🤖MCP Server (AI Integration)

The MCP Server lets you connect AI assistants like Claude Desktop, Claude Code, or any MCP-compatible client to your SEO data. Ask questions in plain English and get instant answers — no need to navigate dashboards or export reports manually.

MCP Server settings in SEO Utils

MCP (Model Context Protocol) is an open standard that lets AI assistants connect to external data sources. SEO Utils runs an MCP server locally on your machine — your data never leaves your computer.

What Can You Do With It?

Use Case	Example Prompt
Generate reports	"Generate a weekly SEO report for example.com"
Find weak pages	"Find pages with high impressions but low CTR"
Keyword cannibalization	"Which keywords have multiple pages competing?"
Ranking trends	"Show me my biggest ranking winners and losers this month"
Content gaps	"Find queries I'm ranking for but don't have dedicated pages"
Local SEO	"Generate a local SEO report for my business"
Client reports	"Create a professional client-ready report for example.com"
Keyword research	"Check keyword metrics for: seo tools, rank tracker"
SERP analysis	"What's ranking for 'seo tools' in Google?"
Backlink analysis	"Show me the backlinks for example.com"
Content gap	"Find keywords competitors rank for but I don't"
Backlink gap	"Find sites linking to competitors but not me"
Traffic analytics	"Show me the traffic overview for laravel.com"
Organic keywords	"What keywords does laravel.com rank for?"
Demographics	"Show me population and income data around my business"
Bulk analysis	"Compare organic traffic for laravel.com, symfony.com, and codeigniter.com"
NAP Finder	"Which domains have the most NAP citations for my business?"
Keyword explorer	"What are the keyword suggestions for 'keto diet' in the US?"
Saved keywords	"Create a keyword list called 'Competitors' and add: seo tools, rank tracker"
Custom queries	"How many keywords am I tracking across all reports?"

The MCP server gives the AI read-only access to your database, can fetch live data from external APIs (keyword metrics, SERP results, backlinks), and can manage your saved keyword lists.

Requirements

• A valid SEO Utils license key

• MCP Access (one-time purchase)

• For Claude Desktop: Node.js installed (used by the mcp-remote bridge)

Setting Up the MCP Server

1

Purchase MCP Access

Go to Settings → Services and scroll down to the MCP Server (AI Integration) section. Click "Purchase MCP Access" to complete the one-time purchase.

Purchase MCP Access button in Settings

2

Enable the MCP Server

After purchasing, toggle "Enable MCP Server" to start the server. You should see the status change to Running (port 19515).

MCP Server enabled and running

3

Connect to Claude

Choose one of the three connection methods described below.

Connecting to Claude

Claude Desktop (Recommended)

One-Click Install

1. In the MCP Server settings, click the "Auto Install" tab

2. Click "Install in Claude Desktop"

3. Restart Claude Desktop to apply changes

This automatically adds SEO Utils to Claude Desktop's configuration and Connectors list. You'll see it appear under Settings → Connectors in Claude Desktop.

This method requires Node.js to be installed on your machine.

Claude Code

Claude.ai / Cowork

Available Tools

The MCP server exposes the following tools that the AI uses automatically:

Data Tools (read your existing SEO data):

Tool	Description
list_tables	Lists all database tables with descriptions
describe_table	Shows columns, types, and relationships for a specific table
query_database	Executes read-only SQL queries against your SEO data
query_gsc	Specialized SQL tool for Google Search Console data with built-in timezone and filter guidance
list_workspaces	Lists all workspaces and shows the active one
set_workspace	Switches to a different workspace

Action Tools (fetch live data from APIs):

