Surfer SEO Review: How Good is Surfer SEO?
Updated: Nov 4
With organic search driving a major portion of website traffic and conversions, businesses are increasingly turning to Search Engine Optimization (SEO) tools to gain an edge. However, many robust enterprise solutions come with a steep learning curve and a hefty price tag.
Surfer SEO aims to disrupt this landscape by making robust SEO accessible through its intuitive content optimization platform.
The software combines an AI-powered editor, actionable recommendations, competitive keyword research, and Google Analytics integration to simplify optimizing pages for higher rankings.
This Surfer SEO review will dive into the platform's key features, capabilities, pricing, pros and cons, and top alternatives on the market.
We'll provide an unbiased assessment of how Surfer compares to leading options to determine if it's a worthwhile investment for companies looking to finally conquer content optimization at scale.
What You Will Learn
What is Surfer SEO?
Surfer SEO is a powerful all-in-one content optimization and SEO platform designed to help businesses improve their website content for better search engine rankings and increased organic traffic.
The software provides a robust suite of tools to streamline technical and on-page SEO including an intuitive content editor, AI-powered recommendations, bulk editing capabilities, and deep integration with Google Search Console.
This allows users to easily optimize pages for target keywords, ensure content is structured for both search bots and visitors, analyze metrics to prioritize optimizations, fix technical issues hurting performance, and ultimately drive more qualified traffic to their site.
Surfer SEO was founded in 2008 by a team with an extensive background in technical SEO, content creation and software development.
Their goal was to create an end-to-end solution that makes SEO accessible for organizations without needing an army of technical experts.
The platform combines automation and AI guidance to simplify implementing best practices like writing strategic title tags, optimizing content around relevant keywords, enhancing page structure, adding alt text, interlinking content, and monitoring rankings.
Tasks that used to require digging through analytics and manually editing code.
Since its launch, Surfer has quickly gained popularity among SEO professionals, digital marketing agencies, and business owners looking for an automated way to optimize website content at scale.
It counts customers like Microsoft, Forbes, and Impossible Foods among its user base. The platform has emerged as a leader in simplifying SEO for those without coding skills through its intuitive interface and wealth of optimization capabilities.
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What Features Does Surfer SEO Offer?
Surfer SEO includes a robust set of capabilities purpose-built for SEO success. The key features include:
Intuitive Content Editor
The AI-powered content editor is the core of Surfer's offering. It provides an intuitive WYSIWYG interface to edit and optimize pages directly from the Surfer dashboard.
The editor analyzes page content as you write to identify optimization opportunities. It makes smart recommendations for boosting SEO including:
Adding keywords to titles, headers, meta descriptions
Improving page structure and formatting
Adding alt text for images
Inserting related internal links
Breaking up dense paragraphs for better readability
This on-page optimization is done by an AI assistant that explains each suggestion so you understand the impact. It's like having an SEO manager looking over your shoulder as you write and edit.
You can then choose to implement the recommendations with a single click or ignore ones that aren't relevant. This saves you from having to manually comb through pages line-by-line to find optimization opportunities.
The editor also provides an intuitive interface for directly enhancing the content on the page through:
Adjusting headings and text formatting
Adding images/media and captions
Creating better intro and outro content
Checking readability grades and word counts
Whether you need to perform minor tweaks or major content overhauls, the editor enables optimizing pages for SEO and engagement without coding.
Comprehensive Keyword Research
Surfer includes a built-in keyword research module powered by SEMrush to identify relevant target keywords.
You can quickly generate keyword ideas related to your content topics and analyze their competitiveness. Metrics provided for each keyword include:
- Search volume - Monthly searches
- Cost per click
- Keyword difficulty - Competitiveness
- Related long tail variations
Reviewing this data ensures you are optimizing pages for terms people are searching for. And helps select the right keywords to target for each page based on difficulty scores.
The research flows directly into Surfer's content editor so you can seamlessly add keywords to titles, body content, headers, URLs, metadata and more.
You can also pull in keywords from other tools like Ahrefs, Moz, or UberSuggest to leverage keyword research you've already done.
Having robust keyword research capabilities right within Surfer allows the creation of strategic, optimized content without switching between platforms.
AI-Powered Outline Generator
Struggling to develop the structure or outline for a new piece of content? Surfer's AI outline generator can suggest headers and subheadings to cover based on a given topic or focus keyword.
Simply enter a title or primary keyword, and Surfer will analyze it to propose a high-level outline of relevant sections to include.
