INK Review: AI Writing Meets SEO Optimization

What Is INK and Why Is It Different?

INK is a bit of a dark horse in the AI copywriting space. Unlike most GPT-3 writing tools that live entirely in your browser, INK is a standalone desktop application available for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It started life as a pure SEO assistant — think Yoast or Surfer SEO — but recently added GPT-3 AI writing capabilities directly into its editor.

That distinction matters. While tools like Jasper and Copy.ai were built around AI text generation and added SEO features later (if at all), INK approaches things from the opposite direction. SEO comes first, and AI writing is layered on top as a co-writing assistant. The result is a tool that feels more like a complete writing environment than a text generator.

INK also offers a WordPress plugin that syncs your finished articles — formatting, images, and all — directly to your site. None of the other AI writing tools in this category offer anything like that, making INK uniquely appealing if WordPress is your publishing platform.

INK's Homepage and First Impressions

INK's marketing could use some work. The homepage leads with "AI co-writing and SEO assistant," which doesn't immediately communicate a clear benefit to someone unfamiliar with the tool. Compare that to Jasper's approach of showing specific outcomes like "Jasper will write your Facebook ads" — there's a tangible promise attached.

The site mentions ranking higher and driving more traffic, but without explaining how or what makes INK different, it reads more like an empty promise than a compelling pitch. Their testimonials section features relatively unknown names, and INK itself appears as one of its own testimonials. For a tool that's been around for several years, you'd expect some more recognizable brands.

On the positive side, INK runs a live Q&A session every day, which shows real commitment to community engagement. Their Facebook community is still small compared to competitors — most AI writing tools have 2,000 to 6,000 members, while Jasper sits at around 30,000 — but the daily touchpoints are a good sign.

The Desktop App and Editor Experience

Where INK truly shines is the writing experience itself. The standalone editor is genuinely beautiful — clean, distraction-free, and thoughtfully designed. It's the kind of environment that makes you want to sit down and write, which is saying something for a productivity tool.

The editor includes several writer-friendly features you'd normally find in dedicated writing apps like Ulysses. Typewriter mode keeps your cursor centered on screen so you're always writing at the same position rather than chasing text down the page. Focus mode dims everything except the line you're currently working on. There's even a sound mode that plays typewriter key sounds as you type, if that's your thing.

The toolbar offers standard word processor features — headings (H2 through H4, with H1 reserved for your article title), block quotes, lists, links, image insertion, bold, italic, underline, and text alignment. You can easily toggle between light and dark themes with a keyboard shortcut. It's a genuinely pleasant place to write, and the free tier gives you access to 10 articles per month with the SEO tools included.

Short-Form AI Copy Generation

INK's web-based AI tools handle short-form content like product descriptions and sales frameworks. Testing with a product description for "Profitable Tools Insiders," the results were mixed but workable. The first output asked compelling questions and mentioned specific tools like WordPress and Shopify. The second missed the mark entirely, talking about "professionally designed tools from local vendors." The third was decent but made the odd choice of abbreviating the product name to "Pro Tools" — confusing it with the popular music software.

The AIDA framework generator ran into a practical issue right away: a 200-character limit on the product description input that none of the other tools imposed. The attention-grabbing headlines it generated ranged from bizarre ("70% of designers have a Twitter account") to genuinely interesting ("10,000 students attended our first webinar"). Call-to-action outputs were uniformly generic across all eight tools reviewed in this series, so INK wasn't uniquely weak there.

The web UI has some notable issues. Template names in the sidebar get cut off with no way to see the full text. More critically, generated outputs weren't being saved properly — support confirmed the saved results feature was "under renovation." To their credit, they fixed it within 24 hours and all previously saved results were intact.

AI-Powered Long-Form Writing

The real test for INK is long-form content creation, where the SEO-first approach should theoretically give it an edge. After setting a target keyword — in this case, "sales page for online course" — and building an outline from the relevant topics panel, you can start generating content section by section.

