Last Updated on 4 months by Christopher Jan Benitez
Providing “high-quality,” “actionable,” and “error-free” content won’t cut it anymore. It’s because everybody offers the same promises to clients.
That’s why I approach writing differently compared to others:
I ensure that all my articles are maximized to rank on Google for their target keywords.
By getting more clients to appear on top of search engine results pages (SERPs), the happy they are, the more work I get, and the more money I can spend on new Nintendo Switch games!!
But I digress.
To help me create content that clients will love, I use search engine optimization (SEO) writing tools to make my job much easier.
There are many excellent SEO content writing tools, but below are some of the best ones I’ve used so far and are part of my content creation process.
#1 – LowFruits
Perfect for: topic and keyword research
Your target keyword is crucial to the success of your SEO content.
It won’t rank on Google search if it’s not optimized for keywords with high search volume and low competition.
That’s why you need to find such keywords to help position your content to rank on the first page of Google search results when people search for them.
Using tools like Google Keyword Planner and Ubersuggest, while helpful to some extent, falls short of providing you with more detailed information about a search phrase.
In particular, both tools don’t show how easy or difficult it is to rank for the keyword, what the intent of each term is, and other factors.
As a result, you have no idea which queries to target in your content!
To help you develop a low-hanging fruit keyword, use a keyword research tool like LowFruits*.
It’s a tool similar to Keyword Chef in a lot of ways. You can find tons of long tail keywords you can target in your content from a seed keyword.
LowFruits then provides various filters to help you find search terms relevant to your writing goals.
But before I get ahead of myself even further, let’s start at the very beginning:
Perform Traditional Keyword Research
You can sign up for a free account and gain a limited number of daily searches.
However, if you purchased credits to your account (more on this later), you will be able to unlock the true power of LowFruits.
Go to KWFinder on the left dashboard. This loads the page where you can enter your seed keyword and extract hundreds and thousands of keywords.
You can also use the wildcard search operator on the search bar to help you find more precise keywords, similar to what Keyword Chef allows you to do.
Also, enter the correct country and language for your query for accurate results in the report.
Give the tool time until it finishes organizing the data for you.
The next page will show the number of keywords the tool extracted.
From here, click “Access” to show you these keywords.
LowFruits analyzes the first few keywords for free. Here, it shows you the search volume, SERP features, and, most importantly, the Weak Spots.
If you want to extract the other keywords in the list, click on the check box just below the Weak Spots button on the menu. These are mostly long-tail keywords with specific intent and low KD, which you want to target in your content. Another tool that can help you find these is Long Tail Pro.
LowFruits then asks you to select all keywords on the page or the entire selection.
Once you’ve chosen the keywords you wish to extract data for, click on the “SERP Extr.” button so the tool can analyze them.
Wait for a bit before you can see the results.
Identify Low-Hanging Fruit Keywords
We need to go back and talk about the Weak Spots feature, as it’ll play a vital role in your keyword research process.
It works like the Keyword Difficulty metric, which tells you how difficult ranking for the search term is.
However, it shows you different-colored fruit icons to indicate keyword competitiveness.
A green icon means that the keyword has a site on the top ten of search results that’s not strong. The tool measures this by looking at the site’s Domain Authority.
The lower the score is (on a scale of 0-100, 0 being the lowest), the easier it will be to leapfrog over them on SERPs simply by writing great content.
On the other hand, a blue icon under the Weak Spots column means the site ranking on the top 10 of SERPs for the term is a forum site.
Historically, you can easily outrank forum sites since the information isn’t as organized adequately as an article or blog.
From here, a keyword can have a mix of blue and green fruit icons.
And if the keyword shows ten green fruit icons under the Weak Spots column, you should target the keyword to rank on top of its search results!
Filter Keywords Based on Your Needs
While targeting low-hanging fruit keywords is essential to increase your organic traffic, you must approach your keyword research more strategically.