For example, for a post about "essential SEO tips", Surfer may recommend headers like:
- Introduction
- Optimize Title Tags
- Improve Site Speed
- Enhance Content with Keywords
- Quality Link Building
- Tracking Rankings and Metrics
This data-driven approach helps ensure you shape content around headers highly relevant to the subject. Rather than writing aimlessly without a content structure.
The dynamically generated outlines serve as a starting point you can build upon based on your expertise. Add, remove, or modify suggested headers as needed.
Having an initial content structure mapped out makes the writing process much smoother. And results in more cohesive, comprehensive posts tailored to a topic.
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SEO Content Optimization with GrowFlow
Grow Flow is Surfer's AI assistant for identifying untapped optimization potential in existing content.
It analyzes the content structure, wording styles, and keywords of your highest-performing pages.
GrowFlow then checks if those same elements can be replicated across other pages to give them a boost.
For example, the tool may flag that short specific keyword-focused product pages convert better than long generic ones.
It would then recommend adding more keywords, reducing length, or improving page intros on related content.
GrowFlow highlights pages that are likely under-optimized and provides specific actions like:
- Adding related keywords
- Increasing or decreasing word count
- Adding more headers, media, or examples
- Improving intro and outro content
Rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach, it tailors suggestions based on what is resonating for each site.
This allows you to focus optimization efforts on pages with the most potential vs. trying to overhaul everything. Quickly improving the performance of current content vs. starting from scratch.
SEO Audits
Surfer includes an automated SEO audit tool to analyze the technical health of your site and uncover issues impacting performance.
It checks for all the common problems that affect discoverability, indexability, and ranking potential, including:
👉 Page speed optimizations
👉 Mobile responsiveness
👉 Proper use of H1 and H2 tags
👉 Meta tags and page titles
👉 Duplicate content issues
👉 Broken links and redirects
👉 Indexability challenges like robots.txt blocks
👉 Security concerns like mixed content errors
The audit generates a prioritized list of action items to fix identified problems and assigns each a severity rating so you know what to tackle first.
You can also filter audits by section or URL to isolate checks to specific parts of your site.
Running regular technical SEO audits is crucial to spot issues before they escalate and start seriously hurting traffic and conversions. Surfer makes this easy with just a few clicks.
AI Outline Generator
Struggling to develop the structure or outline for a new piece of content? Surfer's AI generator can suggest headers and subheadings to cover based on the topic.
Simply enter a focus keyword or title, and Surfer will propose a high-level outline of key sections to cover.
This bottom-up approach helps ensure you shape content around semantic topics highly relevant to the subject.
The outlines serve as a starting point you can then build upon based on your own expertise and research.
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Google Search Console Integration
Surfer offers deep integration with Google Search Console to bring additional context into content optimization decisions.
When connected to GSC, Surfer pulls in analytics on:
📌 Page impressions
📌 Clicks
📌 Average position
📌 Click-through-rate
📌 Pages indexed
📌 Queries driving traffic
This data gives you visibility into real visitor behaviour and engagement directly within Surfer.
The platform then uses these signals to help prioritize pages to optimize, identify opportunities to consolidate content and select which terms to focus keywords on.
Instead of optimizing blindly, you can base decisions on genuine interest and search patterns. Focusing efforts where they will have a maximum positive impact.
Easy Bulk Editing
Optimizing at scale is streamlined with Surfer's bulk editing functionality.
Rather than editing pages one by one, you can make global changes across multiple (or all) pages directly from the dashboard.
Some examples of bulk updates include:
- Adding/editing meta titles and descriptions
- Standardizing headers and subheadings
- Inserting related internal links where relevant
- Adding image alt text
- Fixing formatting inconsistencies
With a few clicks, you can update site-wide title tags, swap old headers for new ones, replace broken links, or append content.
This enables executing broad content changes across hundreds or thousands of pages instantly. Rather than taking months to optimize manually.
Bulk updates ensure your entire site benefits from new optimizations. And maintains consistency as content evolves.
Surfer SEO Integrations
Surfer integrates with a number of popular third-party platforms to expand its capabilities:
Semrush - Brings SEMrush data directly into Surfer for deeper keyword research and analysis.
Google Search Console - Connects Surfer to your GSC account to analyze impressions, clicks, positions and other key metrics to inform optimization.
Google Docs and Sheets - Optimizes content directly within Google's suite of products, then pushes changes back.
WordPress - Auto-optimizes your WordPress site content from within Surfer.
Wix - Let's Surfer enhance Wix site content for better SEO right from the plugin.
Yoast - Imports Yoast SEO data to help optimize your efforts across tools.
