

Creating Actual Backlinks

You can't AI your way into backlinks. Sorry.

Some tools claim to automate link building with "AI-powered outreach". What they mean is they'll spam thousands of websites with generic emails.

The average time to acquire a single quality backlink through outreach? Eight days. And that's with personalized, human-written pitches.

AI-generated outreach emails have a response rate approaching zero. Journalists, bloggers, and editors get hundreds of these a day. They delete them instantly.

Real backlinks come from real relationships and real value. You can't automate that.

The Four Categories: What Works, What Doesn't

Let's break this down by category.

Content Generation

What works:

• Using ChatGPT or Gemini to draft outlines and brainstorm ideas
• Asking AI to rewrite sections for clarity
• Generating schema markup
• Creating meta descriptions (but always review them)

What doesn't work:

• Publishing AI content without editing
• Using "one-click" content generators that promise 50 articles a week
• Programmatic SEO at scale with zero human oversight
• Letting AI write about topics that require expertise (health, finance, legal)

Bottom line: AI accelerates writing. It doesn't replace it.

Keyword Research

What works:

• Ahrefs, Semrush, SE Ranking for AI-augmented keyword clustering
• Using AI to expand keyword ideas and identify intent
• Tools that analyze SERP patterns to suggest keywords

What doesn't work:

• Trusting AI intent classification blindly (tools disagree on whether keywords are informational, commercial, or navigational)
• Relying entirely on AI-suggested keywords without validating them against real search data
• Using AI to predict which keywords will rank (it can't)

Bottom line: AI helps you research faster. It doesn't tell you what will rank.

Link Building

What works:

• BuzzStream + ListIQ for building targeted prospect lists
• Using AI to verify email addresses (Hunter, Snov, Apollo)
• AI-assisted personalization that you then heavily edit

What doesn't work:

• Automated outreach at scale with AI-generated emails
• Any tool promising "100 backlinks in 30 days" through automation
• Using AI to write guest post pitches (journalists spot this instantly)

Bottom line: AI finds prospects. Humans build relationships.

Technical SEO

What works:

• Screaming Frog's AI integrations for automating repetitive tasks
• AI-powered semantic similarity detection
• Automated alt text generation for images
• Using AI to summarize content anomalies during site audits

What doesn't work:

• Trusting AI to diagnose complex technical issues without human verification
• Using AI to automatically "fix" SEO issues without understanding what's broken
• Relying on AI for strategic technical decisions (site architecture, canonicalization, etc.)

Bottom line: AI automates the boring stuff. You still need to know what you're doing.

The Wrapper Problem (And How to Spot It)

Here's a dirty secret: most "AI SEO tools" are just wrappers.

They take the OpenAI API or Google's Gemini API, add a simple interface, and charge you $99/month.

You could build the same thing yourself with $20 of API credits.

How do you spot a wrapper?

1. Check if they mention which AI model they use. If they're cagey about it, they're probably just using ChatGPT.
2. Look at the pricing. If it's subscription-based with no usage limits, they're marking up API costs.
3. Test the output. If it sounds exactly like ChatGPT, it probably is.
4. Check their changelog. Wrappers rarely innovate. They just update when OpenAI updates.

The good tools build proprietary systems. Surfer SEO's content analyzer isn't just ChatGPT. Ahrefs' AI Content Helper is integrated with their massive SERP database.

That's the difference between a tool and a wrapper.

Why Backlinks Can't Be Faked with AI

Let's talk about backlinks specifically because this is where the most bullshit lives.

Some tools promise "AI-powered link building" or "automated backlink acquisition". Here's what they actually do:

• Scrape websites that accept guest posts
• Generate generic pitches with ChatGPT
• Spam thousands of site owners
• Maybe get you 5-10 low-quality links from garbage sites

Real backlinks - the kind that actually move the needle - come from authoritative sites. Wikipedia. Reddit. Hacker News. Major news outlets.

You can't fake your way onto those sites. They don't accept AI-generated content. They don't respond to automated outreach.

