AI Indexes
GTM AI Index
September 2026 Edition, published September 15, 2026 · The permanent record of that edition, superseded since. The current standing is on the category page →
Index › Marketing › September 2026 Edition

SEO and content optimization platforms

Asked as “SEO and content optimization platform”, and as “SEO content optimization tool”, on behalf of a mid-market B2B company. 58 first choices recorded across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, twelve models each.
Standing · first-choice share
21%
Contested · Surfer SEO 17%
21Semrush17Surfer SEO14Clearscope48others

30% of first choices, right on the leader line, in the least stable category in the edition: every one of the six models changed its first choice when the question was reworded.

ShowinginAll 112 categories in the September 2026 Edition →

By buyer segment

The same question asked on behalf of a different buyer. Each standing is computed within its segment; they sit side by side and are never added together.

The standing

Share is the count of first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts, over all twelve models, for a mid-market B2B company. Ordered by share.
ProductFirst-choice shareNegative rateLabelsQuadrant
01Semrush21%21%58accepted challenger
02Surfer SEO17%17%58accepted challenger
03Clearscope14%17%48accepted challenger
04SE Ranking10%4%24accepted challenger
05NeuronWriter7%0%10accepted challenger
06Ubersuggest7%30%10criticized challenger
07Ahrefs3%17%42accepted challenger
08Frase3%12%32accepted challenger
09MarketMuse3%7%29accepted challenger
10Conductor3%7%15accepted challenger
Show the two products at 0%, ordered by negative rate
12Moz0%17%12accepted challenger
11Google Search Console Lab in the set0%6%17accepted challenger
Bars are the share of first choices, 0 to 100Every product with at least 10 labels here. Every product name links to its product page.

Google Search Console is made by Google, whose model Gemini 3.5 Flash is in the set. On the four share prompts that model made it the first choice zero times of 4; the other eleven models zero times of 44. Lab treatment is defined on the method page; the row is marked, not excluded.

All twenty-eight head-to-head pages: the top eight products, each against each

Recommended versus criticized

Every product with at least 10 labels here, on both axes. The 30% line names a quadrant, not the verdict above: that one needs more than 40%.

Criticized challengerCriticized default
Negative label rate →
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05
06
07
08
09
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12
Accepted challengerEndorsed leader
0%First-choice share → · lines at 30% share and 25% negative40%
Key
01Semrush21%
02Surfer SEO17%
03Clearscope14%
04SE Ranking10%
05NeuronWriter7%
06Ubersuggest7%
07Ahrefs3%
08Frase3%
09MarketMuse3%
10Conductor3%
11Google Search Console0%
12Moz0%

What they warned about

One of twelve models held their first choice under the paraphrase. GPT-5.4 mini, Gemini 3.5 Flash, Perplexity Sonar, Grok 4.20, Mistral Small, DeepSeek V4 Flash, Llama 4 Maverick, Qwen 3.7 Flash, Kimi K2, GLM 4.7 FlashX and MiniMax M2.5 changed. A high negative share on a product with few labels is a warning. A low share on a product with many labels is salience, not sentiment.
Semrush
21%
12 of 58 labels negative · 9 of 12 models
“you cannot afford to waste money on bloated enterprise platforms like Semrush, Ahrefs, or Clearscope, which easily run $100 to over $150 per month” Gemini 3.5 Flash, budget prompt
Surfer SEO
17%
10 of 58 labels negative · 8 of 12 models · 1 hard negative
“**Surfer SEO** if you publish at volume (credit economics will hurt you)” Kimi K2, negative prompt
Clearscope
17%
8 of 48 labels negative · 7 of 12 models
“tools such as **Surfer, Clearscope, or similar editors** | Their term suggestions and scores can help with coverage, but they're recommendations—not proof” GPT-6 Luna, negative prompt
Ahrefs
17%
7 of 42 labels negative · 5 of 12 models
“Ahrefs now offers AI content surfaces... they raise quality, originality, and brand-voice risks if teams over-rely on them.” GPT-5.4 mini, negative prompt

What they cite

Citations exist only for the models that return a source list: fourteen of the twelve in this edition, and all six flagship models on the expanded tier.