Zapier - Connects Surfer to thousands of apps like email, analytics, CRM and e-commerce to automate workflows.
Integrating with tools you already use ensures Surfer enhances rather than disrupts your stack. And allows for powerful automation between platforms.
How Much Does Surfer SEO Cost?
Surfer SEO offers several pricing plans to meet different needs:
Essential Plan
The Essential plan starts at $89 per month (when billed annually) and is best for solopreneurs and early-stage startups. It includes:
Content editor with up to 10 optimizations per month
2 user seat
Keyword research limited to 100/day
All core editing and optimization features
Advanced Plan
The Advanced plan starts at $179 per month (annual billing) and works well for small teams and agencies. It provides:
Content editor with up to 40 optimizations per month
5 user seats
100 keyword searches per day
Everything in Essential plus added capabilities like GrowFlow and bulk editing
Max Plan
The Max plan starts at $299 per month (annual billing) and is ideal for larger agencies or mid-size companies. It offers:
Content editor with up to 100 optimizations per month
10 user seats
Keyword research of up to 100/day
All features available, including audits, API access, and priority support
Custom Enterprise Plan
For large companies needing amplified capabilities, Surfer offers custom enterprise plans. Contact their sales team directly to discuss options like:
Unlimited user seats
Dedicated account manager
Custom integrations and training
Bulk discounts based on annual billing
Surfer offers a 30-day money-back guarantee for all paid plans.
Surfer SEO Pros and Cons
Based on extensive hands-on testing and feedback from users, here are the main benefits and potential drawbacks of using the Surfer SEO platform:
Surfer SEO Pros
Intuitive content editor - The editor interface is straightforward to use with clear SEO recommendations presented as you write. Allows anyone to start optimizing without complex technical knowledge.
Comprehensive optimization - Surfer recommendations and capabilities cover all elements of on-page and technical SEO for complete optimization.
Huge time savings - Bulk editing, AI guidance, and automation drastically reduce the time spent optimizing content manually.
GrowFlow AI - Identifies underperforming pages and suggests specific SEO optimizations tailored to your content. Quickly improve existing assets.
Google Analytics integration - Pulls in and analyzes signals directly from Google to inform smart recommendations based on real visitor engagement.
Affordable pricing - Costs only a fraction of other robust SEO tools. Great value for small teams and companies without big budgets.
Good for non-experts - User-friendly approach allows beginners to execute SEO best practices without advanced technical skills.
Surfer SEO Extension: Surfer SEO's handy Chrome extension brings robust AI SEO analysis seamlessly into your browsing experience.
Surfer SEO Cons
Lengthy setup - While the editor is easy to use, fully setting up Surfer can take several hours. Plan time for onboarding.
Irrelevant recommendations - AI assistant doesn't always provide perfect suggestions. Some don't make sense for the page. Review critically.
No automated migration - Transferring site content over to Surfer's editor must be done manually. Does not migrate automatically.
Limited keyword research - Built-in keyword module lacks some advanced capabilities of paid tools like Semrush. Integrate other platforms for expanded research.
Steep analytics learning curve - Optimization assistant is user-friendly but mastering the platform's full analytics capabilities has a learning curve.
Surfer SEO Alternatives
Here are some top alternative SEO platforms to consider beyond Surfer:
SEMrush is the leading paid SEO platform loved by experts for its deep analytics, automated audits, rank tracking and robust keyword research.
It provides endless data on competitors, curated optimization tips, site crawl tools, and more for comprehensive SEO management. However, requires more expertise to leverage its full capabilities.
Pricing starts at $129.95/month for the pro plan.
Ahrefs is another incredibly powerful SEO toolkit focused on backlink analysis, content exploration, and rank tracking.
See detailed reports on the most influential sites linking to your competitors to identify new link-building opportunities. Discover content gaps compared to rivals. And track keyword rankings across search engines.
Plans begin at $99/month for Lite.
Moz Pro is a classic SEO platform featuring an exceptional site crawler, link metrics, rank tracking, and actionable optimization recommendations.
The new Moz SEO AI Assistant provides specific suggestions to improve organic visibility. And Moz Local aids local SEO management.
Pricing starts at $99/month for their Standard plan. Moz is likely easier for beginners than SEMrush or Ahrefs.
Ubersuggest by Neil Patel is an affordable SEO platform starting at $29/month. It focuses heavily on keyword research and ideas.
Ubersuggest makes it simple to generate long tail variations, find low-competition keywords, and drive more organic traffic. But light on other features.
The budget price point and focus on keyword research make it appealing if you just need SEO ideas.
Pricing starts from $12/month for the individual plan.
