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Outranking the competition with our cutting-edge SEO strategies.
This guide will help you understand the key differences between various SEO tools like Outranking, Frase, Jarvis, Surfer, and MarketMuse. While these tools do not allow for a perfect apples-to-apples comparison, we can compare some key strengths and weaknesses. We are the only Best SEO content generator for creating long-form content or any web content that needs to be optimized for organic traffic. comparing optimization and writing capabilities in this post.
Let’s get right to it!
Content scoring is one of the major features of Outranking and well most other tools but Outranking does this differently. Scoring in Outranking is based on many on-page content elements and is more comprehensive and with better data that gives a complete idea of how you should approach and optimize your content.
Outranking scores more parameters than any other content optimization tools. At Outranking we believe that great content isn’t always infused with a keyword X number of times. We believe great content should be optimized for semantic terms, uniqueness, structure, depth, and coverage. Most tools heavily rely on or only rely on NLP terms as a parameter to score their content.
Outranking uses a combination of GPT-4 and proprietary trained models to assist you with researching, structuring and writing content using AI. Outranking can find research using automated semantic research and gather up to 10 sources for how you should approach a section to ensure its comprehensiveness.
AI works great, but putting AI to work and consistently creating great content requires a workflow that many are still trying to figure out. Outranking’s SEO content editor is designed to adapt to AI assisted writing workflows that get you to the place where you can start adding value right away. Going from title to the first draft is a breeze. Sure you will need to learn some ins and outs of the platform but once you master some basic skills, you’d cut the time it takes you to create VALUE ADDED content in one third the time. If you are looking for one click 100% ready to publish drafts, Outranking isn’t going to be the right choice for you. We emphasize quality over quantity.
For brands and agencies working with clients, personalization of content to ensure it follows their brand and style guidelines is of the utmost importance. Outranking uses default style guides that can be templatized to personalize the output of the first draft.
Unlike SurferSEO and Scalenut, Outranking clusters keywords based on common SERPs in real time. Then it runs additional analysis on top of it to find allintitle, backlinks, competitors and finally calculate the probability of ranking the keyword. Using this information you can build your content inventory. Outranking allows clustering of up to 100K keywords using import utility.
Some plans of Outranking come with the Strategist feature and have some additional capabilities listed below.
| Core Features | Outranking | SurferSEO | Frase | Clearscope | Marketmuse | Scalenut | Semrush writing assistant |
| SEO Title Generation | Yes | No | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| AI Assisted Outlines | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | Yes | No |
| AI Assisted First Drafts | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| AI Assisted Content Briefs | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Modular Section Writing | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| GPT- 4 Integration | Yes | Yes | No, GPT-3.5 | No | No, GPT-3.5 | No, GPT-3.5 | No |
| AI Drafts Using Multiple Sources | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Style Guide Personalization | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Plagiarism Checker | Yes | Yes | Partial | No | No | Yes | Yes |
| Comprehensive Optimization | Yes, more on-page factors | Yes, some on-page factors | No, only NLP terms | No, only NLP terms | No, only NLP terms | Yes, some on-page factors | Yes, some on-page factors |
| Automatic – Optimization | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Semantic Terms | Yes | Yes | No | No | No | No | No |
| Term Map Visualization | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
| Competitors Metrics Visualization | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | No | No | Yes, but it is not part of the workflow. |
| Advanced SERP Analysis Data | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | Yes |
| Google Doc Integration | Yes, native sync | Using Plugin | Using Plugin | Using Plugin | No | Using Plugin | Yes |
| WordPress Integration | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Publishing Options for Different Formats | Yes | Partial, no markdown | Partial, no markdown | Partial, no markdown | Partial, no markdown | No | Yes |
| Document Management System | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Team Workflow Management | Yes | No | No | No | No | No | No |
| Internal Link Suggestions | Yes, markdown, clean HTML, files download | Yes, based on Google search operator method | No | No | Yes, based on PageRank and topical authority model | No | Yes, based on the Google search operator method |
Content scoring goes beyond simply optimizing NLP terms. Title, uniqueness, structure, depth of outlines, comprehensiveness, semantic keywords, and many more factors come into play to ensure that produced content has the highest ranking potential.
Content scoring is mostly about NLP terms and the number of times the terms have been used in the content. Title, outlines, and depth are important to some extent, but these optimizations don’t impact the scoring much on their platform.
Content scoring is all about covering NLP terms and the number of times each term is used in the ranking pages. Comprehensive optimization of on-page is out of scope for Frase.
Content scoring is all about covering NLP terms and the number of times each term is used in the ranking pages. Comprehensive optimization of on-page is out of scope for Marketmuse from a scoring perspective.
Content scoring is all about covering NLP terms and the number of times each term is used in the ranking pages. Comprehensive optimization of on-page is out of scope for Clearscope.
It’s hard to evaluate their scoring due to its copycat nature. It originally appeared to be a SurferSEO clone, then an Outranking clone, and now has become a copy of both products. The product’s SEO scoring is the least trustworthy.
Comprehensive SEO scoring which unlike most products is not heavily emphasised on NLP terms optimization. It scores for readability, uniqueness (like Outranking), and structure of the content to a great extent. Having light tough on NLP terms optimization makes the approach of Semrush less robust.
Title, Headings, Word Count, Uniqueness, Comprehensiveness, Internal and external links, Lists, Statistics, Tables, Videos, Anchor text, Images, Alt tags, Sementic, featured snippets, and related keywords.