Sites the answers cite

78 of 84 answers in this category came back with a source list, from 14 of 12 models: citations where the model returns them, or the search results it consulted. 1071 links across 357 sites, every framing counted. Ranked by the number of answers carrying the site or page.

vendor site · HubSpot38 answers · 63 citations · 11 models
29 answers · 58 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Zapier26 answers · 27 citations · 12 models
21 answers · 30 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Rankability18 answers · 21 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Frase17 answers · 27 citations · 12 models
vendor site · AirOps16 answers · 16 citations · 9 models
vendor site · Semrush15 answers · 18 citations · 11 models
vendor site · Surfer SEO14 answers · 20 citations · 9 models
14 answers · 17 citations · 9 models
13 answers · 13 citations · 7 models
12 answers · 15 citations · 9 models

Pages the answers cite

The ten pages named in the most answers, by full address. A page here is one the models returned with a recommendation, not one the index endorses.

Search against answers

Each company's standing in the answers beside its site's footprint in Google search, one row a site: the products the models named on it with their shares, and the share they add up to; monthly searches on Google, and DataForSEO's estimate of AI search demand (modeled from search signals, directional, not a count of queries to any assistant), for the most-searched of the company's and its products' names (the name is in each row's hover text); estimated monthly organic visits to the site; and its best position in Google's top ten for “best seo and content optimization platform”, “seo and content optimization platform”. US estimates from DataForSEO and Google's Ads Transparency Center. A small company's site, or a mid-sized company's site for its flagship, is marked company; a product on a large parent's site (Google, Microsoft) has no site figures. A column with no figures for this category is left out, and an empty cell means none were seen, not none exist. Two measurements side by side: neither is read as the cause of the other.
Company and productsShareOwn site citedName searches, GoogleAI search demand, est.Organic visitsPaid search a month, est.Google ads, last 30 daysBest Google position
Semrush semrush.com21%37890,5002,0552,885,637$1,727103
Surfer SEO surferseo.com17%1475,40014699,288221
Clearscope clearscope.io14%120880165,7370
SE Ranking seranking.com10%978,100207309,691$2,63250
NeuronWriter neuronwriter.com7%3172073630
Ubersuggest neilpatel.com7%4914,800222205,9500
Ahrefs ahrefs.com3%18149,5001,3381,260,839$44130
Frase frase.io3%916,600100,4608,8827
MarketMuse marketmuse.com3%758801698,619
Conductor conductor.com3%11749,50026,95645,843308

Google's top ten for the two searches hold 16 sites; 4 of them are among the sites the models cited here (blog.hubspot.com, rankability.com, surferseo.com, zapier.com). The first result for “best seo and content optimization platform” is reddit.com.

