What People Check in Our Free SEO Tools: 6,430 Runs
More than half of the people who used our free SEO tools in the last 30 days came to check AI content, not rankings or links: 56.1% of users. The most popular single check was text for hidden ChatGPT characters. This is the…
More than half of the people who used our free SEO tools in the last 30 days came to check AI content, not rankings or links: 56.1% of users. The most popular single check was text for hidden ChatGPT characters. This is the audience of one site and one catalog, not the whole market, but the shift in what people check is easy to see in our own logs.
Data: 6,430 tool runs, October 13 – November 12, 2026
Key numbers
- 56.1% of users ran at least one AI content or authenticity check, and these checks made up 55.4% of runs (3,563 of 6,430). Base: 6,430 runs of 118 free tools with at least one run, October 13 – November 12, 2026, humans only (bots, admins and test accounts excluded).
- The most popular single tools: hidden ChatGPT character check, 24.7% of users; AI music detector for Suno, Udio and ElevenLabs, 17.0%; AI text detector, 4.9%; AI image detector, 4.9%.
- Classic SEO is the minority: technical SEO 15.3% of users, network and security 13.7%, index and rankings 8.7%, links and authority 8.2%, text tools 5.6%, AI search visibility 0.6%.
- The AI share of runs grew from 25.5% in July to 55.7% in August and September and 61.4% in October and November (runs without bots and admins, July – November 12, 2026). Caveat: in October our catalog grew from 91 to 128 tools (37 added), so part of this rise comes from new tools and new traffic, not only from demand.
- Behavior: 55.0% of users run a tool once, only 10.8% try more than one tool, and 13.1% of runs (841 of 6,430) end with an input error such as a wrong URL, file or format. By interface language, AI checks were run by 60.2% of Russian-version users, 58.2% of English, 46.7% of Ukrainian and 40.6% of Polish.
What people check in our tools: categories
Chart 1 and Table 1 split the 118 tools into 8 categories by purpose. The "Users, %" column shows the share of unique visitors per category, so a person who used tools from two categories is counted in both and the percentages add up to more than 100%. The "Runs" columns count each run once.
| Category | Users, % | Runs | Runs, % |
|---|---|---|---|
| AI content & authenticity | 56.1% | 3,563 | 55.4% |
| Technical SEO | 15.3% | 870 | 13.5% |
| Network & security | 13.7% | 815 | 12.7% |
| Index & rankings | 8.7% | 443 | 6.9% |
| Links & authority | 8.2% | 350 | 5.4% |
| Text tools | 5.6% | 299 | 4.7% |
| Utilities | 0.9% | 55 | 0.9% |
| AI search visibility | 0.6% | 35 | 0.5% |
Which AI checks people run
Four tools carry most of the AI category. We describe them in short, in order of users.
- Hidden ChatGPT character check, 24.7% of users. It looks for invisible and unusual Unicode characters in a text (zero-width spaces, unusual spaces and similar). People check a text before publishing, since such characters can survive copy and paste from a chatbot.
- AI music detector for Suno, Udio and ElevenLabs, 17.0% of users. It looks for traces of generation in an audio file. This is not a search task at all, so the audience here is wider than SEO specialists.
- AI text detector, 4.9% of users. It estimates how likely a text was written by a model. The result is an estimate, not proof (see "What to do").
- AI image detector, 4.9% of users. It estimates whether an image was generated by a model.
Some people used more than one of these tools, so the shares are not additive. The AI category also includes tools for video, C2PA and SynthID marks, which are smaller.
Trend by month
The AI share of runs was 25.5% in July (1,244 runs), 55.7% in August (1,039) and in September (1,213), and 61.4% in October (5,545) and in November (2,526; November covers 1–12 only). Note that in October our catalog grew from 91 to 128 tools (37 added), so part of the rise to 61.4% reflects new tools and new traffic. Over the same months, the share of link and index tools fell from 20.7% in July to 8.6% in October, then rose to 14.4% in November. The share of technical SEO tools went from 34.9% in July to 8.6% in November.
A caveat matters here. The main AI tools had been in the catalog since June, but in October the catalog grew from 91 to 128 tools (37 added), and run volume more than quadrupled against September. A bigger catalog and different traffic sources change the mix by themselves. So the chart shows how our audience changed, not how the market changed.
By interface language
We split users by the language of the site version they used, not by country: a person with the Polish interface may sit anywhere. AI checks were run by 60.2% of users of the Russian version, 58.2% of the English version, 46.7% of the Ukrainian version and 40.6% of the Polish version.
