Claude becomes your SEO machine: real search data instead of guessed numbers

At a glance

What SEO is and why it's worth so much

SEO means search engine optimisation: your page should rank high on Google when someone searches for exactly what you offer. The difference to advertising is simple. You pay for a click on an ad every single time. A click from a good ranking costs you nothing. A page that ranks brings visitors month after month without you paying again.

How much such a spot is worth is told by the cost per click (CPC): what companies pay Google per click to show up as an ad for that search term. A high CPC means there's money behind the term. Claude will pull the CPC and the search volume for you from real data in a moment.

Then there is AI search. More and more people ask ChatGPT, Perplexity or Claude instead of Google, and Google shows its own AI overviews above the results. Those answers are built from websites. Whoever says clearly what they offer, for whom, at what price and with what proof, gets named there more often. That's called GEO (Generative Engine Optimisation). The basics are the same as for SEO.

Why Claude has been guessing at SEO

Ask Claude without tools: "How often is 'physio london' searched?" You get a number. But it doesn't come from Google, it comes from Claude's training data, which is outdated and imprecise. Web search doesn't help either, because search volumes aren't published anywhere.

DataForSEO changes that. DataForSEO is a data provider that sells, among other things, Google Ads search volumes, Google search results and backlink data through an API. Via MCP (the protocol Claude uses for external tools) Claude queries this data itself. The official MCP server is built cleverly: Claude first reads the DataForSEO documentation and then builds the right request itself. So it can reach the whole API, not just a handful of built-in functions.

How to connect DataForSEO

Step 1: create an account

I use DataForSEO every day for my own projects. That's why I recommend it.

Affiliate link: if you sign up through it, I get a commission from DataForSEO. You pay the normal prices.

Step 2a: in the Claude app (desktop or web)

1. In Claude, open Customize → Connectors.
2. Click Add custom connector and paste this address: https://mcp.dataforseo.com/v3/mcp
3. Name it "DataForSEO", confirm and sign in to DataForSEO.
4. Start a new chat. The first time, Claude asks whether it may use the tool.

Step 2b: in Claude Code

claude mcp add --transport http dataforseo https://mcp.dataforseo.com/v3/mcp

Then type /mcp in Claude Code, pick DataForSEO and sign in in the browser. claude mcp list shows whether it's connected. DataForSEO's MCP page also describes a variant with your credentials in the command. Signing in through the browser is safer, because no password ends up in your terminal history.

Step 3: set a spending limit (two minutes, very important)

Claude can trigger any request of the API, including expensive ones. So set a daily limit in the DataForSEO dashboard under the API settings, for example $2. Requests above it are rejected until the day (UTC) is over.

What it really costs

DataForSEO charges per request. These are the list prices (as of October 2026, in US dollars):

So thorough keyword research for a small business costs cents. With normal use, the $50 minimum top-up lasts a long time. Before big analyses it's still worth a look at the price calculator on the API's page.

Where Claude gets which data

DataForSEO knows the market: what is searched and who ranks. It doesn't know your own numbers. There are other sources for those:

If you want Search Console and Analytics connected live, you have three ways:

• No code: a connection platform such as Composio as a custom connector in Claude. Keep in mind: another company gets access to your Google account. Check its privacy terms first Still open: .
• A bit of tech (Claude Code): the open-source servers below. You need a Google Cloud project for the credentials.
• Simplest: in Search Console, export the "Performance" report and drag the file into Claude. That's plenty to start with.

Your SEO system in Claude

Single questions are good. A system is better. Create a project in Claude, for example "SEO my-company.com". Everything you work out there goes into the project as a file. That way every new chat knows where you are without you explaining everything again.

The project instructions (paste once)

You are my SEO and AI-visibility adviser for [domain].
Target market: [country], language [language] (unless I say otherwise).
Rules:
1. No estimated numbers. Always pull search volume, CPC, rankings and
   backlinks from DataForSEO. Give the source and date for every number.
2. Before you make more than 10 requests, tell me the estimated cost.
3. Read a page live before you judge it.
4. Sort recommendations by effort and payoff. Best first.
5. Explain every technical term in one sentence. Write for a layperson.
6. Mark what you don't know as open instead of making it up.

The seven steps

1. Connect the data: DataForSEO plus a Search Console export.
2. Company profile: Claude reads your website and writes down what you offer, for whom, at what price and what sets you apart. It asks you about the gaps. The result goes into the project.
3. Question gaps: which questions does a buyer have (price, process, risk, comparison, alternatives) that your page doesn't answer?
4. Audit: technical errors, page copy, AI visibility. At the end, the ten most important fixes.
5. Strategy: which pages sell (money pages), which articles build expertise, and the plan for 30 days.
6. Execute: Claude writes page titles, descriptions, FAQ sections and structured data. You review and publish.
7. Dashboard: one page with the key numbers and the next tasks, fresh every week.

Nine prompts for the data

Replace what's in square brackets. All prompts work best inside the SEO project with the instructions above.

1 · The first real number

Use DataForSEO: how often is "[search term]" searched per month in [country]? Give search volume, CPC and competition, plus 20 related search terms with the same values. As a table, sorted by search volume.

2 · Find the gold nuggets

I offer [offer] for [audience] in [place/country]. Use DataForSEO to find 50 search terms my customers search for. Mark the gold nuggets: high CPC, low keyword difficulty, clear buying intent. For the top 5, explain why they're worth it.

3 · Who's on page 1?

Use DataForSEO to check the Google top 10 in [country] for "[search term]". Which kind of page wins (guide, shop, comparison, local business)? What do the top 3 have in common that my page [URL] is missing?

4 · The gap to your competitors

Use DataForSEO to compare my domain [my-domain.com] with [competitor-1.com] and [competitor-2.com]: which search terms do they rank for and I don't? Only terms that fit my offer. Sorted by search volume, with a suggestion for the page I need.

