Research Tools Mcp

37 SEO & Marketing Research Tools in One MCP - LLM Visibility, Social Listening, Ad Intelligence.

Track your brand visibility in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini & Perplexity. Plus keyword research, SERP analysis, trends, and competitive intelligence.

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Table of Contents

• Quick Start
• Why Research Tools MCP?
• Use Cases
• Compatibility
• LLM Visibility & AI Tracking
• Complete Research Toolkit
• Pricing
• All Tools Reference
• FAQ
• Support

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🚀 Quick Start

Add to your MCP client config:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "rt-mcp": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "mcp-remote",
        "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=halilc4/research-tools-mcp",
        "--header",
        "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
      ]
    }
  }
}

MCP Server URL: https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=halilc4/research-tools-mcp

Try it:

rt_llm_track query="best typescript framework"

All API costs included in per-call pricing. No additional keys needed.

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💡 Why Research Tools MCP?

The only MCP server for SEO that combines traditional research with AI visibility tracking:

• LLM Visibility - Track citations in ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity (no other tool does this)
• Social Listening - Reddit, Hacker News, YouTube, Dev.to monitoring in one place
• Ad Intelligence - Google, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, Reddit ad libraries
• Pay-per-use - $0.005-0.03 per call, no $99/mo subscription
• Token-optimized - Compact mode saves 50-80% tokens per response

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🏆 Why Not Semrush or Ahrefs?

Feature	Semrush/Ahrefs	Research Tools MCP
Keyword Research	✅	✅ Autocomplete, PAA, Related, Trends
SERP Analysis	✅	✅ Google SERP, Rank, AI Mode
LLM Visibility	❌	✅ ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, Gemini
Social Listening	❌	✅ Reddit, HN, YouTube, Dev.to
Ad Intelligence	❌	✅ Google, Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn, Reddit
Trend Monitoring	Limited	✅ Interest, Topics, Geo, News
Pricing	$99-449/mo	Pay-per-use ($0.005-$0.03/call)
MCP Integration	❌	✅ Native MCP Server

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📋 Use Cases

🎯 Brand Visibility Check

You're launching a SaaS product. Before spending $10k on ads, find out if AI assistants even mention you when users ask for recommendations.

rt_llm_brand domain="yourproduct.com" keywords="crm software,sales automation"
rt_llm_audit domain="yourproduct.com"

→ Discover your visibility score across ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, and Perplexity

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🔍 Competitive Intelligence

Your competitor just raised $50M. Time to understand their positioning—what Reddit says about them, how LLMs compare you, and what ads they're running.

rt_social_reddit subreddits="saas,startups" sort="top"
rt_llm_compare domain="yourproduct.com" competitor="competitor.com" keywords="crm software"
rt_ads_meta query="crm software" country="us"

→ Full competitive picture: community sentiment, AI perception, ad messaging

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📈 Content Strategy

Planning next quarter's content. Find trending topics in your space, discover what questions people actually ask, and see what sources LLMs cite.

rt_trends_interest query="ai automation"
rt_keywords_paa query="sales automation software"
rt_llm_track query="best sales automation tools"

→ Data-driven content ideas based on real search behavior and AI citations

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🔗 Compatibility

Client	Status
Claude Desktop	✅ Full support
Claude Code	✅ Full support
VS Code (Copilot)	✅ Full support
Cursor	✅ Full support
Any MCP client	✅ Works

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🔍 LLM Visibility & AI Tracking

LLM Visibility MCP | GEO (Generative Engine Optimization) | AEO | AI SEO | LLMO

When users ask ChatGPT "what's the best [your category]?", do you appear? Traditional SEO tools can't answer this.

Supported AI Engines

Engine	Description
Perplexity	Citation-heavy, web-connected answers
ChatGPT (GPT-4o)	100M+ weekly active users
Google Gemini	Integrated with Google Search
Claude	Popular with developers and enterprises
Google AI Mode	AI-powered search results in Google

LLM Tools

Tool	What it does	Price
rt_llm_track	See which sources LLMs cite for any query	$0.015/engine
rt_llm_brand	Monitor your brand visibility across keywords	$0.02/engine
rt_llm_compare	Head-to-head comparison vs competitor	$0.03/engine
rt_llm_competitors	Discover alternatives LLMs mention alongside you	$0.03/engine
rt_llm_benchmark	Compare how different LLM models rank products	$0.03/model
rt_llm_audit	7-question brand knowledge assessment	$0.21

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🛠️ Complete Research Toolkit

🔑 Keyword Research (4 tools)

MCP keyword research tools - discover queries that matter for SEO and AI visibility.

