The matrix
| Server | What data it exposes | Runs where | Auth | Listed in which hosts | Plan or price required | Read-only | Open source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| bseoa (Black SEO Analyzer) | Site crawl and technical audit (16 modules, 300+ issue types), single-page checks, crawl comparison, search previews | Both: local process, or hosted at mcp.blackseoanalyzer.com/mcp | Local: license or trial. Hosted: email sign-in (OAuth) | Claude.ai directory, ChatGPT apps, Claude Desktop (.mcpb), Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Codex CLI, Perplexity for Mac, generic MCP URL | Local: $279 one-time license, 14-day trial. Hosted: $15/month with a license or $50/month without; 14-day hosted trial | Yes. Never logs in to or changes a site | No (source code guarantee on purchase) |
| Ahrefs MCP | Keywords, backlinks, top pages, AI Overview brand mentions (add-on) | Hosted remote only (local setup no longer supported) | OAuth, or an MCP key (not the same as an API key) | Claude.ai directory, ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Lovable, n8n, generic MCP URL | Lite and higher. No MCP fee; calls use plan API units (Lite 200,000 a month, at least 50 per call) | not verified on 31 Oct 2026 | Not stated by vendor |
| Semrush MCP | Keywords, backlinks and domain analytics (SEO API), traffic and market data (Trends API), read-only project data | Hosted remote only | OAuth (Semrush login), API key as fallback | Claude (official app), ChatGPT (official app), Claude Code, Cursor, VS Code, Copilot, Perplexity, generic MCP URL | Semrush One Starter or Pro+, SEO Classic Pro or Guru (50,000 API units); Business and Advanced need a units add-on; Trends Basic or Premium | Yes. Reads projects but cannot create or change them | Not stated by vendor |
| SE Ranking MCP | Keywords, backlinks, SERP, rank tracking and site audits in your projects, local SEO, AI search visibility | Hosted remote only | OAuth 2.1, or API key header | Claude (official connector), Claude Code, ChatGPT (official plugin), Codex, Cursor, VS Code, Windsurf, Zed, Gemini CLI, generic MCP URL | SE Ranking or SE Visible account with API access; data depends on subscription | not verified on 31 Oct 2026 (vendor: read-only keys not available yet) | Server: no (hosted). Skills repo: yes |
| DataForSEO MCP | Raw SEO APIs: SERP, keywords, backlinks, on-page and Lighthouse, by endpoint | Both: local (npx) or hosted remote | API login and password; OAuth on the HTTP server | Claude Desktop, Claude Code, Cursor, ChatGPT, Gemini CLI, generic MCP URL | Pay-as-you-go, $50 minimum top-up, $1 trial credit | Does not change your site; calls spend balance | Yes, Apache-2.0 |
| Similarweb MCP | Traffic and engagement, traffic sources, referrals, popular pages, SERP players and clicks, apps | Hosted remote | Similarweb API key | Claude (connectors), Claude Desktop, Cursor, Copilot, Zapier, n8n | API-enabled plan: API-only, Business or Enterprise; uses data credits | not verified on 31 Oct 2026 | Not stated by vendor |
| Moz | Official server: not verified on 31 Oct 2026. Community server: keywords, site metrics and Brand Authority, links | Official: not verified on 31 Oct 2026. Community: local process | Community: Moz API token | not verified on 31 Oct 2026 | Community: needs Moz API access; price not verified on 31 Oct 2026 | Community: yes | Community: MIT (per README) |
| Sitebulb MCP | Finished Sitebulb audits: site score, issues by severity, example URLs, URL detail, audit comparison | Hosted remote (Cloud and Desktop endpoints; Desktop app must be open) | OAuth sign-in, no key | Claude and ChatGPT (setup guides); Cursor, Claude Code, Codex, Perplexity should connect; generic MCP URL | All Cloud plans, Desktop Lite and Pro, and the Desktop trial | Yes. Cannot run, schedule or change crawls | Not stated by vendor |
