In an industry with hundreds of on-page optimization platforms, Surfer SEO has consistently distinguished itself among the best SEO tools to add to one’s arsenal. And this is actually due to its powerful suite of robust features offered in a highly optimal price range.
Surfer SEO is an online SEO tool that analyzes your website’s content using over 500 ranking factors and provides a detailed data-driven blueprint that can help streamline your website’s growth by enabling it to rank better in analyzing metrics of various search engines.
So, after the first-hand experience, we have come up with a detailed review of Surfer SEO features and how it helps our website to outrank the competition.
Are you ready? Now, let’s buckle down through the article and learn its helpful insights that help you steal the number one ranking!
What Is Surfer SEO?
Surfer SEO is a collaborative effort of Slawek Czajkowski and his team, who started their work in 2008 as an agency that focused on optimizing their data SEO by building various internal tools. And as it became more powerful and extensive in its outcomes, they shared the secret formula with the world under the name of “Surfer SEO”.
The platform focuses on more than 500 on-page SEO signals to deeply analyze your content and come up with points and areas your content strategy and site are lacking.
Moreover, it also provides you with some easy-to-follow recipes that can help your content rank better. These primarily include Content Editor, SERP, and keyword density.
Who Is Surfer SEO For? The Target Audience
Although SEO is a comparison tool that works best for anyone who wants to improve their website visibility and ranking in the search engine, it is specially geared towards the following audience:
- Bloggers
- Content Writers
- Small Business Owners
- Website Owners
- Freelance agencies with multiple clients
Key Aspects That Surfer SEO Eyes On For Ranking
The key aspects that Surfer SEO considers to identify on-page metrics are:
- Main keywords density
- LSI, NLP, and secondary keywords
- Partial Keywords Density
- Media elements
- Meta Tags
- Referring URLs
- Word count
- Internal Linking
- External Linking
- Content Structure
- Page Speed
- Image optimization
- Referring Domains
What Does Surfer SEO Have For You? Unleashing the Key Features!
Moving on to the features, Surfer SEO has a rich punch of powerful features that, when combined, improve your website’s ranking by optimizing your content and putting out value to it.
These include
- Content Editor
- Audit
- SERP
- Content Planner
- Keyword Researcher
- Grow Flow
- Chrome Extension
- Built In Collaboration
- Google Docs Integration
- Article Outline Generator
Now, let’s talk about each of these features separately and unfold how these contribute to making our content hyper-relevant and rank better, according to Google Analytics.
1. Content Editor:
Content Editor is nothing less than the crux or the mainstay of Surfer SEO. It incorporates bundles of sub-features within itself, ranging from links to competitor’s websites to plagiarism checkers, that help you achieve top-notch content.
Soon after you open the Surfer SEO landing page, a content editor icon is available on the left-hand sidebar. Clicking it opens a window where you can add your primary keyword or import some URLs, followed by clicking create content Editor.
This will allow Surfer SEO to provide you with a list of a high ranking and target LSI keywords, headings, outline briefs, and SEO guidelines- in short, all you can long for is to create premium quality content.
The main window has two divisions; one main editor window with a formatting toolbar on top where you can write and optimize your content and a side toolbar that guides you throughout the process.
The side toolbar helps a lot in optimization. These include:
- Content Score
It scores your content on the grounds of SEO and targets keyword usage. The better your content is optimized, the higher your Content Score, and consequently, the greater the chance for your content to rank better.
- Content Structure
Under the Content Score Widget, you will find a content structure that guides you about the number of words, paragraphs, headings, and images to aim for according to SEO guidelines.
- Terms
This section includes the primary and secondary keywords, important headings, and various other terminology suggestions based on SERP and NLP analysis.
It basically includes the target keywords or phrases used in top-ranking websites and, based on that, recommends you to use which keywords with how much frequency, thus helping raise your SEO needle.
- Outline Tab
Outline Tab includes various Al-based titles, questions, and headings that you can incorporate into your content and heavily edit later on.
- Plagiarism Checker
It is a new addition to the content editor tool of Surfer SEO that deeply scans all your documents to see if it incorporates any plagiarized or copied data.
- Customize Button
Last but not least, there is a customize button present right on the top of the content structure. It helps you optimize the Surfer suggested content based on your intent and article type. All you need to do is to click it, and simply de-select the measures and terms you don’t want.
- Article Outline Generator
Surfer SEO provides you with a suggested outline too.
All you need to do is to add the topic of the blog post or the target keyword and click generate an outline. As a result, you get a detailed outline containing H2 and H3 headings in a streamlined manner that you can heavily edit later on too.
2. Audit
The next exciting feature of Surfer SEO is Audit- a crawling tool that helps you edit and optimize the already published content based on the latest SEO updates and suggestions.
The tools work by analyzing the published content on various on-page factors like image optimization, internal linking, page speed, content quality, SEO Score, header tags, LSI words usage, etc., and then provide details that can improve your page’s performance. These include
- Missing Common Backlinks
- No Internal Linking
- Partial words missing
- Poor Page Structure
- Improvement in Meta Description
To use this feature, click Audit present in the sidebar. A window opens where you can paste the URL of the data or its main keyword that you aim to optimize.