Tool	Description
check_keyword_metrics	Check search volume, difficulty, CPC, and search intents for keywords via DataForSEO
fetch_serp_data	Fetch live Google SERP results for keywords. Caches results to avoid duplicate API calls
get_backlink_summary	Get backlink overview: total backlinks, referring domains, domain rank, spam score, distributions
get_backlink_history	Get historical backlink trends: new/lost backlinks and referring domains over time
fetch_backlinks	Fetch individual backlink records with filters (dofollow, platform type, etc.)
get_referring_domains	Get list of domains linking to a target with rank, spam score, and backlink count
get_anchor_texts	Get anchor text distribution — which texts are used most in backlinks
get_backlink_competitors	Find domains competing for the same backlink sources
get_content_gap	Find keywords competitors rank for but you don't
get_backlink_gap	Find domains linking to competitors but not you
get_demographics	Fetch US Census data (population, income, age, homeownership) around a location
get_traffic_summary	Get organic traffic overview (ETV, keyword counts, paid traffic) for a domain
get_organic_keywords	Get keywords a domain ranks for with position, volume, traffic, difficulty
get_traffic_competitors	Find organic search competitors with shared keyword overlap
get_top_pages	Get top pages by organic traffic for a domain
get_historical_rank	Get historical organic traffic and ranking trends over time (monthly)
get_keyword_suggestions	Get Google keyword suggestions with full metrics (volume, KD, CPC, backlinks, SERP info)
get_bing_related_keywords	Get Bing related keywords with metrics
fetch_autocomplete_keywords	Trigger autocomplete keyword generation from Google or Bing (background)
get_autocomplete_keywords	Get autocomplete keywords with metrics from the database
bulk_traffic_analysis	Analyze organic traffic for multiple domains at once
bulk_backlink_analysis	Analyze backlink profiles for multiple URLs/domains at once
submit_url_for_google_indexing	Submit a URL for Google indexing via the Indexing API
check_google_indexing_status	Check if a URL is indexed by Google
submit_url_to_index_now	Submit a URL to IndexNow for Bing indexing
check_index_now_status	Check if a URL is indexed by Bing

Saved Keywords Tools (manage your keyword lists):

Tool	Description
list_saved_keywords_lists	List all keyword lists with keyword counts
create_saved_keywords_list	Create a new keyword list with a name and locale
update_saved_keywords_list	Rename a keyword list
delete_saved_keywords_list	Delete a keyword list and all its keywords
add_keywords_to_list	Add keywords to a list (duplicates are skipped)
remove_keywords_from_list	Remove keywords from a list by their IDs

SQL queries are read-only — the AI cannot modify your data via SQL. Action tools fetch data from external APIs (DataForSEO) and may incur API costs. Saved Keywords tools can create, update, and delete keyword lists on your behalf.

Built-in Prompts

Claude Desktop shows these in the prompt picker — click the slash icon to find them:

Prompt	What It Does
Weekly SEO Report	Comprehensive weekly performance report with rankings, GSC data, and recommendations
Keyword Cannibalization	Finds keywords where multiple pages compete for the same query
Weak Pages Analysis	Identifies underperforming pages that need optimization
Ranking Trends	Analyzes ranking changes over time with winners and losers
Content Gap Analysis	Finds content opportunities from Search Console data
Local SEO Report	Google Business rank tracking performance report
SERP Landscape	Competitive analysis of SERP features and competitors
Client Report	Professional, client-ready report in non-technical language

Example Prompts

Here are some prompts you can try right away:

📊 Reporting & Charts

"Pull my Google Search Console data for the last 30 days. Show me a line chart of daily clicks and impressions over time. Also show a table of the top 10 queries by clicks."

"Get my organic rank tracker data for example.com. Create a pie chart showing the ranking distribution: how many keywords are on page 1 (positions 1-10), page 2 (11-20), page 3 (21-30), and beyond. Also show a bar chart of the top 20 keywords by position."

"Pull my Google Business rank tracker data for My Business Name. Create a heatmap or grid visualization showing my ranking positions across different geographic points. Use green for top 3, yellow for 4-10, red for 11+."

"Compare my Google Search Console query performance between the last 7 days and the previous 7 days. Find the top 10 queries that gained the most clicks and the top 10 that lost the most. Show this as a horizontal bar chart with green for winners and red for losers."

"Create a comprehensive SEO dashboard for example.com with: 1) A line chart of GSC clicks over the last 30 days, 2) Current organic rank distribution as a donut chart, 3) A table of top 10 pages by impressions."

🔍 SEO Analysis

"Find pages on my site that rank on positions 11-20 (page 2) with more than 100 impressions. These are quick-win opportunities to push to page 1."

"Find pages with high impressions but low CTR — the title or description probably needs work."

"Which keywords have multiple pages competing for the same position? Show me the cannibalization issues."

"Find queries I'm appearing for in Google but don't have a dedicated page targeting them."