| Screaming Frog SEO Spider | Site crawl: start and control crawls, reports, bulk exports, URL detail, screenshots, links | Local, inside the SEO Spider (version 24) | None (local process) | Claude Desktop (.mcpb extension), LM Studio, other local MCP clients | Paid SEO Spider license; not in the free version | No. Runs crawls, writes files, can run scripts if enabled; does not change your site | No |
| Google Search Console (mcp-gsc, community) | Search Console: queries, pages, clicks and impressions, URL inspection, sitemaps | Local process (optional self-hosted HTTP) | Google OAuth or a service account | Claude Desktop, Cursor, Codex CLI, Gemini CLI, other MCP clients | Free; needs a Google Cloud project with the Search Console API | No. Can submit sitemaps; destructive tools off by default | Yes, MIT |
| Lighthouse (lighthouse-mcp, community) | Page speed and Lighthouse scores for one URL (performance, accessibility, best practices, SEO) | Local process; needs Node.js and Chrome | None | Local MCP clients; listed in the MCP Registry | Free | Yes | Yes, MIT |
| Firecrawl MCP | Page content: scrape, crawl, map, search (crawling, not SEO auditing) | Both: hosted remote or local (npx) | OAuth, API key, or keyless free tier | Claude.ai, ChatGPT and Codex (native connectors), Claude Desktop, VS Code, generic MCP URL | Keyless free tier for search, scrape and parse; other tools on a Firecrawl plan | Does not change your site | Yes, MIT |
"Listed in which hosts" means the vendor documents that host, either as a directory listing or with setup steps. Any hosted server also works as a generic MCP URL in clients that accept one. bseoa's row is ours; see the disclosure above.
Server by server
bseoa (Black SEO Analyzer)
Good for: Running a real technical audit from the assistant: crawl up to 2,000 pages per hosted crawl (no set limit locally), list issues by severity, report everything about one URL, compare this crawl with last month's. Results are stored in your account, so a new chat can pick up an old crawl.
Cannot: No keyword volumes, backlinks, rank tracking or Search Console data. The hosted connector does not render JavaScript; the desktop app and CLI do.
More: blackseoanalyzer.com/en/mcp. Setup by host: Claude, ChatGPT, Claude Code, Cursor, Codex.
Ahrefs MCP
Good for: Keyword research and backlink analysis on Ahrefs' own index, from the same chat where you write the brief or the outreach list.
Cannot: Ahrefs' help page publishes no tool list, so site audit and rank tracking through MCP are not verified on 31 Oct 2026. Every call spends API units shared with Ahrefs Connect and the Ahrefs API, and you need the Lite plan or higher.
Source, checked 31 Oct 2026: help.ahrefs.com: Getting started with Ahrefs MCP
Semrush MCP
Good for: Keyword, domain and backlink lookups for people who already pay for Semrush, plus traffic estimates on a Trends plan.
Cannot: It cannot create projects or change settings. Calls spend Semrush API units, and the plan matrix decides which data you get.
Source, checked 31 Oct 2026: developer.semrush.com: Semrush MCP
SE Ranking MCP
Good for: The broadest data mix in one hosted server: research data, your own rank tracking and audit projects, local listings and AI visibility.
Cannot: SE Ranking says restricted or read-only API keys aren't available yet, so a key has the same access as your account. Plan prices are not on the MCP page.
Source, checked 31 Oct 2026: seranking.com: MCP integration
DataForSEO MCP
Good for: Builders who want SERP, keyword and backlink data without a monthly SEO suite, paying per request.
Cannot: It is a thin layer over the API (four tools: three for reading docs, one for making requests), so the assistant has to pick endpoints and every call costs money. No opinionated audit or report.
Source, checked 31 Oct 2026: github.com/dataforseo/mcp-server-typescript
Similarweb MCP
Good for: Competitor traffic and channel mix: how much traffic a rival gets, from where, and to which pages.