In this case, knowing the search intent for a keyword allows you to create topical authority by creating content users want to read for that specific keyword.
This allows you to rank on top of organic search for your keywords and attract more organic traffic!
To know the kind of content you have to create, you must know the different intent your keywords may have.
For example, you want to find a mix of informational and transactional keywords to target in your upcoming SEO campaign.
The informational content sets the stage for you to showcase your expertise.
Once you’ve earned their trust, it’ll be much easier to lead them down your commercial pages, where they can purchase the product or service you’re recommending.
Going back to LowFruits, you can filter the keywords based on intent by clicking on the Intent button on the menu.
All the keywords you can filter here have commercial or transactional intent. However, you can organize them based on whether the user is still considering purchasing or has bought the product already.
This can be valuable to your keyword research since you want to create content that satisfies people at various stages of your sales funnel.
But if you want to beef up your content at your funnel’s ToFu stage, the People Also Ask (PAA) filter comes in handy.
Click on it to open a small window allowing you to filter the result to show only PAA keywords or remove them from the list.
These filters allow you to analyze highly targeted keywords for your SEO content writing research.
For instance, you can target PAA keywords with low competition based on LowFruits’ analysis and write about it in your blog. It’s that simple!
Pricing
Unlike most SEO tools, LowFruits has a credit-based subscription.
Basically, you buy credits from the site. Each keyword analyzed by the tool costs one (1) credit. That includes the search volume, Weak Spots, and other factors.
The cool thing about LowFruits is that the credits don’t expire until the following year (365 days after purchase). That means you can still use your purchased credits over the next few months.
Not to mention, the credits aren’t costly by standards, especially if you just occasionally search for content ideas.
LowFruits also offers a subscription-based payment ideal for power users, particularly for niche site owners who need thousands of keywords every month to power their blogs.
#2 – SE Ranking
Perfect for: Clustering new keywords
SE Ranking is an SEO tool that lets you monitor your keyword rankings. It can also let you analyze website competitors, perform on-page SEO analysis, and can even help you find related keywords to optimize for your topic.
However, I primarily use the tool for its Keyword Grouper feature. This is where you export the keywords extracted from your keyword tool and cluster similar terms.
As a content writer, I love this feature for helping my content increase its chances of ranking for multiple keywords instead of one.
As you should know by now, a page can rank for multiple keywords simultaneously. This is true even if you target a single keyword in your content.
At this point, it’s a matter of identifying which keywords to target in your content and why.
Thankfully, you don’t have to overthink it because SE Ranking will do the heavy lifting for you.
Before we begin, download the keywords you’ve gathered from your keyword tool.
Using LowFruits, you can check the boxes of keywords you want to export and click on “Export” to download them as a list in an XLS file.
Now, click on More > Keyword Grouper from your SE Ranking dashboard to access the feature.
On the next page, enter the name of the report. Then determine the accuracy and method by which the tool will group the keywords.
By default, SE Ranking will group keywords that share three (3) similar URLs on the first page of SERPs with the chance that it might group irrelevant terms into a cluster.
You can change the settings before you begin the clustering process. For now, we’ll leave the settings as is.
Next, scroll down to find where to include the keywords you want to group. Copy and paste your list on the text box or upload the keywords sheet.
Keep in mind that each keyword requires you to pay outside of your subscription with SE Ranking.
Granted, the rate isn’t very high, but the amount may pile up if you have thousands of keywords you wish to group. You can, however, lower the cost by not including the volume check from the research.
If you’re all set, click “Start grouping.” Wait for a few minutes or hours before you get access to the report.
Once you do, you should see something similar to the one below:
It shows you the number of clusters grouped by the tool. For each cluster, you can see how many keywords it has and its total search volume.
Click on each group to unfurl the results and show you the keywords grouped into which group.
As mentioned, there may be irrelevant keywords lumped into the clusters. So, you must review the clusters first and take out the unrelated terms before optimizing for each one.
