How to use Claude for SEO: free, Pro and advanced setups

Short answer: You can use Claude for SEO at three levels. 1) Free plan: keyword ideas, content outlines, titles and meta descriptions, and reviewing a page or a Search Console export you paste in. 2) Pro plan: connect real SEO tools like Ahrefs, Semrush or Ubersuggest, and build your own skills for things like SEO audits of client websites. 3) Advanced: connect your website's code (for example through GitHub) with Claude Code, so Claude can find and fix technical errors and prepare blog posts for publishing. At every level, a person checks the work before it goes live, especially in healthcare and finance.

I use Claude every day in my SEO work. This website itself is managed with Claude Code connected to GitHub: when I want a new blog post, a fix to a page title or a check for broken links, I ask Claude, it does the work, and I review it before it goes live.

But you don't need that setup to start. Here is what Claude can do for SEO on each plan, from beginner to advanced, and where you still need to check things yourself.

What can you do with Claude's free plan for SEO?

The free plan is enough to learn and to handle a lot of everyday SEO writing work. Claude doesn't have live search data here, so use it for thinking, writing and checking, not for search volumes.

• Keyword ideas: "I run a dental clinic in Palakkad. List the questions patients search before booking a root canal." Then check the volumes in a free tool like Google Keyword Planner or Ubersuggest.
• Grouping keywords: paste a list of keywords and ask Claude to group them by topic and by intent (learning, comparing, ready to buy), so you know which page should target which group.
• Content outlines: ask for an outline with question-style headings for one topic. Then add your own examples, which Claude can't invent for you.
• Titles and meta descriptions: "Write 5 title options under 60 characters and a meta description under 155 characters for this page." Pick one, edit it, and keep the main keyword near the start.
• On-page review: paste a page's text and ask what's missing: a direct answer at the top, clear headings, internal links, a reason to trust the writer.
• Search Console data: export your Performance report as a file, upload it and ask: "Which pages get impressions but few clicks? Which queries am I ranking 8 to 20 for?" Those are your quickest wins.
• Schema markup: ask Claude to write FAQ or LocalBusiness schema (JSON-LD) for a page, then test it in Google's Rich Results Test.

Example: grouping keywords with the free plan

Here is what this looks like in practice. Say you're planning content for a skin clinic in Kochi and you have a list of keywords from a free tool.

Prompt: "Here are 12 keywords for a skin clinic in Kochi. Group them by search intent (learning, comparing, ready to book) and suggest which page on the website should target each group."

Input: acne treatment in Kochi, best dermatologist in Kochi, how to remove acne scars, laser hair removal cost Kochi, is laser hair removal permanent, chemical peel vs laser, skin clinic near me, pigmentation treatment Kochi, why do I get acne on my chin, PRP for hair fall, hair fall treatment Kochi, dermatologist vs cosmetologist.

The kind of answer you get back:

How to check it: search 2 or 3 keywords from each group on Google. If the results for two keywords show the same kind of pages, they belong together. If one shows clinic pages and the other shows articles, split them. Claude groups by meaning; Google's results tell you what searchers actually want.

Free plan users can also add one custom connector, and skills work on all plans when code execution is turned on. So you can try the Pro-level ideas below on a small scale.

What does the Pro plan add for SEO?

The big change on a paid plan is that Claude can work with real data from your SEO tools, and follow your own process every time.

Connectors: live data from Ahrefs, Semrush and Ubersuggest

Connectors (built on something called MCP, the Model Context Protocol) let Claude read data from other tools during a chat. For SEO, the useful ones are:

• Ahrefs: backlinks, referring domains, keywords and competitor data. You add it from Claude's connector list and sign in with your Ahrefs account.
• Semrush: keyword research, backlink analysis and competitor research. Semrush launched its Claude connector in August 2026 for Semrush One and SEO Classic subscribers.
• Ubersuggest: domain overview, keyword ideas, site audits, backlinks and rank tracking. A cheaper option if you're starting out.

To add one, open Claude and go to Customize → Connectors, click +, search for the tool and click Connect. Remember that the connector uses that tool's own plan: you still need an Ahrefs or Semrush subscription.

Prompts you can try once a tool is connected:

• "Compare my site with these 3 competitors. Which keywords do they rank for that I don't?"
• "Which pages on my site have the most backlinks, and which links are broken?"
• "Find 20 keywords around 'skin clinic in Kochi' with low difficulty and group them into blog topics."
• "Run a site audit and list the problems in order: what to fix first and why."