How they answered

Six framings of the same buying question, each sent to every model in a fresh session with search on. One row per model, so a row shows whether it held its answer under rewording, what it named when cost was the constraint, and what it argued against. Computed from the raw judge labels.
ShowHide
ModelDirect“What is the best SEO and content optimization platform for a mid-market B2B company?”Paraphrase“Which SEO content optimization tool would you recommend to a mid-sized B2B company?”Comparative“What are the top SEO and content optimization platforms and how do they differ?”Budget-constrained“What is the best SEO and content optimization platform for a company with a limited budget?”Scale-constrained“We are a 500 person company evaluating an SEO and content optimization platform. What should we look at?”Negative“Which SEO and content optimization platforms should I avoid or be cautious about?”
Claude Haiku 4.5Semrush
Four alternativesAhrefs, Moz, Surfer SEO, Writesonic
SemrushHeld
Three alternativesClearscope, SE Ranking, Surfer SEO
Surfer SEO
Seven alternativesClearscope, Frase, MarketMuse, NeuronWriter, Rank Math, Rankability, Yoast SEO
Frase, NeuronWriter
Three alternativesAhrefs, GrowthBar, Scalenut
no first choiceagainst: Ahrefs, SEO Tools Agency, SEOClerks, SEOToolAdda, Semrush, Small SEO Tools
GPT-5.4 miniConductor
Two alternativesClearscope, Semrush
MarketMuseChanged
Two alternativesClearscope, Surfer SEO
no first choice
Five alternativesClearscope, Frase, MarketMuse, Semrush, Surfer SEO
SE Ranking, Surfer SEO
Two alternativesMangools, Ubersuggest
against: Ahrefs, Semrush
no first choiceagainst: Ahrefs, BrightEdge, Frase, Semrush, Surfer SEO
Gemini 3.5 FlashClearscope, Semrush
Three alternativesAhrefs, MarketMuse, Surfer SEO
against: BrightEdge, Conductor
ClearscopeChanged
Two alternativesFrase, Surfer SEO
Ahrefs, Semrush
Five alternativesClearscope, Frase, MarketMuse, SE Ranking, Surfer SEO
NeuronWriter
Five alternativesGoogle Search Console, Keysearch, RankMath, SE Ranking, Screaming Frog SEO Spider
against: Ahrefs, Clearscope, Semrush, Surfer SEO
Conductor
Six alternativesClearscope, MarketMuse, Rankability, Semrush, Surfer SEO, seoClarity
against: Ahrefs, Clearscope, Frase, GPTZero, GSA Search Engine Ranker, Originality.ai, ScrapeBox, Surfer SEO, Turnitin AI Detector, Winston AI
Perplexity SonarSemrush
Three alternativesHubSpot Marketing Hub, MarketMuse, Surfer SEO
ClearscopeChanged
Two alternativesHubSpot Marketing Hub, Semrush
Ahrefs, Semrush
Four alternativesBrightEdge, Clearscope, Conductor, Surfer SEO
against: Google Search Console, Screaming Frog
HubSpot Content Hub, SE Ranking
Two alternativesFrase, Ubersuggest
no first choiceagainst: AnswerThePublic, ChatGPT, Google Keyword Planner, Keysearch, Similarweb, Ubersuggest, WordStream
Grok 4.20Semrush
Five alternativesAhrefs, Clearscope, MarketMuse, SE Ranking, Surfer SEO