3. SERP Analyzer
Longing to better match the search intent and rank better on search engines? Then cheer up, buddy, as Surfer SEO covers you in this respect too.
The SERP analysis helps you understand the optimization landscape and correlate the factors that can help you gain organic traffic.
For example, it tells about the ideal word count and the top ranking article’s word count on a keyword, how competitive your keywords are in gaining organic traffic, how length and choice of meta description words correlate with ranking position, the role of ALT text, page speed, and a bunch of other stuff.
Isn’t it pretty cool how seamlessly it helps users focus on every single point that matters?
4. Keyword Researcher
The importance of keyword research and density in on-page SEO can hardly be bypassed. But keep your calm as Surfer SEO got your back here too!
Finding the right keywords that not only increase your SEO ranking but help gather organic traffic is indeed a daunting task, but with the Surfer SEO keyword Researcher tool, the process has become comparatively easier for me.
Soon after you enter your primary keyword, the tool enlists a ton of keywords based on the following three sections:
- Similar keywords
- Question-Based Keywords
- With the same terms
Similar keywords include all those words that are hyper-relevant to your niche and are helping other competitive articles rank better.
Question-Based Keywords incorporate high-ranking questions related to your topic.
With the same terms: These are the keywords or phrases that contain all the words of your primary target keyword. For example, if the keto diet is my primary keyword, the recipe of the keto diet is counted along with the same keywords.
It also helps you to plan out your content strategy as well as provides you with a good starting point to start from.
It works by unfolding a bunch of rich quality, organic traffic-gathering keywords that can help you explore a niche more extensively and learn about all its nooks and crannies.
For example, if you write projectors, or to be more specific, 3D projectors, the content planner enriches you with a cluster of main topic keywords or potential topics, each of which you can write a separate article or blog post in the future. Isn’t it mind-boggling?
Moreover, for each keyword, there comes a grouping keywords list, too, along with analytics like monthly search volume and keyword difficulty.
5. Grow Flow
What can be better than an analyzing tool that keeps a check and balance of your website and provides you with bit-sized tasks to improve performance? Seems impossible? But Grow Flow, the Surfer SEO’s AI-powered Growth Management platform, offers this data-driven perk too!
The tool analyzes your site’s content on the basis of the Search Console of Google and then comes up with small, quick tasks weekly that actually serve up an improved performance. These include:
- Reminding you to improve your website’s architecture by adding more internal links
- Writing on more extensive topics related to a niche
- Adding some high-ranking keywords to your already published work
Aren’t clear on how this game changer Grow Flow works. Then here comes a small tutorial that can assist you further.
So, can you name something better? At least, I can’t as far as its SEO dynamics are concerned.
6. Chrome Extension
Another notable feature of Surfer SEO is its chrome extension, a free keyword research tool. This extension allows you to see the search volume, word count, estimated traffic, cost per click, a complete list of keywords, and other words used by competitors.
For example, navigate through Google after downloading the chrome extension and enter the target keyword. The chrome extension will provide details about similarity, word traffic, and volume density.
So, guess what? All you need to do is download the chrome extension and forget the trouble of juggling two to three tools simultaneously- one single tool, and it does all the functions smoothly!
7. Built-In Collaboration
Another additional feature of Surfer SEO is Built In Collaboration. It is one of the finest features for content writers that helps them share files and documents with their clients as well as their team with a click of a button, just like Google Docs.
8. Google Docs Integration
As we just mentioned above, Surfer SEO offers built-in collaboration, and it offers Google Docs Integration, too, just the way Grammarly and other editing tools offer.
So, in case you are habitual of writing in Google Docs, this worthy integration operates in Google Documents too.
To cut it short, Surfer SEO is an all-in-all SEO platform that knows how to nail all the leading factors of on-page SEO and help you stand better in the metrics of various search engines.
And what can be better proof of its extensive features than big names like Matt Diggity, Matthew Woodward, and Gael Breton have been using Surfer SEO?
How Much Does It Cost? Finding The Right Fit!
Where Surfer SEO offers a rich suite of robust features, it is equally affordable in terms of its lucrative pricing plans.
So, here comes a detailed breakdown of its pricing plans.
Basic Plan – Perfect For Freelance And Seo Content Writers
If you are a freelancer or a blog post owner with fewer SEO needs, this plan suits your needs quite well. The plan includes:
- Writing and editing 120 articles per year
- Audit 240 pages per year
- Optimize and track two websites
- Perform advanced keyword research
- Have deep insights into SERP analysis
- Invite 1 team member
Pro Plan – Suitable For Small Teams
It is counted as the most popular plan of the Surfer SEO app that suits the needs of small to medium organizations or a small Freelance team.
The plan allows you to:
- Invite three team members
- Writing and editing 360 articles per year
- Audit 720 pages per year
- Optimization and traction of five websites
- Perform advanced keyword research
- Have deep insights into SERP analysis
Moreover, SEO guidelines are enhanced with natural language processing too.
