My thoughts on testing a new AI SEO Tool 🤖

I hope you had a great and productive week! 😊

In my previous newsletter, I shared how I connected Semrush to Claude and what opportunities it unlocks for site owners. Honestly, I didn't expect that post to take off the way it did. My LinkedIn post about it got:

This week, I want to share my honest thoughts on Search Atlas, another AI SEO platform I've been testing this month.

Quick note before we get into it: this is not a sponsored review. I paid for the tool myself and I'm sharing things you honestly won't find in most reviews out there.

Their plans start at $99/month, but I had to upgrade to the Growth plan at $199/month just to access the AI visibility features. Something to keep in mind if that's the main reason you're considering it.

Search Atlas is clearly built for marketers who want to bring together SEO, content, local SEO, outreach, PPC, reporting, and AI-driven workflows under one roof.

At the same time, it’s one of those platforms where you need a little patience at first, because there’s so much included. The structure can feel a little overwhelming at first.

There are a few areas where Search Atlas genuinely feels strong.

One of them is Site Metrics.

This is basically your central dashboard for tracking how a website performs. You can monitor rankings, position changes, competitors, backlinks, Google Ads activity, and Google Search Console data. It’s clearly designed to help you keep an eye on your own site, but I also liked that you can use it to review other domains, too.

Inside Site Metrics, there's also an LLM Visibility report.

It gives you an overview of how your brand appears across LLMs, like ChatGPT, Gemini, Grock, Copilot and AI Mode. Note that AI Overviews aren’t available.

My only hesitation that brand mentions and citations aren't separated, so it's hard to know exactly which pages are being picked up by LLMs or Google. For a quick snapshot, it works. But if you want that level of detail, you'll feel a bit limited.

The other feature I really liked is the Local SEO Heatmap. It shows how a local business ranks within a specific area based on the radius you set. If you do local SEO work, this is genuinely practical and easy to visualize.

Just keep an eye on your credits since every business and keyword you track uses them up.

No tool is perfect, and Search Atlas has a few downsides worth keeping in mind.

The biggest one for me is that the platform can feel a bit overwhelming and confusing at first, especially because some toolkits don’t seem to be grouped in the most intuitive way. For example, I expected AI visibility insights to be in the AI SEO toolkit, but that’s not really where they live.

Many reports load slowly, and the platform can crash occasionally, which can interrupt your workflow when you’re trying to move quickly.

Unlike Semrush, I wish LLM visibility tracking provided more granular data, especially when it comes to separating mentions from citations and showing exactly which pages are being referenced.

I also wrote a full Search Atlas vs Semrush comparison if you want a deeper look at how they stack up.

The Social Toolkit only works with Facebook, Instagram, and X. Since I post heavily on LinkedIn and Reddit, I don’t see myself relying on it much.

I also don’t see a strong reason to pay for a built-in content generator when Claude, trained on your own writing and connected to SEO data via the MCP, can do the job so much better.

If I had to sum up Search Atlas, I’d say this:

The platform feels ambitious, and it’s obvious they’re building with modern marketers in mind, especially around AI, automation, and multi-channel visibility.

At the same time, I think there’s still room for improvement in clarity, platform organization, and making certain data more actionable, especially around AI visibility reporting and content quality.

If you want to see my full experience with Search Atlas, including what I liked, what I didn’t, and how each toolkit actually works, I shared everything in my full review here.👇

Wondering how to build an SEO content strategy that actually makes money? Here's the exact process I used to generate over $40k from my website last year.

I’m trying something new in this newsletter. 😊

Starting today, I’m adding a little section where I share one of my favorite resources from around the web each week — something I genuinely found useful, interesting, or worth your time as a marketer.

Hopefully, you’ll enjoy this new addition as much as I do.

This week’s pick:
Video: Document Scoring Based on Query Analysis by Jean-Christophe Chouinard, SEO Strategist behind TripAdvisor.

Why I think it’s worth your time:

This video breaks down one of Google’s most interesting search patents, Document Scoring Based on Query Analysis, and explains how Google may use things like freshness, historical data, user behavior, and query trends when ranking pages.

If you want to better understand how Google might evaluate content beyond basic on-page SEO, this one is definitely worth watching.

P.S. It’s a full hour long, so grab your coffee ☕ and settle in for a proper SEO learning session with Jean.

Below, I’ve included a screenshot from the video that does a great job summarizing the idea of content freshness and how it may work.

💰 My website earned $45,455.28 in 2025, to be precise — all from affiliate commissions and brand partnerships.

My goal is to hit $100k by the end of 2026.

If you are interested in learning:

Here’s what’s inside:

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You can become a Premium member for just $7 one-time payment. You’ll get behind-the-scenes tips, real strategies I use to grow my site, and answers to your questions. 🧠

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That’s all for now! Thanks for reading and being part of this journey — your support means the world. 💙

Victoria

P.S. To learn more, check my full collection of newsletters for free: Behind Rankings.