The AI composition tools are accessible via Command+Enter (or Ctrl+Enter on PC) and offer several modes: write from scratch, rewrite existing text, simplify complex sentences, and expand on ideas. The output quality for original paragraphs is reasonable. Given the heading "What do online course sales pages look like?," it produced a solid paragraph about headlines, hero images, color schemes, and messaging — all genuinely relevant points.

However, the rewrite function needs significant improvement. When asked to rewrite borrowed text, it often changed just a single word — swapping "knowing" for "understanding" or simply removing one word from a sentence. That's nowhere near enough transformation to avoid plagiarism concerns, and it certainly wouldn't pass a plagiarism checker. The generated content did pass a Copyscape check when written from scratch, which is reassuring, but you'll want to avoid the copy-and-rewrite workflow entirely.

The SEO Optimization Engine

INK's SEO tools are where the product really differentiates itself. The optimization panel provides a comprehensive score based on multiple factors, broken down into word tasks, document tasks, and headline tasks.

Word tasks flag issues like hard-to-read sentences, excessive adverb usage, and insufficient word count. For the test keyword, INK recommended aiming for roughly 2,800 words to compete with top-ranking pages. It also includes grammar and spelling suggestions — the only AI writing tool in the series to offer this — functioning similarly to Grammarly right inside the editor.

Document tasks cover the structural SEO essentials: using the exact key phrase in subheadings, adding images, and writing meta titles and descriptions. You can handle all of this within the INK app rather than switching to a separate tool. Headline tasks analyze your title for emotional intelligence (aiming for an A grade), readability level, character count, word count, and sentiment. The tool flagged that a neutral sentiment headline performs worse than positive or negative ones — a useful insight that nudged the headline toward something more click-worthy.

Relevant Topics and Competitor Analysis

The relevant topics panel is arguably INK's most valuable feature. It crawls top-ranking pages for your target keyword and surfaces the headings, topics, and terms your competitors are covering. You can see exactly what ConvertKit, Thrive Architect, and other ranking pages include in their articles.

The topics tab takes this further by showing specific terms that high-performing competitors use and how many times you should include them. Twenty competitors might use the word "testimonials" frequently, suggesting you should cover that topic. "Marketing" and "examples" appear often too, pointing toward content angles you might not have considered.

The key is using your judgment here. INK might tell you to use the word "want" eight more times, which is obviously not useful advice. But when it surfaces substantive topics like testimonials, marketing strategies, or when to use long versus short sales pages, those are genuine content gaps worth filling. Think of it as a research tool rather than a checklist to blindly follow.

Pricing and Plans

INK offers a tiered pricing structure. The free plan gives you access to SEO tools for up to 10 articles per month but excludes AI writing features entirely. The Pro plan at $35 per month adds AI composition with a points-based system — each generation costs one point, and you get 1,000 points per month.

For unlimited AI generation, INK Pro Unlimited runs $99 per month and includes seats for three users. That's a particularly strong value proposition for small teams, since you're getting unlimited AI writing plus full SEO tools for three people at a price point that's competitive with single-user plans from other tools.

Final Verdict: A Swiss Army Knife for Writers

INK has rough edges. The GPT-3 output quality doesn't match Jasper, the current market leader. The rewrite function needs serious improvement. The web-based short-form tools feel like an afterthought, and there are UI bugs like the trailing-space selection issue that prevent AI tools from appearing.

But there's something genuinely appealing about the complete package INK offers. If you're a writer who wants a single environment for drafting, SEO optimization, grammar checking, image management, and WordPress publishing — with AI assistance for those moments when you hit a wall — INK occupies a unique middle ground that no other tool in this space fills.

The SEO-first approach means your content is being optimized as you write rather than as an afterthought. The relevant topics panel is a legitimate research tool. The editor itself is beautiful. And the WordPress sync eliminates an entire step from most content workflows. INK isn't the best AI writer, but it might be the best writing environment that also happens to have AI built in.

Watch the Full Video

Prefer watching to reading? Check out the full video on YouTube for a complete walkthrough with live demos and commentary.