MarketMuse
Content planning and optimisation software that maps your site's topical authority, writes content briefs and scores drafts against a topic model
Web
Decision snapshot
Fast-read signals for fit, pricing, and trust.
- Category
- SEO & Organic Growth
- Best for
- ai content optimizer
- Access
- Web
What is this tool?
A fit for content teams at publishers, brands and agencies who want to decide which topics to cover and how thoroughly, based on their own site's authority rather than generic keyword difficulty. Two things shape the decision: MarketMuse's pricing page lists no prices and routes every plan through a demo, so cost only becomes clear after one, and its pages currently contradict each other on whether you can open a Free account or start a free trial yourself, because the sign-up page says sign-up is disabled and to contact Sales.
By QT Desk
Read full overviewHide full overview
MarketMuse starts with your own site rather than a keyword list. Once it has read your pages, it keeps an inventory of every page and topic it found and scores each topic for your site specifically: a Personalized Difficulty from 1 to 100, plus measures of topical authority and competitive advantage. From there you work in a set of applications. Research expands a topic into the related keywords and questions around it; Content Plan documents analyse a topic area and list what to update and what to write; Content Briefs pass that decision to a writer; and Optimize scores the draft against a topic model and the top 20 search results until it reaches the target score.
Each time you run a focus topic in an application it uses a query from your monthly allowance, which refreshes around your account's creation date; extra queries are sold in batches of 10, paid with credits, at a price shown during ordering. Extra user seats can also be bought by an administrator. Billing, under the current Siteimprove terms, defaults to a one-month prepaid term that renews automatically, is non-refundable and is charged in U.S. dollars, unless your order says otherwise. You can cancel at any time and keep access to the end of the term.
It is a desktop-browser web application, supported on current Chrome, Firefox, Safari and Edge. The topic model is trained on English and Spanish, and SERP analysis is limited to a listed set of countries, among them the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, Spain and Mexico. Getting work out is manual: you export writing to Word or Google Docs, export keyword data to a spreadsheet, or use a Copy for Publishing button that cleans the HTML for pasting into a CMS such as WordPress or HubSpot. MarketMuse's own documentation describes these export and copy-and-paste routes rather than a direct CMS connection.
On data, the terms say your content remains yours and is not resold, that the AI features send your input to third-party providers including OpenAI and Amazon Bedrock, and that you must keep personal data out of what you submit to them. Team invitations also screen out common free-mail addresses such as Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo, so teammates have to be invited on their work addresses.
Is this right for you?
Quick fit check against how you actually work.
Choose this if
- You run a content-heavy site and need to decide which existing pages to refresh before commissioning new ones
- You want difficulty and authority scored for your own domain, not a single generic keyword-difficulty number
- Writers on your team work better from a structured brief and a target score than from a keyword list
- Several people share the work and the 3-user Research or 5-user Strategy allowance fits your team
Consider alternatives if
- You need to see prices before talking to anyone: MarketMuse's pricing page lists none and routes every plan, including Free, through a demo booking
- You want to sign up and try it yourself today; the sign-up page currently says sign-up is disabled and to contact Sales
- Your content is mainly in languages other than English or Spanish, or you target search results outside the listed countries
- You want AI to draft and publish articles straight into your CMS; MarketMuse plans and scores content, and publishing is a copy-and-paste step
- Your team members use personal Gmail or Outlook addresses, which team invitations do not accept
Key features
What you can actually do with this tool.
A site inventory that maintains itself
MarketMuse reads your published site and keeps a running list of pages, topics and page-topic pairs, without manual uploads; MarketMuse's help says first setup takes 10 to 30 minutes for a site under 16k topics. Everything else in the product is measured against this inventory.
Difficulty and authority measured for your site
Personalized Difficulty (1 to 100), Topic Authority, Competitive Advantage and Page Authority are calculated from your own content, so two sites can see different difficulty for the same topic. This is the basis for deciding where you can realistically rank.