📈 Tracking & Trends

"Compare my organic ranking distribution today vs 30 days ago. How many keywords moved to page 1? How many dropped off?"

"Show me my biggest ranking winners and losers this month."

"List all my organic rank tracker reports and how many keywords each one tracks."

🗺️ Local SEO

"Show me my Google Business rank tracking data. Create a summary of how many grid points I rank in top 3, top 10, and not ranking."

"Show me the ranking trend for 'hot pot' in my GMB report #7"

"Compare my local rankings between this week and last week. Which keywords improved?"

"List all my GMB rank tracker reports with their keywords and latest snapshot dates"

"Show me the demographics around my business and correlate with my local rankings — do I rank better in high-income or high-density areas?"

🔑 Keyword Research

"Check keyword metrics for: seo tools, rank tracker, keyword research, backlink checker"

"Check keyword metrics for these keywords in Vietnam: công cụ seo, phân tích backlink"

"What's the search volume and difficulty for 'best seo tools 2026'?"

🔗 Backlink Analysis

"Show me the backlink profile for seoutils.app"

"How have the backlinks for example.com changed over the past year? Show me a chart."

"Which domains link to seoutils.app? Show the top 20 by authority rank."

"Show me only dofollow backlinks for example.com"

"Find backlinks from blog platforms pointing to example.com"

"Show me backlinks for example.com sorted by domain rank, only from high-authority sites"

"What's the spam score and domain rank for example.com's backlink profile?"

"How many referring domains does example.com have? Break it down by dofollow vs nofollow."

"What anchor texts are used most in backlinks to seoutils.app? Is there over-optimization?"

"Who are the backlink competitors for seoutils.app? Which sites compete for the same link sources?"

🎯 Gap Analysis

"Find keywords that ahrefs.com and semrush.com rank for but seoutils.app doesn't"

"What content opportunities am I missing compared to my top 3 competitors: competitor1.com, competitor2.com, competitor3.com?"

"Find domains that link to ahrefs.com but not seoutils.app"

"Show me the backlink gap between seoutils.app and its top competitors: semrush.com, moz.com"

"Find high-volume keywords (1000+ searches) that competitors rank for in the US but I don't"

📊 Traffic Analytics

"Show me the traffic overview for laravel.com"

"What are the top organic keywords for laravel.com in the US?"

"Who are the traffic competitors for seoutils.app?"

"What are the top pages by traffic for laravel.com?"

"Show me only informational keywords that laravel.com ranks for"

"What keywords does laravel.com rank for in positions 1-3 with more than 1000 monthly searches?"

"Show me the organic traffic trend for laravel.com over the past 5 years. Draw a chart."

🏘️ Demographics (US Census Data)

"Show me the demographics around my GMB report #7 business"

"What's the population density and median income near Haidilao Hot Pot Bellevue?"

"Compare the demographics data with my local rankings — do I rank better in high-income or low-income areas?"

"Show me census data within 3 miles of coordinates 47.61, -122.20"

🔎 GSC Insights & Mentions

Tip: When asking about your own site's search performance, include "in GSC" or "from my Search Console data" in your prompt. This tells the AI to query your local Google Search Console data instead of fetching third-party estimates.

"Find keyword cannibalization issues for example.com in GSC"

"Using my GSC data, what percentage of queries are branded vs non-branded for example.com?"

"Show me my top trending queries in GSC this month vs last month"

"What are my optimization opportunities in GSC — queries I rank for but don't mention in page titles?"

"Show me GSC traffic by country for my site — which countries send the most clicks?"

"Break down my GSC queries by position range: how many rank 1-3, 4-10, 11-20, and 21+?"

"Which queries in GSC have zero mentions in page titles but high impressions?"

"Show me additional traffic sources beyond web search in my Search Console data"

🔗 URL Indexing

"How many of my URLs are indexed vs not indexed?"

"Submit this URL for Google indexing: https://example.com/new-page"

"Check if https://example.com/page is indexed by Google"

"Show me all URLs that have been crawled but not indexed (coverage_state = CRAWLED_CURRENTLY_NOT_INDEXED)"

"Submit https://example.com/updated-page to IndexNow for Bing"

"How many of my IndexNow URLs are indexed by Bing vs not indexed?"