Surfer SEOChanged
Three alternativesFrase, MarketMuse, SE Ranking
against: Clearscope, Semrush
Ahrefs, Semrush
Four alternativesClearscope, Frase, Moz, Surfer SEO
Ubersuggest
Five alternativesGoogle Analytics 4, Google Keyword Planner, Google Search Console, SE Ranking, Yoast SEO
against: Semrush
Ahrefs, Semrush, Surfer SEO
Three alternativesBrightEdge, Conductor, seoClarity
against: SEO PowerSuite, Semrush, Ubersuggest, rseotools.com
Mistral SmallAhrefs, Semrush
Six alternativesClearscope, Google Keyword Planner, Google Search Console, HubSpot Marketing Hub, Screaming Frog SEO Spider, Surfer SEO
Clearscope, ScalenutChangedno first choiceSE Ranking, Surfer SEO
Two alternativesGoogle Keyword Planner, Semrush
no first choicenothing named
DeepSeek V4 FlashSemrush
Four alternativesAhrefs, Clearscope, SE Ranking, Surfer SEO
Surfer SEOChanged
One alternativeClearscope
Ahrefs, Semrush
Three alternativesClearscope, MarketMuse, Surfer SEO
SE Ranking, Ubersuggest
Four alternativesFrase, Google Analytics 4, Google Search Console, Surfer SEO
against: Ahrefs, Semrush
no first choice
Three alternativesConductor, Semrush, seoClarity
against: BrightEdge, Clearscope, MarketMuse, Surfer SEO
against: Ubersuggest
Llama 4 MaverickSight AIClearscope, Surfer SEOChangedSurfer SEOagainst: SemrushMangools
Three alternativesFrase, SE Ranking, Yoast SEO
no first choicenothing named
Qwen 3.7 FlashSemrush
Two alternativesSight AI, Surfer SEO
MarketMuseChanged
Three alternativesClearscope, NeuronWriter, SE Ranking
Ahrefs, Semrush
Four alternativesClearscope, Frase, Moz, Surfer SEO
Mangools, SE Rankingagainst: Semrushno first choiceagainst: All in One SEO Pack, ChatGPT, Clearscope, Frase, Jasper, RankMath, Rytr, Surfer SEO, Writesonic, Yoast SEO
Kimi K2Clearscope
Three alternativesFrase, Semrush, Surfer SEO
Surfer SEOChanged
Two alternativesClearscope, Frase
Surfer SEO
Four alternativesClearscope, Frase, MarketMuse, Semrush
SE Ranking
Seven alternativesAhrefs, Google Analytics 4, Google Business Profile, Google Search Console, Mangools, Outrank, Surfer SEO
no first choiceagainst: Clearscope, Frase, Surfer SEO
GLM 4.7 FlashXSemrush
Three alternativesAhrefs, Clearscope, Surfer SEO
Surfer SEOChanged
One alternativeSemrush
Ahrefs, Semrush
Five alternativesClearscope, MarketMuse, Moz, Screaming Frog, Surfer SEO
Ubersuggest
Four alternativesNeuronWriter, SE Ranking, Scalenut, Surfer SEO
no first choiceagainst: Moz, SEO PowerSuite, Search Atlas, Semrush
MiniMax M2.5Semrush
Three alternativesConductor, SE Ranking, Sight AI
Surfer SEOChanged
Three alternativesClearscope, HubSpot Content Hub, Semrush
Semrush
Two alternativesAhrefs, Surfer SEO
against: Moz
Ranktracker, Ubersuggest
Two alternativesMoz, SE Ranking
no first choiceagainst: Ahrefs, Semrush, Surfer SEO
Bold is the first choiceAlternatives are counted; the count opens them.What the answer argued against