Business Plan – Works Best For Seo Agencies
Wait, are you the owner of a large business or an expert Freelancer managing more than five websites? Then probably neither of the above plans accommodates your preferences. But nothing to worry about as the following business plan is tailored to your needs. It includes
- Inviting ten team members
- Writing and editing 840 articles per year
- Audit 1680 pages per year
- Optimize and track ten websites
- Perform deep keyword research
- Have deep insights into SERP analysis
Enterprise – Your Custom Plan
Additionally, if you aim for a comparatively larger plan, Surfer SEO also provides a custom plan option that allows you to tailor the details as per your need.
Lastly, if you don’t find Surfer SEO plans up to your expectations, the platform offers a 7-day money-back guarantee with a full refund. Sounds quite fair, right?
Surfer SEO Pros And Cons
Advancing the pluses and minuses of Surfer SEO, these include
What Did We Like? The Winning Spin!
- Has a user-friendly and easy-to-navigate user interface, thus being easily accessible to both experienced and novice users.
- Provides detailed reports with charts and tables to analyze your website’s working
- Offers both content optimization and keyword research tool
- Integration with various useful third-party apps
- Optimizes on-page SEO factors
- Gives a free chrome extension too
What Did We Not Like? The Cons!
- Although it offers sound keyword research, it lies in the beta section as it lacks the latest features
- The backlinking analysis feature is not comprehensive.
What Are People Saying About Surfer SEO? The Users’ Perspective!
Since the only way to verify a tool’s usefulness and expertise is a true review from the users, we not only used the app ourselves but also looked for other people’s reviews.
Collectively we came to a decision that Surfer SEO is an all-in-one SEO tool that helps you create premium content in your niche. Primarily, its content editor is the show’s real star that helps optimize and streamline the content strategy to gain and boost organic traffic on your website.
Moreover, it offers a user-friendly dashboard that makes data compiling quite easier.
In short, claiming it as one of the best on-page SEO tools around won’t be wrong!
| Trustpilot | G2 | GetApp | Trustradius | Capterra | |
| Rating | 4.0 out of 5 | 4.8 out of 5 | 4.9 out of 5 | 9.4 out of 10 | 4.9 out of 5 |
Stacked Up Surfer SEO Customer Support
A good customer support team is essential as it helps provide customers with instant solutions.
Surfer SEO also has sound customer support available on standby that is always there to help with the Surfer toolset. All you need to do is contact the following email: support@surferseo.com/
Moreover, it has a live chat option that helps customers avail of live support and offers short tutorial videos to help you understand and navigate through the tool.
Surfer SEO Alternatives
There is no second thought that Surfer SEO is a popular content optimization tool that helps not only optimize existing content but provides briefs for new ones.
However, if you want some other options to switch to, here are some Surfer SEO Alternatives to go for.
- ClearScope
Clearscope is the most used tool as an alternative to Surfer SEO. It provides a cluster of keywords that you should incorporate in your writing to increase your ranking chances. Moreover, it proactively optimizes and updates your already published work.
However, it is more expensive than Surfer SEO.
- Frase.io
Frase.io is personally my favorite Surfer SEO Alternative that puts nearly equal benefits to that of Surfer SEO to rank your content. It is a unique content writing tool that generates unique content for the client within a few minutes, which you can heavily edit later as per your preference.
- Semrush
Next comes semrush, a fully functional digital marketing software that includes various robust features like
- Keyword
- Surround sound SEO
- Share of Voice
- Competitive Analysis
- Rank tracking
- Content Gap Analysis
- Market Muse
Market Muse works as the best option for the enterprise. It uses AI to heavy lift your content, accelerate content research, and save time. Moreover, as soon as there is an update in the search results, the software proactively updates your content so that it doesn’t lag behind in the competition.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which Surfer SEO plan works best for the Freelance content writers team?
Pro and Business plans by Surfer SEO suit well the needs of a Freelance content writers team depending on the size. If you have a small team, go for the pro plan. However, if you have a large team, the business plan meets your needs better.
What is NLP in Surfer SEO?
NLP is an incorporated feature of Surfer SEO that aims to analyze and interpret the content of your website and defines the areas of gaps in your content strategy and idea that you should target to match the intent of the Search engine.
What is a good quality Score on the Content Score Widget of Surfer SEO?
A good score on the Score Widget of Surfer SEO lies between 70 and 100.
A general trend is that scores between 0 to 33 are considered not optimized, 34 to 69 are decent, and between 70 to 100 are optimum. However, it is recommended to target 80+.
The Final Say
To put it bluntly, Surfer SEO is a top-notch SEO platform that acts as the key to unlocking higher search engine rankings. It provides you with the exact changes you need to make to your content in order to obtain high-quality content that helps your content rank better.
It analyzes your content according to on-page SEO signals using a content editor and provides some powerful keywords that can help improve your content ranking in search engines.
So, why not buy your most suited Surfer SEO plan, and level up your content SEO game to a whole new level?
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