Tool	What it does
rt_keywords_autocomplete	Google autocomplete suggestions
rt_keywords_paa	"People Also Ask" questions
rt_keywords_related	Related search queries
rt_keywords_trends_related	Trending related queries

📊 SERP Analysis (4 tools)

Compare LLM citations against actual search rankings.

Tool	What it does
rt_serp_google	Full SERP results (positions, titles, domains)
rt_serp_rank	Track keyword rankings (up to 100 results)
rt_serp_ai_mode	Google AI Overview extraction
rt_serp_competitor	SERP + competitor ads + AI overview

📈 Trend Monitoring (4 tools)

Find emerging topics before competitors.

Tool	What it does
rt_trends_interest	Topic popularity over time (up to 5 queries)
rt_trends_topics	Related/rising topics
rt_trends_geo	Geographic distribution
rt_trends_news	Google News search

💬 Social Listening (12 tools)

Social listening MCP tools - monitor Reddit, Hacker News, YouTube, and Dev.to. These are the sources LLMs reference and learn from.

Tool	What it does
rt_social_reddit	Subreddit posts (hot/new/rising/top)
rt_social_youtube_search	YouTube video search
rt_social_youtube_channel	Channel video monitoring
rt_social_hn_top	Hacker News top stories
rt_social_hn_new	Hacker News newest
rt_social_hn_best	Hacker News all-time best
rt_social_hn_ask	Ask HN posts
rt_social_hn_show	Show HN posts
rt_social_hn_search	Hacker News search
rt_social_devto_trending	Dev.to trending posts
rt_social_devto_tags	Dev.to tag analysis
rt_social_devto_authors	Dev.to top authors

📺 Ad Intelligence (6 tools)

See how competitors describe themselves in ads.

Tool	What it does
rt_ads_transparency	All ads a domain runs on Google/YouTube
rt_ads_meta	Meta Ad Library (Facebook/Instagram)
rt_ads_tiktok	TikTok Ads Library
rt_ads_linkedin	LinkedIn Ad Library
rt_ads_reddit	Reddit Ads
rt_ads_competitor	Competitors advertising for a query

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💰 Pricing

Pay only for what you use. No subscriptions.

Tier	Price/call	Tools
Free	$0.005	Hacker News (6), Dev.to (3)
Standard	$0.01	Keywords (4), SERP (4), Trends (4), Reddit, YouTube, Ads (6)
LLM Basic	$0.015	rt_llm_track
LLM Brand	$0.02	rt_llm_brand
LLM Compare	$0.03	rt_llm_compare, benchmark, competitors, audit

LLM tools charge per successful engine/model response.

Example Costs

Task	Cost
Full keyword research (4 tools)	$0.04
LLM track (3 engines)	$0.045
LLM brand check (3 engines)	$0.06
LLM audit (7 questions)	$0.21
Monthly brand monitoring (100 calls)	$1-5

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📚 All Tools Reference

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❓ FAQ

Do I need API keys? No. All API costs are included in per-call pricing.

What data sources do you use? Google data via SearchAPI.io, social platforms via public APIs, and LLM tracking via Perplexity, OpenAI, Google Gemini, and Anthropic Claude.

How accurate is LLM visibility tracking? Results reflect real-time LLM responses. Each engine is queried independently with your exact query.

How is this different from Semrush or Ahrefs? Pay-per-use pricing (no $99-449/mo subscription), LLM visibility tracking they don't offer, social listening across Reddit/HN/YouTube/Dev.to, ad intelligence for 5 platforms, plus native MCP integration for AI agents.

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🤝 Support

• Feedback tool: rt_feedback_submit type="suggestion" message="Your idea here"
• Issues: GitHub Issues

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Token-Efficient Output: All responses use compact mode by default (filters verbose fields). Use full=true for complete data.