From here, you can decide which keyword groups to target as a content writer for your site or client based on the metrics provided.
If you want, you can run the cluster using LowFruits again to determine which among the keywords have the best Weak Spots, i.e., lots of low-quality sites ranking for the terms.
This way, you can further refine your cluster by targeting only low-hanging fruit keywords!
Other features include competitor research, page monitoring, and more.
#3 – Google Search Console
Perfect for: Clustering keywords to optimize for old content
Among the free SEO writing tools, Google Search Console (GSC) may be the most indispensable.
Initially, it helps you monitor your site’s search performance based on multiple SEO factors.
For content writers, you can use this to identify which pages are getting the most clicks and impressions.
First, you must install GSC’s code into your site months before doing the steps below. If you’re working for clients, ask them to give you access to their GSC account.
Also, your site should be generating a modest amount of traffic. If not, it won’t gather any data for you.
Now that’s settled, log in to your account, choose the site you wish to analyze, and click “Performance” on the left sidebar.
Scroll down the page and click on the Pages tab.
This should show your sites’ top pages based on clicks and impressions.
From here, identify pages that have low clicks and high impressions.These pages may be ranking for multiple search queries but not high enough to get clicked on.
Once you’ve clicked on a page to analyze, click on the Query tab to show the queries that your page appeared on SERPs.
Use the information here to research which keywords here you should target when re-optimizing the page.
If you scroll up the page, you should also see the average ranking of the page for all the terms combined.
This could be useful if you want to identify pages that are ranking outside of the first page of Google.
So, by optimizing your content (which we’ll get to later on), you can raise its ranking for these keywords and generate even more organic traffic!
#4 – ChatGPT
Perfect for: Content brainstorming and ideation
A lot has been said about ChatGPT over the past few weeks as of writing that others have said everything I could be writing about it in some shape or form.
Instead, I’ll let the tool do the talking for itself:
Cool. How about an example?
Keep in mind that ChatGPT only took seconds to generate the text above.
However, as mentioned in the subheading above, it’s a great content brainstorming tool.
That means I use it to help me build the ideas I’ll write in certain sections of my article.
I don’t publish the text generated by ChatGPT as is. I make sure I edit it first and confirm if what the text says is true.
Whatever people may say about the tool, it’s still not powerful enough to write content on its own.
It still needs a real human to verify the information it’s saying and edit the piece to make it sound more personal.
That said, it’s simply one of the best free content writing tools you’ll find right now.
Take advantage of ChatGPT while it’s still available and find more use cases for your writing needs.
#5 – SurferSEO
Perfect for: content optimization
Once you have chosen the keywords for your content, you need to strategize how to write it with SEO in mind.
It’s not as simple as mentioning the keyword on the title, meta description, subheadings, and various parts of the article.
There’s a good chance that all your competitors are doing the same thing now. So, it would help if you did something else to help you stand out from the pack.
To help you set your content apart, use SurferSEO*, a tool that lets you observe the best content optimization practices for your web pages.
You will be optimizing your content for your keyword and getting insights on which on-page factors you need to prioritize in your content.
Analyze SERPs
Upon signing up for an account, enter the keyword on the search bar so the tool can analyze the pages ranking for it on Google and determine the factors that need your utmost attention.
Once the results pop up, you will see a graph showing the factors that potentially affect SERPs, such as keyword density, site speed, headings, meta tags, and more.
For this example, here are the results for the keyword “content marketing:”
In the graph, you will see the graphical representation of the number of words for every ten results (or every page) of search results.
The overall results from the first page have over 4,000 words. The graph trends downward as you move to the following ten results and so on.
On the left of the screenshot are the different ranking factors. You will see some of the elements in green.
It means those factors bear the most relevance in the ranking of the pages. In the example you just saw, you need to optimize your content based on the number of words, keyword density, and character count, among others.