Frase is an AI-powered content research and writing platform that provides perfect, data-driven content prompts for SEO.
Rather than general ideas, Frase gives you researched recommendations for creating strategically optimized, high-performing content. Plans start at $47/month.
The ready-to-use content framework makes it easy for non-writers to create great content quickly.
Scalenut is an AI-powered content optimization platform that makes it easy to boost SEO, even for non-experts.
The software provides an intuitive drag-and-drop editor with built-in guidance to optimize both new and existing content.
Key features of Scalenut include:
Cruise Mode - This AI writing assistant analyzes your content as you type and provides real-time recommendations to improve SEO, readability and engagement. It suggests keywords to add, formatting changes, better phrasing, related links and more.
NLP Analysis - Advanced natural language processing evaluates readability, sentiment, emotional appeal and other attributes of your content. Checks are run against top performers in your niche to inform optimizations.
SEO Writing - Creating new content is simplified with AI-generated titles and outlines for a given topic. Structures and templates ensure new blogs and articles are highly optimized.
Content Optimizer - Review automated suggestions to optimize existing content with just a few clicks. Scalenut identifies optimization opportunities and allows easy implementation.
Topic Cluster - Groups related keywords and content together automatically based on semantic analysis. Makes it easy to create connected, targeted content around high-potential topics.
In terms of Scalenut's pricing, it offers a free forever plan with limited capabilities. The Individual plan starts at just $12 per month and unlocks the core editor plus SEO features.
Bulk discounts are available for teams and agencies managing multiple clients.
Use the Promo Code: FOREVER20
Yoast SEO Plugin
Yoast SEO is the most popular WordPress plugin for optimizing site content directly within your CMS.
It adds SEO optimization capabilities when writing posts and pages in WordPress, allowing anyone to create SEO-friendly content.
For optimizing an existing WordPress site, the free version may provide enough features.
Frequently Asked Questions About Surfer
Here are some sample FAQs about Surfer SEO:
What is Surfer SEO?
Surfer SEO is an AI-powered content optimization tool that provides real-time suggestions to improve SEO, readability, and engagement as you write. It integrates with popular writing platforms like Google Docs.
How does Surfer SEO work?
As you write in your editor of choice, Surfer analyzes your text and provides feedback on keywords, links, headings, images, and more to help you optimize on the fly. The AI offers optimization tips tailored to your content.
What kinds of suggestions does Surfer SEO make?
Surfer focuses on optimizing elements like keywords, headings, meta descriptions, media, links, readability, and structure. It essentially helps you create SEO-friendly content efficiently.
Does Surfer SEO replace keyword research?
No, Surfer complements keyword research by suggesting relevant terms and helping you use keywords effectively as you write. But it doesn't replace full keyword analysis.
What integrations does Surfer SEO offer?
Surfer seamlessly integrates with Google Docs, Jasper, WordPress, Semrush and more platforms. It works where you write.
Can Surfer SEO help me rank higher?
By optimizing content for SEO in real-time, Surfer can help improve organic rankings by targeting the right keywords, links, and optimizing for algorithms.
Is Surfer SEO worth the investment?
For most users, Surfer provides an immense ROI by saving time, boosting quality, and increasing traffic and conversions. The costs are usually earned back quickly.
What is Surfer SEO's accuracy like?
Surfer uses state-of-the-art natural language processing to provide suggestions with over 85% accuracy. And the AI improves over time.
Does Surfer SEO produce unique content?
Yes, Surfer helps you create 100% original content. It checks for plagiarism issues and does not spin or replicate content.
How can I try Surfer SEO for free?
You can sign up with Surfer SEO on their website and get started immediately.
Final Thought: Surfer SEO Review
Surfer SEO provides a comprehensive solution to streamline and simplify the process of optimizing website content for higher search rankings. It removes the need for technical expertise.
The intuitive content editor, wealth of optimization recommendations, and easy bulk editing save enormous amounts of time compared to manual SEO work.
Features like GrowFlow, robust keyword research, and hooks into Google Analytics provide powerful optimization capabilities beyond basic content editing. Making it accessible to people at any skill level.
While Surfer has a few limitations like irrelevant suggestions and lack of automated migration, it remains an affordable option with great value.
The platform combines automation, AI guidance, and actionable analytics to allow businesses to finally conquer SEO at scale.
For marketing teams, agencies, and companies looking to improve their organic search visibility, Surfer SEO is worth considering.
It removes the technical hurdles of optimizing content, allowing you to focus on producing high-quality assets built to rank. Ultimately driving more qualified traffic to your site.
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