This is also where Claude helps with off-page SEO: checking your backlinks, finding sites that link to competitors but not to you, and drafting polite outreach emails that you then send yourself.

Skills: your own SEO audit, every time

A skill is a set of instructions Claude follows when a task needs it. Without one, Claude audits a website the way it thinks is best. With one, it audits the way you do. You add skills under Customize → Skills.

An "SEO audit for client websites" skill could tell Claude to:

• Check every page's title, meta description, H1, canonical tag and image alt text
• Look for broken links, missing pages in the sitemap and pages blocked by robots.txt
• Check that each service has its own page and that pages link to each other
• Check the conversion side too: a clear call to action, a working contact form, a WhatsApp or phone button on mobile
• For healthcare clients, flag testimonials, before-and-after photos or claims that may go against NMC guidelines
• Write the report in the same format every time: problem, why it matters, how to fix it, priority

The skill is where your experience goes. Claude does the checking, your checklist decides what good looks like.

I've shared a free skill for a different job (editing Reels) on my resources page, if you want to see what a skill folder looks like.

Want an SEO audit skill built around your own checklist, for your site or your clients? Tell me what you check today and I'll help you set it up in a 1-hour consultation.

Advanced: connecting your website to Claude Code

This is how I run this website. The site's files live on GitHub, and Claude Code can read and change them directly. Once your website is connected like this, Claude can work on the site itself, not just give advice:

• Find technical errors across every page: missing or duplicate titles, broken links, missing alt text, wrong canonical tags, pages missing from the sitemap, images that are too big and slow the page down.
• Fix them in one go, so you don't have to open 30 pages one by one.
• Prepare and publish blog posts: you give the idea and your own experience, Claude builds the page, the cover image, the internal links and the sitemap entry, and it goes live when you approve it.
• Check conversions: are the call-to-action buttons working, does the contact form send, is the tracking set up correctly.

Claude chat vs Claude Code: what's the difference?

Claude Code only works with what you give it access to. It doesn't automatically see your Search Console, your analytics or your SEO tools. You connect those separately, and you choose what it's allowed to change.

This works best for sites built in plain code or frameworks. For WordPress sites, Claude can still help through connectors and plugins, but the setup is different.

You don't need to know coding to use it. I don't write code myself. But you do need to understand what's being changed, and you need a rule: nothing goes live without a review.

Why you still need to check everything

Claude can check the technical side, the on-page side, the off-page side and the conversion side of a website. That doesn't mean AI should run your SEO on its own.

• Facts can be wrong. Claude can be confidently wrong about a number, a date or a rule. Check every fact against the source.
• Healthcare and money topics need extra care. Google holds health and finance pages to a higher standard because wrong information can hurt people. In India, medical content also has to follow NMC guidelines. A doctor or an expert should read these pages before they're published.
• Your experience is the part Google wants. Google's guidance is clear: useful, original, first-hand content is what ranks. Publishing lots of AI pages with nothing new in them can get your site pushed down. Use Claude to do the work faster, not to replace what only you know.
• Data from tools is an estimate. Search volumes from Ahrefs, Semrush or Ubersuggest are estimates. Your own Search Console data is the real picture.

Which setup should you start with?

• Just learning SEO, or a small business owner: start with the free plan. Use it for keyword ideas, outlines, titles and checking your pages.
• Marketer or freelancer with clients: Pro plan, one SEO tool connector and your own audit skill. This saves the most time on audits and reports.
• You manage your own website's code, or are willing to learn: Claude Code with GitHub, for fixing technical problems and publishing content across the whole site.

If you want help setting up a workflow like this for your business or your clients, book a 1-hour consultation. And if your goal is to show up in AI answers too, read how to get your business recommended by ChatGPT and Google AI Mode.

Related reading

• How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT and Google AI Mode
• How to edit videos with Claude in 2026
• SEO and AI search case studies with Search Console results

FAQ

Sources

• Claude Help Centre, Get started with custom connectors using remote MCP
• Claude Help Centre, What are skills?
• Semrush, Semrush launches official connector for Claude (26 August 2026)
• Ahrefs, Ahrefs MCP for Claude Desktop and Web
• Neil Patel, Ubersuggest MCP connector
• Google Search Central, Guidance on using generative AI content