To make the factors appear on the graph, check the boxes. Below is what the chart will look like after you do it:
You must choose the best factors to include in the graph to make it readable. At this point, the discrepancy between the number of characters of each post and the others is too wide. As a result, it renders the entire graph unreadable.
This content optimization software helps you identify which factors to optimize in your post.
The idea is to stick with the figures of the first ten results for the keyword.
The SEO content writing software helps you associate your post with the page ranking on the first page. By sheer association, you increase your chances of ranking for your target keyword.
Also, it prevents you from over-optimizing your content for factors that don’t bear any relevance in SERPs.
This enables you to avoid antiquated “tactics” like keyword stuffing in your content to ensure that you only include the best possible information about the topic in your articles.
In fact, SurferSEO works even better if you want to analyze your published posts concerning pages that are ranking for their respective keywords!
When you’ve analyzed the keyword you want to optimize your content for, type in the URL of your page on the “Enter custom URL *” entry. You can do this even if your page is ranking for this keyword or not.
Once you have added your post, click on the Audit button on the right to view a brief report of your page.
Before running through the report, familiarize yourself with the keyword’s most critical factors in green. It shows you what you need to edit and improve on optimizing your content.
Click the “Show details” button for more information about the suggestion so you can make an informed decision instead of just implementing the changes.
Optimize Content for Your Target Keywords
Aside from using the SERP Analyzer, you can skip the steps above and use Content Editor instead.
It’s an SEO content optimization tool that uses natural language processing (NLP) to gather related keywords about the search phrase you want to optimize your content for.
Once the keywords have been processed, you must mention the terms in your content to increase your score.
To use it, go to the Content Editor and enter the keywords you want to optimize for your content.
Remember the keywords you clustered a while back? Well, you can enter them here and optimize for them simultaneously!
However, you can only enter a maximum of twenty (20) keywords into the Content Editor. So, be sure to include the very best keywords here.
Once Surfer SEO has analyzed the keywords, open the Content Editor to see something like this:
The goal is to create optimized content as measured by the Content Score indicator on the right sidebar.
The best way to do this is by including the words and phrases found on the lower-right side (the NLP keywords) in the article.
These keywords have a close relationship and correlation with the keywords you’re optimizing for.
So, by including them in the content, you increase its topical relevance to your target keywords, thus increasing your score.
And the higher your content’s score is, the higher its chances of ranking on top of search results!
Also, a Chrome extension lets you show the Surfer Content Editor sidebar on Google Docs. This is great if you prefer creating content on this writing platform.
The Content Editor is very similar to SEMrush’s SEO Content Template and SEO Writing Assistant (I’ve discussed this feature of SEMrush comprehensively in this post).
Cluster Keywords Automatically
As one of the best content writing tools for SEO, Surfer SEO allows you to cluster keywords as well, albeit differently than the process above.
Using the tool’s Keyword Research feature, enter your seed keyword.
Once the results come in, you will see keyword clusters, their respective monthly search volumes, and keyword difficulty.
Click on a cluster to see the keywords included in each.
Once you’ve chosen cluster you want to work on, click “Create Content Editor” so you write content for it,
Identify Existing Content to Re-optimize
What makes Surfer SEO the only SEO content writing tool you’ll need is that it also identifies which content to optimize for your site.
To do this, click on Domain Planner and enter your domain URL on the text bar.
In the results, you’ll see the pages ranking for keywords and their respective Content Scores.
The goal is to identify which pages are not drawing enough clicks from SERPs based on the keywords they’re ranking for.
To help you identify these pages, flip the Low Hanging Fruit switch to show pages with an average position between 10 and 20.
From here, you should be able to identify which pages to prioritize optimizing first.
You can also use its other filters to narrow down the pages to your specified metrics.
The Domain Planner is a great feature for content writers who would like to offer this as a service to clients.