Title, Headings, Word Count, Comprehensiveness, Images, Alt tags, Sementic and related keywords.
Title, Headings, Word Count, Comprehensiveness, Images
Comprehensiveness (NLP terms). Their SERP X-ray includes more benchmarks
Title, Headings, Word Count, Comprehensiveness, Images, Readability
Title, Headings, Word Count, Comprehensiveness, Images
Title, Headings, Word Count, Comprehensiveness, Images, Readability, Lists
Outranking uses GPT-4 and AI to perform semantic searches to find the right information that can serve as valuable background research prior to writing the initial AI draft. Outranking can pull semantically relevant information from up to 10 sources to write comprehensively about a topic.
SurferSEO uses GPT-4 and information gathered from ONE source to write the draft. This is more like spinning because no net new information is obtained as background research.
Frase uses GPT-3.5 and uses information gathered from ONE source as a SUMMARY to write the draft. This is more like redeveloping the section based on an understanding of a summary. This can result in some facts being untrue and missing details because no net new information is obtained as background research.
Marketmuse uses GPT-3.5 and does not use information gathered as part of background research. Makes all drafts practically useless with no facts and sources to back them.
No AI writing capabilities
Scalenut uses GPT-3.5 and uses information gathered from ONE source to write the draft. There may or may not be semantic relations as it uses traditional phrase search engines to gather background data. First drafts generated are suboptimal since it does not use the latest AI Model.
No AI writing capabilities
Outranking has a complete workflow to generate titles, outlines, and first drafts using its AI-assisted workflow.
SurferSEO allows generation of drafts based on credits, meaning that once the draft is generated, there’s no way to modularly build out the sections that one may need to rewrite or rebuild.
Frase allows draft generation but lacks a streamlined workflow to write titles, outlines, refine prompts, and produce polished drafts.
No workflow
No AI writing capabilities
Scalenut allows draft generation, but its workflow is designed primarily for individuals who create content on their own and are willing to learn the various techniques available for generating content in numerous ways. It provides a decent experience for individual content creators, however, it may not be well-suited for agencies or brands seeking more collaborative or specialized content creation processes. The writing approach in Scalenut draws inspiration from some of the better tools on the list.
No AI writing capabilities
Outranking’s Custom Style Guide feature enables agencies and users to build reputable processes around creating specific types of content or following specific guidelines. For example, “write in UK English,” “use first-person voice,” “how to talk about a brand,” etc.
SurferSEO allows the tone of voice as a content personalization utility. This may not be enough for people writing in various different tones and styles. You can build sections in the style or formatting you want, hence extensive editing and rewriting are always needed.
Frase allows tone of voice as a content personalization utility, this may not be enough for people writing in various different tones and styles. You can build sections in the style or formatting you want, hence extensive editing and rewriting are always needed.
No workflow
No AI writing capabilities
Allows tone personalization like SurferSEO and most other tools, unlike Outranking, which can do personalized writing based on custom or default style and brand guides.
No AI writing capabilities
With Outranking, you can generate individual sections or complete drafts automatically, providing flexibility in approaching content and writing in a more practical manner.
With Surfer you cannot generate individual sections this gives lesser flexibility in approaching the content writing in a more practical manner where often you want to write small parts of the content.
With Frase, you can generate individual sections in a more practical manner where often you want to write small parts of the content.
No additonal tools
No AI writing capabilities
With Scalnut you can generate individual sections in a more practical manner where often you want to write small parts of the content.
No AI writing capabilities
Keyword clustering in Outranking is based on understanding SERPs and grouping keywords that have at least 3 ranking URLs common for a given keyword. This ensures you get an accurate representation of all the keywords that fall into the same group.
Keyword clustering in Surfer is based on grouping common terms found in the primary keyword. They may or may not be semantically related and hence you will need to run a different analysis to figure out if grouping of those keywords makes sense.
No keyword clustering feature
Keyword clustering is based on entities and common terms found in them. While Marketmuse uses proprietary AI to extract entities, it’s not data-driven. These keywords grouped may or may not be semantically related.
No keyword clustering feature
Keyword clustering in Scalenut is copied from SurferSEO (apparent in its UI) and is based on grouping common terms found in the primary keyword. They may or may not be semantically related and hence you will need to run a different analysis to figure out if grouping of those keywords makes sense.
Keyword clustering in Semrush is based on an understanding of SERPS and grouping keywords that have at least 3 ranking URLs common for a given keyword. This ensures you have an accurate representation of all the keywords that fall into the same group.
1. Allintitle count
2. Volume, CPC, Difficulty
3. Backlinks for top pages for each query
4. Search console data mapping with cluster keywords
5. Probability of ranking a keyword
1. Volume, CPC, Difficulty
No keyword clustering feature
1. Volume, CPC, Difficulty
No keyword clustering feature
1. Volume, CPC, Difficulty
1. Volume, CPC, Difficulty
2. Backlinks for top pages for each query (Separate call and need additional steps)
| Outranking | 5 Documents $29/Month Includes AI Writing (Unlimited) |
| SurferSEO | 30 Documents $89/Month Does not include AI Writing |
| Frase | 4 Documents $14.99/Month Doesn’t include AI Writing (limited) |
| MarketMuse | 4 Documents $14.99/Month Doesn’t include AI Writing (limited) |
| Clearscope | 20 Documents $170/Month No AI Writing capabilities |
| Scalenut | 5 Documents $39/Month Limited AI writing 100k words |
| Semrush Writing Assistant | 5 Projects $129.95/Month Does not include AI Writing |