"Check if https://phuclh.com/blog is indexed by Bing"

"Show me all IndexNow URLs that were submitted but still not indexed after 7 days"

📐 Content Struct (Content Brief)

"Show me the content brief for 'keto' — report #189"

"Write a 2000-word article using the content outline from content struct report #191"

"Show me the AI-generated outline and suggested meta title/description for report #193"

"Which H2 headings appear most frequently across competitor pages for 'hot pot' in report #191?"

"Write an SEO-optimized blog post following the content brief in report #189. Use the suggested meta title and include all H2/H3 headings from the outline."

"Compare the heading structure of the top 5 competitor pages for 'keto' in report #189"

📝 Text Analysis (NLP)

"Show me all my NLP analysis reports"

"What are the top entities found in my TextRazor analysis report #19?"

"Which entities appear most frequently across all items in report #21?"

"Compare the entities found by GoogleNLP vs TextRazor for the same URLs"

"Show me all entities with confidence score above 0.8 in report #20"

"What topics were identified in my TextRazor report? Show them sorted by score"

📊 Bulk Analysis

"Compare organic traffic for laravel.com, symfony.com, and codeigniter.com"

"Show me the backlink profiles for seoutils.app, ahrefs.com, and semrush.com"

"Which of these domains has the highest domain rank: moz.com, majestic.com, semrush.com?"

"Analyze traffic and backlinks for my top 5 competitors: competitor1.com, competitor2.com, competitor3.com, competitor4.com, competitor5.com"

"Compare referring domains count for example.com vs example.org"

📍 NAP Finder

"List all my NAP Finder reports"

"Which domains have the most NAP citations for Monsoon Seattle?"

"Show me all NAP citations found on yelp.com for my business"

"What search terms found the most results in NAP Finder report #5?"

"Find all NAP citations ranking in position 1-3 for monsoon seattle"

"Compare NAP citations between report #5 and report #6 — which domains appear in both?"

🔬 Keyword Explorer

"What are the keyword suggestions for 'keto diet' in the US?"

"Show me Bing related keywords for 'coffee shops' sorted by search volume"

"Find keyword suggestions for 'seo tools' with search volume over 1000 and keyword difficulty under 40"

"Get keyword suggestions for 'best laptops' — only show commercial and transactional intent keywords"

"Fetch autocomplete keywords for 'seo tools' from Google"

"Show me the autocomplete keywords for 'keto' from both Google and Bing"

"What's the search volume, keyword difficulty, and CPC for 'keto diet'?"

📋 Saved Keywords

"Show me all my saved keyword lists"

"Create a new keyword list called 'Competitor Keywords' for the US market"

"Add these keywords to my 'Competitor Keywords' list: seo tools, keyword research, backlink checker, rank tracker, keyword difficulty"

"Create a keyword list called 'Vietnam SEO' for Vietnam in Vietnamese"

"Rename my 'Old Keywords' list to 'Archive - Q1 2026'"

"Delete the 'Test Keywords' list"

"How many keywords are in each of my saved keyword lists?"

🌐 SERP Analysis

"What's ranking for 'seo tools' in Google?"

"Fetch SERP data for: rank tracker, keyword research tool, seo software"

"Show me the top 10 Google results for 'best seo tools' in the US"

"What pages are ranking for 'local seo' in the UK?"

🤖 LLM Rank Tracker

"Show me all my LLM rank tracker reports"

"How is my brand mentioned across AI search engines like ChatGPT and Perplexity?"

"Which search terms trigger the most AI citations for my brand?"

"Compare my LLM visibility across different AI engines — ChatGPT vs Perplexity vs Gemini"

"Show me the trend of my brand mentions in AI responses over the last month"

📄 Log Analysis

"Show me all my log analysis reports"

"Which pages get the most Googlebot crawls in my latest log analysis?"

"Show me pages with 404 errors that Googlebot is trying to crawl"

"What's the crawl frequency breakdown by HTTP status code?"

🧪 SEO Tests

"Show me all my SEO tests and their current status"

"How is my SEO test #5 performing — are clicks and impressions improving?"

"Compare the before and after metrics for my latest completed SEO test"

📝 Client Reports

"Generate a professional, client-ready SEO report for example.com for the last 30 days. Use clear, non-technical language suitable for stakeholders."