The only way to get those links is to either:

1. Earn them through genuinely valuable content
2. Acquire dead domains that already have them and redirect them

That second option is what we do at Revised. We find expired domains from authoritative sources, verify the backlinks are real, and redirect them to your site.

No AI required. Just old-fashioned SEO work at scale.

Because here's the thing about backlinks: Google's entire algorithm is built around them. They're the hardest signal to fake. And AI doesn't change that.

How Revised Uses Automation (Not "AI") Smartly

We don't use AI. We use automation. There's a difference.

AI tries to be smart. Automation just does what it's told, faster.

Here's our process:

1. Crawl the web for recently dead domains from high-authority sources
2. Verify the backlinks are real using historical data
3. Match domains to relevant websites in our marketplace
4. Handle the redirect when someone buys

None of that requires AI. It requires good crawlers, solid data pipelines, and domain expertise.

We're not trying to generate content or fake backlinks. We're finding real backlinks that already exist and transferring their value to your site.

That's why it works. It's based on how Google actually works, not how we wish it worked.

The best SEO tools don't try to outsmart Google. They work within the system.

The AI Overviews Problem (And Why You Should Track It)

Here's something you actually need to pay attention to: Google's AI Overviews.

These are the AI-generated summaries that show up above regular search results. They launched in the US in May 2024 and now appear in roughly 1 in 5 searches.

The data is ugly:

• CTR drops 34-46% when AI Overviews are present
• Zero-click searches went from 56% to 69% for news queries
• Traditional links get pushed down the page

If you're not tracking whether you're cited in AI Overviews, you're flying blind.

Tools like SE Ranking, Semrush, and LLMrefs now track this. It's a new metric you actually need to watch.

Because here's the kicker: if Google's AI is citing your competitors but not you, you're losing traffic even if your traditional rankings stay the same.

This is one area where AI tools are genuinely adding new value. They're tracking a new search format that didn't exist before.

The Tools That Actually Work

Based on everything we know, here's what's worth paying for:

All-in-One Suites

• Ahrefs - Deep data, AI Content Helper, SERP analysis
• Semrush - Comprehensive suite, AI Overviews tracking, best for agencies
• SE Ranking - Most cost-effective for tracking at scale

Content Optimization

• Surfer SEO - Best for content gap analysis and SERP-grounded optimization
• Clearscope - Premium NLP coverage and readability guidance

Technical SEO

• Screaming Frog - Now with AI integrations for automating repetitive tasks
• Free up to 500 URLs, paid for larger sites

Link Building

• BuzzStream + ListIQ - AI-powered prospecting, human-written outreach
• Hunter/Snov/Apollo - Email verification and data enrichment

AI Visibility Tracking

• LLMrefs - Tracks citations across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews
• SE Ranking/Semrush - Built-in AI Overviews tracking

Notice what's not on this list? Any tool promising one-click rankings or automated content that ranks without editing.

What You Should Actually Do

Here's the honest truth about AI SEO tools:

Use them to go faster, not to avoid doing the work.

AI can help you:

• Research keywords in hours instead of days
• Find content gaps you'd miss manually
• Automate repetitive technical tasks
• Draft content that you then edit heavily
• Build prospect lists faster

AI cannot:

• Replace strategy
• Build real authority
• Create unique insights
• Earn quality backlinks
• Make bad content rank

The SEOs winning right now aren't the ones using AI to generate 100 articles a week. They're the ones using AI to do better work, faster.

They're researching more thoroughly. Optimizing more precisely. Building better prospecting lists. Then doing the human work that actually matters.

If you want backlinks that actually move the needle, you need authority. Real authority from sites like Wikipedia, major news outlets, and established communities.

That's what Revised does. We find dead domains that already have those backlinks and redirect them to your site. No AI. No automation. Just legitimate SEO work that Google respects.

The future of SEO isn't replacing humans with AI. It's humans using AI to do things that were impossible before.

Don't fall for the hype. Use the tools that work. Do the work that matters.

Get started with real backlinks from authoritative sources →