In the Ukrainian and Polish versions, classic SEO checks make up a bigger part of use. This may reflect different tasks or different ways people arrive at the tools. We did not study the reasons.
How people use the tools
Most visits are short. 55.0% of users ran a tool once, and the median is 1 run per user. Only 10.8% of users tried more than one tool. Of all runs, 13.1% (841 of 6,430) ended with an input error: not the URL, file or format the tool expects. A tool that explains the expected input right at the field, with an example, would likely lose fewer runs, but this is an assumption, not a finding. Runs by signed-in users are 9.1% of the total, so almost all use is anonymous and one-off.
What to do
The data describes our visitors, but it points to checks that now sit next to classic SEO work.
- Check text for hidden characters before publishing, especially if a draft passed through a chatbot. Clean it, then check again.
- For images and audio, record where the file came from. Where available, keep or read provenance data such as C2PA content credentials, and label AI-generated media honestly.
- Do not rely on a single AI detector. Detectors make errors in both directions and can flag human text or miss generated text. Treat a score as a prompt to review, not as a verdict.
- Edit AI-assisted drafts: facts, numbers, names, sources. A check of the text does not replace editing.
- Keep the classic checks: indexation of new pages, broken links, a technical audit, page speed. In our data they are a smaller share of use, not an unneeded one.
- Recheck after every edit and after moving a text between editors, since characters can appear again.
You can try the free tools yourself: catalog of free tools, including the hidden character checker.
Methodology and limits
Source: the run log of 118 free tools at promopilot.link/tools/. One row is one run, meaning the tool processed an input. Page views without a run are not counted. Period: October 13 – November 12, 2026 (30 days). Excluded: bots (by User-Agent and behavior), administrators and test accounts. A user is a unique IP address (an anonymized hash in the dataset): one person on different networks may be counted twice, and several people behind one IP as one. Tools are assigned to 8 categories by purpose. The monthly trend uses a separate aggregate run counter by day and tool (also without bots and admins), July – November 2026, with November covering 1–12. Input error means the tool could not process what was entered, not a tool failure.
Limits: this is the audience of one site and one catalog, not a measure of the whole SEO tools market. The result depends on which tools we have and where visitors come from (search, social media, video). The catalog changed: 37 tools were added in October. Without a break-down by source we cannot say how much of the shift is a change in demand and how much is a change in traffic. Rankings are mentioned only as a category of tools: we did not study and do not claim any link to Google rankings. The data is aggregated, and no individual users, sites or queries are published.
FAQ
What do people check most in PromoPilot's free tools in 2026?
In our catalog of 118 free tools, AI content checks: 56.1% of users and 55.4% of 6,430 runs, October 13 – November 12, 2026. The most used single tool was the hidden ChatGPT character check (24.7% of users). This is one site, so it is not the whole market.
Why do people check text for hidden ChatGPT characters?
We did not ask users, so we can only say what the tool does: it looks for invisible and unusual Unicode characters in a text. A likely reason is checking a draft before publishing, but this is our assumption. 24.7% of users ran this check in 30 days.
Are AI detectors reliable?
Not fully. A detector gives an estimate and can be wrong in both directions: flag a human text or miss a generated one. Use a score as a reason to review the material, compare more than one signal, and do not treat one result as proof.
Do people still check backlinks and rankings?
Yes, but less than AI content in our data. Links and authority tools had 8.2% of users and index and rankings tools 8.7%. We did not study and do not claim any link to Google rankings.
Is this data representative of the whole market?
No. It is the audience of one site and one catalog of 118 free tools. In October we added 37 tools, and traffic sources shape who comes. Read it as a picture of our visitors, and do not use it as a market share estimate.
Can I download the data?
Yes. The aggregate CSV (by category, interface language and month) is under CC BY 4.0, with no individual user data. The link is in the "Download the data" section below.
How to cite
PromoPilot (2026). What people check in our free SEO tools: 6,430 runs in 30 days. Data October 13 – November 12, 2026. CC BY 4.0: https://promopilot.link/uploads/blog/research/tools-demand-1411/free-seo-tools-demand-2026-11.csv . Article: https://promopilot.link/en/blog/free-seo-tools-demand-6430-runs-2026
Download the data
The aggregate table (CSV, license CC BY 4.0): https://promopilot.link/uploads/blog/research/tools-demand-1411/free-seo-tools-demand-2026-11.csv. It contains aggregates by category, interface language and month, no individual users.