#6 – Quillbot
Perfect for: content paraphrasing
Here’s an issue that content writers face regularly:
They’ll find themselves repeating the same thing over and over again.
This happens if they’re writing about the same topics and covering the same headings in all their articles.
This is also an issue that bloggers and even niche site owners deal with on a daily basis.
They can use ChatGPT to help break the monotony by asking the tool to write it. However, given the tool’s free nature, it’ll be only a matter of time before you have to pay for it.
So, to help you get ahead of the curb, use the content paraphraser Quillbot.
What it does is reword a sentence or paragraph into a unique passage that you can use in your content.
Let’s say you’re writing a roundup post about the best content optimization tools.
And part of the task is to describe what the product is and what it does.
For this, head on to a site like GetApp and find the tool there. Then click on the App Info to show you its description. Copy the text you’ll find there.
Paste the text on Quilbot to paraphrase it.
Choose from different modes how you want the tool to paraphrase your content.
Once you’re happy with the paraphrased text, you want to ensure it’s grammatically correct.
If so, paste the text onto the tool’s Grammar Editor and fix all the errors the tool spots.
Once done, the last thing you want to do is use Quillbot’s Plagiarism Checker.
Since you copied the text from an existing page, there’s a chance that search engines may flag the text as duplicate content.
But by using the Plagiarism Checker, you can identify which passages in the text Google can detect. This way, you can manually edit them to avoid further detection. Another tool you can use to ensure content uniqueness is PlagiarismCheck.org.
Keep in mind that Quillbot provides you with a limited number of pages to analyze using this feature, even for paid subscriptions.
Also, one (1) page is equivalent to 250 words. So, an article worth 1,100 words will be considered five pages off your credits (5 x 250 =1,250) even if you didn’t maximize the last page credit.
So, be smart when analyzing text so you don’t burn through your credits.
Quillbot still requires manual intervention on your part (what SEO writing tool doesn’t need one?). Nonetheless, more than half of the job is done for you.
All you must do here is edit the page in a few minutes based on the plagiarized text the tool detected, and you’re good to go!
#7 – Grammarly Premium
Perfect for: editing and proofreading
What makes content SEO-friendly is how grammatically and structurally correct it is.
It doesn’t matter how valuable your content is. Nobody wants to read incoherent content filled with basic errors.
And you won’t create clients if you keep publishing articles that aren’t optimized for humans to read.
To help you clean up your text, run Grammarly*.
The free tool lets you download the Chrome extension to edit the post as you write whenever the tool spots an error.
The free account lets you fix major errors, but you need to subscribe to the premium plan for minor mistakes and suggestions to make your content much better.
Grammarly Premium scores your content out of 100. While striving to get a perfect score is ideal, you don’t have to. To be honest, having a score of over 90 is good enough for me.
Aside from detecting over 250 grammatical errors, it identifies plagiarism for you.
Run the plagiarism checker to ensure that your post doesn’t have identical blocks of text found on published pages.
Search engines frown on duplicate content, and by keeping your post unique, you increase its chances of ranking for your keyword.
You’re missing out on a lot if you’re not subscribed to Grammarly Premium as a content writer!
The tool checks over 250 common grammar mistakes and belts out suggestions on correcting them in your article with just a few clicks of a button.
Otherwise, the free content writing software version of Grammarly is good enough to detect significant errors that make your content difficult to read. You can even integrate it with Google Docs to simplify your workflow further.
So, at the very least, give its free version a shot.
BONUS: Optimize your titles using this headline analyzer tool
Creating a great headline is a craft. It may sound easy to write a headline but coming up with one that generates enough CTR is not easy.
This is where a Headline Analyzer tool by IsItWP comes in to help you create enticing headlines. This tool helps you drive clicks and traffic by analyzing the headline based on word count, sentiment, power words, search preview, and six more factors to suggest an overall score.
The best they suggest is getting a 70 or above!
Thanks to ReviewsXP for making this article possible.