5 · Company profile

Read my website [URL] page by page. Write a company profile: offer, audience, prices, process, proof (testimonials, numbers), alternatives customers compare us with, and what sets us apart. At the end, ask me every question about what the website is missing.

6 · Questions your page doesn't answer

Read my page like a first-time visitor who wants to buy. Which questions stay open about price, process, risk, comparison and alternatives? Use DataForSEO to check which of these questions are searched on Google. One table: question, search volume, where on the page the answer belongs.

7 · Audit with a top 10

Run an SEO audit for [domain]: a technical check with DataForSEO's On-Page API, the copy of the key pages, backlinks compared with [competitor], and whether my brand shows up in AI answers. At the end, the 10 most important actions, sorted by payoff and effort, each with one sentence on how I implement it.

8 · From plan to finished change

Take action [number] from the audit and implement it completely: new page title, meta description, H1, an FAQ section with 5 questions and the structured data (schema.org, JSON-LD: the "digital business card" for Google and AI). All ready to paste in.

9 · The weekly dashboard

Build me a one-page dashboard: clicks and impressions from my Search Console export, the 10 most important search terms with position, the biggest winners and losers, and the 3 tasks for this week. The date range for every number. No decoration, only what counts.

What it brings freelancers, SEO agencies and business owners

What you can make of it

A service with a small outlay. A keyword analysis for a local business costs you a few cents in data. Claude turns it into a clear report. You bring the context and the conversation. Many small businesses have never seen anything like it.

Content people search for. Check every reel, video or blog topic with prompt 1 first. A topic with real demand keeps bringing visitors long after the reel is over. Turn your best reels into articles, because some people prefer to read.

Visible in AI answers. Prompt 6 is the most underrated: every open customer question you answer on your page helps Google, AI assistants and above all the person who is deciding right now whether to buy from you.

Reports that look like an agency made them

The SEO machine delivers the numbers. With a design skill, Claude turns them into a page you're proud to show: an audit in the client's look, with their logo, colours and font. That wins a potential client before the first call. And if you're employed, you don't hand your boss a spreadsheet but a report that shows where money is being left on the table.

Five building blocks turn data into a presentation:

How the report comes together

1. Data: the audit with prompt 7, plus the gap to the competitors (prompt 4).
2. Look: Claude reads the client's website and writes a DESIGN.md with colours, fonts and style. The Awesome DESIGN.md collection shows what such a file looks like.
3. Build: with the Taste Skill, Claude builds a report page from it. You add the logo as a file.
4. Check and send: Web Design Guidelines checks the page, Playwright CLI takes screenshots on phone and desktop and saves it as a PDF.

10 · The pitch report

Turn the SEO audit in the project into a report for [company] as one HTML page. First read [client-website.com] and capture colours, fonts and style in a DESIGN.md. The logo is at [logo.png]. Structure: the 3 key numbers at the top, the 5 biggest opportunities with search volume, what the competitors do better, a 30-day plan. Plain language, no jargon. Then check the page in the browser and save it as a PDF.

Good to know:

• Taste Skill is thorough but expensive. According to its README, one run takes 30 to 45 minutes and a few hundred thousand tokens. It needs Node 22 and Chrome, Edge or Chromium. Worth it for an important pitch, not for the weekly report.
• Image to Code needs an image model. According to its README, the agent must be able to generate images and write code. Claude Code alone can't. The other four run without an image model.
• Other people's logos and brands: a client's logo belongs in material for that very client. In public (as a reference, in reels, on your website) only with their permission. You are responsible for the rights.
• Stay honest: an unrequested audit is an offer, not an expert opinion. Say where the numbers come from and when they're from.

All five are open source (MIT or Apache-2.0). How to install Taste Skill, Web Design Guidelines and Playwright CLI:

npx skills add https://github.com/Leonxlnx/taste-skill --skill "design-taste-frontend"
npx skills add vercel-labs/agent-skills
npm install -g @playwright/cli@latest
playwright-cli install --skills

Awesome DESIGN.md needs no install: copy a DESIGN.md from the collection into your project or let Claude write one for your client. The format comes from Google Stitch.

Limits and risks

• Numbers are estimates. Google Ads search volumes are rounded monthly averages, not exact counts. They're plenty for decisions, not as proof.
• Claude can misread data. That's why the rule "source and date for every number". Spot-check the most important numbers.
• Costs run per request. A daily limit in the dashboard is a must. Let Claude estimate big analyses (many domains, many AI queries) first.
• Mass content hurts. Google's spam policies call creating many pages without added value spam ("scaled content abuse"), whether humans or AI made them. Let Claude research and draft, but bring your own experience, examples and opinion.
• Access to your Google account. Every connection platform between Claude and Google gets access to your data. For client accounts only with their consent (in the EU with a data processing agreement).
• SEO takes time. New pages often need weeks to months to rank. The dashboard shows you whether things are moving in the right direction.

Your first hour

• DataForSEO account created, daily limit set
• Connector added in Claude and signed in
• Prompt 1 tested with your most important search term
• SEO project created in Claude, instructions pasted
• Company profile (prompt 5) created, gaps answered, saved in the project
• Search Console performance report exported and added to the project
• Gold nuggets (prompt 2) found and the best three noted
• First action implemented (prompt 8) and published
• Optional: first pitch report built in the client's look (prompt 10)

My tip

Start with prompt 2. Most people are surprised how differently their customers search compared with how they talk about their own offer. That one list alone changes how you word your homepage, your reels and your offers.

All links, commands and prices in this guide were checked on the official pages on 26 October 2026. Prices and features change: take a quick look at the current pricing page before big analyses.