Optimize: a scoring editor built on a topic model
Give Optimize a topic and it builds a topic model, sets a Target Content Score and target word count, and scores your draft as you write, with each topic mention worth one point and up to two per topic. You can also compare your page one-to-one against any of the top 20 ranking pages.
Research: a topic universe for keyword planning
Enter a topic or keyword in the Research application and MarketMuse returns related keywords, topic-model topics, variants and questions, with its personalised metrics alongside. Keyword data exports to a spreadsheet, and clustering is done through a Cluster Analysis document.
Content briefs and plans
Content Plan documents tell you what to update and what to create to build authority in a topic area, and Content Briefs hand a writer the structure and topics to cover. Nine brief types exist; the lower plans get the Article brief and Strategy gets all nine.
Plans & pricing
Pricing tiers and what's included in each.
Free
Listed without a price; the plan's button books a demo
- 1 user and 10 queries a month; no site inventory, tracked topics, Content Briefs or strategy documents
- Topic Navigator, Keywords, SERP X-Ray, SERP Heatmap, Site Heatmap and Connect, with export of saved writing only
- Availability is contradicted by MarketMuse itself: help articles describe creating and downgrading to a free account, but the sign-up page says sign-up is disabled and to contact Sales, and the terms name only the three paid plans
Optimize
No price on the pricing page; sold through a demo booking
- 1 site inventory, 1 user, 100 queries a month and 100 tracked topics
- 5 Content Briefs a month (Article type) and 1 content strategy document a month
- Export of saved writing, applications and documents
Research
No price on the pricing page; sold through a demo booking
- 1 site inventory, 3 users, queries described by MarketMuse as unlimited, and 1000 tracked topics
- 10 Content Briefs a month (Article type) and 3 content strategy documents a month
Strategy
No price on the pricing page; sold through a demo booking
- 1 site inventory with more sites available to add, 5 users, queries described as unlimited, and 10K tracked topics
- 20 Content Briefs a month across all 9 brief types, and 5 content strategy documents a month
- Keyword-usage and cluster analysis for any site, which MarketMuse's help describes as a Strategy-plan capability
Official pricing pagePricing may have changed. Always verify before purchasing.
Frequently asked
Common questions about this tool, answered.
How much does MarketMuse cost?
MarketMuse's pricing page lists no prices. It shows Free, Optimize, Research and Strategy with their allowances, and every plan's button books a demo. The current terms set a default one-month prepaid term, renewing automatically, non-refundable and charged in U.S. dollars, unless your order says otherwise. Extra queries are priced at the point of ordering, and administrators can buy extra user seats.
Is there a free plan or free trial?
MarketMuse's own pages disagree. The pricing page shows a Free plan with 1 user and 10 queries a month, and a "Start my free trial" button with no trial length stated; help articles describe creating a free account and downgrading to one. But the sign-up page those buttons lead to says sign-up is disabled and asks you to contact Sales, and the terms list only the three paid plans. Expect to go through Sales either way, and ask whether a free or trial account is on offer.
What is a query, and how fast will I use them?
A query is used every time you run a focus topic in one of the applications. Free has 10 a month and Optimize 100; Research and Strategy are described as unlimited. Allowances refresh monthly around your account creation date, and extra queries come in batches of 10 paid with credits.
Who runs MarketMuse now?
Siteimprove acquired MarketMuse in October 2024. The current terms say the service, formerly provided by MarketMuse, Inc., is made available by Siteimprove, Inc., and support mail goes to a Siteimprove address. The product, website and plan names continue as MarketMuse.
Does MarketMuse write the articles for me?
Not in the way a writing assistant does. MarketMuse says it does not write content for customers and is not a CMS. Optimize has a generative AI component to help you write faster, powered by third-party providers including OpenAI and Amazon Bedrock, but the core of the product is planning, briefs and scoring; you still write, edit and publish the piece.