The record

One row per call: the version string exactly as returned, whether the model searched, sources cited, and latency. Full answer text is in the free responses file. Download the record
Seventy-two rows: every prompt, every model, every answer.
PromptModelVersion stringTime (UTC)SearchedSourcesLatency
Direct recommendationClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 13:12yes189 s
Direct recommendationGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 08:53yes34 s
Direct recommendationGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 09:13yes1532 s
Direct recommendationPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 12:11yes203 s
Direct recommendationGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 10:28yes257 s
Direct recommendationMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 14:14yes126 s
Direct recommendationDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 11:43yes1922 s
Direct recommendationLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 11:10yes51 s
Direct recommendationQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 07:41yes1869 s
Direct recommendationKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 12:56yes2471 s
Direct recommendationGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 12:05yes2267 s
Direct recommendationMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 13:16yes1231 s
ParaphraseClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 11:15yes97 s
ParaphraseGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 12:31yes34 s
ParaphraseGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 07:51yes1021 s
ParaphrasePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 12:19yes193 s
ParaphraseGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 08:59yes1810 s
ParaphraseMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:41yes53 s
ParaphraseDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:09yes1820 s
ParaphraseLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 10:49yes51 s
ParaphraseQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:30yes532 s
ParaphraseKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 12:47yes1518 s
ParaphraseGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 07:48yes2321 s
ParaphraseMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 09:24yes1024 s
ComparativeClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 13:33yes99 s
ComparativeGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 11:59yes48 s
ComparativeGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 14:03yes1925 s
ComparativePerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 13:34yes205 s
ComparativeGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 09:02yes248 s
ComparativeMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:19yes157 s
ComparativeDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 08:21yes2033 s
ComparativeLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 09:37yes53 s
ComparativeQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 11:37yes1742 s
ComparativeKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 08:35yes1030 s
ComparativeGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 13:04no018 s
ComparativeMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 07:27yes1922 s
Budget constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 10:25yes99 s
Budget constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 11:17no08 s
Budget constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 14:17yes1520 s
Budget constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 11:49yes193 s
Budget constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 12:22yes227 s
Budget constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 12:23yes94 s
Budget constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 07:58yes2027 s
Budget constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 11:10yes52 s
Budget constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 09:24yes515 s
Budget constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 10:20yes1013 s
Budget constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 07:59yes2433 s
Budget constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 08:17yes1338 s
Scale constrainedClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 08:22no05 s
Scale constrainedGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 08:32yes68 s
Scale constrainedGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 10:04yes1223 s
Scale constrainedPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 08:51yes204 s
Scale constrainedGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 10:23yes148 s
Scale constrainedMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 11:13no07 s
Scale constrainedDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 10:35yes2153 s
Scale constrainedLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 12:31yes53 s
Scale constrainedQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 12:54no035 s
Scale constrainedKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 13:22yes1518 s
Scale constrainedGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 09:47yes19142 s
Scale constrainedMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 11:07yes518 s
Negative framingClaude Haiku 4.5claude-haiku-4-5-202510012026-10-01 08:52yes198 s
Negative framingGPT-5.4 minigpt-5.4-mini-2026-03-172026-10-01 12:28yes67 s
Negative framingGemini 3.5 Flashgemini-3.5-flash2026-10-01 07:32yes2727 s
Negative framingPerplexity Sonarsonar2026-10-01 08:48yes204 s
Negative framingGrok 4.20spacexai/grok-4.1-fast-non-reasoning via vertex2026-10-01 08:11yes239 s
Negative framingMistral Smallmistral/mistral-small via mistral2026-10-01 13:03yes55 s
Negative framingDeepSeek V4 Flashdeepseek/deepseek-v4-flash via deepinfra2026-10-01 07:31yes2436 s
Negative framingLlama 4 Maverickmeta/llama-4-maverick via bedrock2026-10-01 08:59yes51 s
Negative framingQwen 3.7 Flashalibaba/qwen3.7-flash via alibaba2026-10-01 10:29no038 s
Negative framingKimi K2moonshotai/kimi-k2 via novita2026-10-01 13:43yes2528 s
Negative framingGLM 4.7 FlashXzai/glm-4.7-flashx via zai2026-10-01 11:16yes2369 s
Negative framingMiniMax M2.5minimax/minimax-m2.5 via minimax2026-10-01 07:26yes1434 s

Noise floor in this category

Flips between the edition run and its calibration repeat. Six prompts per model is a small sample; the index-wide floor is the number to trust.

ShowHide
Claude Haiku 4.5
2 of 4 flipped
GPT-5.4 mini
4 of 4 flipped
Gemini 3.5 Flash
4 of 6 flipped
Perplexity Sonar
2 of 4 flipped
Grok 4.20
4 of 6 flipped
Mistral Small
3 of 3 flipped
DeepSeek V4 Flash
3 of 6 flipped
Llama 4 Maverick
3 of 4 flipped
Qwen 3.7 Flash
4 of 5 flipped
Kimi K2
4 of 5 flipped
GLM 4.7 FlashX
1 of 4 flipped
MiniMax M2.5
3 of 4 flipped

Normalization in this category

Every judgment call made between the raw labels and the numbers above, listed so it is visible and reversible.

ShowHide
Category-scoped readings
Yoast read as Yoast SEO
Unresolved, counted raw
Byword
GPTZero
Originality.ai
Outrank
PageSpeed Insights
Ranklytics
SEO Tools Agency
SEOToolAdda (Group Buy Tools)
SEObolt
SEObot
SearchAtlas
Small SEO Tools
Turnitin AI Detector
Winston AI
WooRank
rseotools.com
Discontinued, still offered
No shut-down product was recommended here.
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