Cannot: Not a crawler and not a keyword or backlink tool. Needs an API-enabled subscription; ChatGPT is not in its documented client list.
Source, checked 31 Oct 2026: developers.similarweb.com: Similarweb MCP
Moz
Good for: The community server is a quick way to pull Moz metrics such as site metrics, Brand Authority and keyword difficulty into a local assistant if you already have Moz API access.
Cannot: We could not load Moz's own pages on 31 Oct 2026, so we can't confirm whether Moz ships an official MCP server or what it would cost. The community server is maintained by one person and is not affiliated with Moz.
Source, checked 31 Oct 2026: github.com/metehan777/moz-mcp (community, not Moz)
Sitebulb MCP
Good for: Asking questions about audits you already run in Sitebulb: what changed since last crawl, which issues hit the most URLs, a draft client summary.
Cannot: It cannot start or configure a crawl; you do that in the Sitebulb app. It returns at most 50 example URLs per issue. The Desktop connection works only while the app is running and signed in.
Source, checked 31 Oct 2026: support.sitebulb.com: Sitebulb MCP
Screaming Frog SEO Spider
Good for: Driving a licensed SEO Spider from an assistant on your own machine: start a crawl, export a report, pull the data into the conversation.
Cannot: Local only, so it does not work in Claude.ai or ChatGPT in the browser. Its file-write tool overwrites files without warning, and the optional script tools are off by default for good reason.
Source, checked 31 Oct 2026: screamingfrog.co.uk: MCP Server guide
Google Search Console (mcp-gsc, community)
Good for: Reading your own Search Console data in a chat: which queries lost clicks, which pages are not indexed, period-over-period comparisons.
Cannot: Google does not publish an official Search Console MCP server that we could find. This one is community code that holds a Google credential for your properties, so read it before you install it.
Source, checked 31 Oct 2026: github.com/AminForou/mcp-gsc
Lighthouse (lighthouse-mcp, community)
Good for: Checking Core Web Vitals and Lighthouse scores for a page while you fix it, on your own machine.
Cannot: One URL at a time; it does not crawl a site. Servers that call the PageSpeed Insights API instead also exist; they need a Google API key.
Source, checked 31 Oct 2026: github.com/priyankark/lighthouse-mcp
Firecrawl MCP
Good for: Getting the clean text of pages into a conversation: content reviews, competitor page summaries, building a list of URLs on a site.
Cannot: It returns content, not SEO findings. It will not tell you about broken links, duplicate titles, canonical problems or redirect chains unless the assistant works them out from raw pages.
Source, checked 31 Oct 2026: docs.firecrawl.dev: MCP server
How to pick, by job
Auditing a site
To crawl a site and get a list of technical issues from inside the assistant, use bseoa (hosted in Claude.ai and ChatGPT, or local in Claude Code, Cursor and Codex) or, if you already own a Screaming Frog license and work on one machine, the SEO Spider's local server. If your audits already live in Sitebulb, its server answers questions about them but will not run a new one. For page speed on one URL, add a Lighthouse server. Firecrawl gets you page content, not an audit.
Researching keywords
Use the server for the suite you already pay for: Ahrefs, Semrush or SE Ranking. If you don't pay for one and only need data by the request, DataForSEO is pay-as-you-go. Moz metrics are available through a community server if you have Moz API access.
Checking backlinks
Ahrefs, Semrush, SE Ranking and DataForSEO's Backlinks API all expose link data. bseoa, Screaming Frog and Sitebulb see only the links on your own pages, not who links to you.
Reading Search Console
None of the vendor servers above reads your Search Console account, and bseoa doesn't either. Use a community server such as mcp-gsc, run it locally, and check what write tools it enables before you give it your Google credentials.
Watching competitors' traffic
Similarweb's server is built for that, on an API-enabled Similarweb plan. Semrush's Trends API covers similar ground for Semrush customers.