🎯 Comprehensive Reports (Best for Demo)

"Create a comprehensive SEO health report for example.com. Include: 1) Overall GSC performance summary for the last 3 months (total clicks, impressions, avg CTR, avg position), 2) Top 10 performing queries by clicks with their positions, 3) Pages with the most impressions but lowest CTR (optimization opportunities), 4) Any keyword cannibalization issues found, 5) A weekly clicks trend chart. Format it as a professional client-ready report with sections and actionable recommendations."

"Give me a complete SEO & backlink report for example.com — include traffic overview, top keywords, top pages, top competitors, backlink profile, and combined trends. Save it as an interactive HTML dashboard."

Workspaces

If you use multiple workspaces in SEO Utils, the MCP server defaults to your currently active workspace. You can ask the AI to switch workspaces:

"List my workspaces"

"Switch to the Client Projects workspace"

After switching, all subsequent queries will be scoped to that workspace.

Data Accuracy

The MCP server is designed to return the same numbers you see in the app. Behind the scenes, it automatically handles:

• Timezone conversion — Google Search Console uses Pacific Time, while other tools use your server's timezone. The MCP applies the correct offsets automatically.

• Default filters — Filters like search_type = 'web' for GSC data are applied automatically. You don't need to specify them.

• Smart table selection — When you ask about total clicks over time, the MCP uses the aggregate table (accurate totals). When you ask about specific queries, it uses the query-level table. Same logic as the app.

• Rank tracker specifics — NULL positions correctly handled as "not ranking," local pack results prioritized over organic, and average rank calculations match the app exactly.

You just ask your question in plain English — the MCP handles all the complexity.

Security

Aspect	Detail
Network	Server binds to 127.0.0.1 only — not accessible from the internet
Authentication	Bearer token required for all connections
Data access	SQL queries are read-only. Saved Keywords tools can create/update/delete keyword lists
Query safety	Only SELECT statements allowed, auto-limited to 1,000 rows
Token storage	Auth token file has 0600 permissions (owner-read only)

Your SEO data stays on your machine. The MCP server runs locally and the AI connects to it directly — no data is sent to any third-party server.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is this self-hosted?

Yes! The MCP server runs entirely inside the SEO Utils app on your own machine. Your data stays local — nothing is sent to any third-party server. It works on macOS, Windows, and Linux (including VPS).

What about security? Is my desktop accessible from the internet?

No. The MCP server binds to 127.0.0.1 (localhost) only — it is not accessible from the internet. Only applications running on your own machine can connect to it, and they need a valid Bearer token to authenticate. Your data never leaves your computer.

Can I run this on a VPS for 24/7 automations?

Yes! You can install SEO Utils on a VPS (Linux is supported) and keep it running 24/7. This is great for automations with n8n, Make, etc. — they won't fail when your local machine is turned off. If you need external access from the internet, put SEO Utils behind a reverse proxy (like Nginx) with HTTPS. The built-in Bearer token auth ensures only authorized clients can connect.

Which AI clients are supported?

Any MCP-compatible client works, including:

• Claude Desktop — via Auto Install, Connector, or manual config

• Claude.ai / Cowork — via Settings → Connectors → Add custom connector (Pro/Max plan required)

• Claude Code — via .mcp.json config

• n8n, Make, Zapier — via the HTTP API

• Any MCP client — the server uses the standard MCP protocol over HTTP

Can the AI modify or delete my data?

SQL queries are strictly read-only — only SELECT statements are allowed. However, the Saved Keywords tools can create, rename, and delete keyword lists, and add or remove keywords from lists. All other SEO data (rank tracking, GSC, backlinks, etc.) cannot be modified by the AI.

Troubleshooting

MCP server won't start

Make sure you have a valid license key and have purchased MCP access. Check that port 19515 is not being used by another application.

Claude Desktop can't connect

1. Make sure SEO Utils is running and the MCP server is enabled (status shows "Running")

2. If you used Auto Install, restart Claude Desktop after installing

3. If you used the Connector method, verify the URL is correct in Claude Desktop Settings → Connectors

4. Check that Node.js is installed if using the Auto Install method

Queries return no data

Make sure you're in the correct workspace. Use the prompt "List my workspaces" to check which one is active, then switch if needed.

Does the auth token change when I restart SEO Utils?

No. The auth token is generated once and persists across restarts. You only need to set up the connection once — it will keep working after restarting SEO Utils or your computer.