Surfer SEO Review
Surfer SEO has rapidly become a leading tool for SEOs and digital marketers aiming to enhance their on-page optimisation efforts. Its rich feature set, data-driven methodology, and ease of use make it particularly effective for improving rankings through finely tuned content strategies. Here’s an in-depth look at what Surfer SEO offers, including its strengths and weaknesses and how it fares against competing tools.
Key Features of Surfer SEO
Content Editor
Arguably the standout feature, Surfer’s Content Editor provides real-time suggestions for improvement by analysing the top-ranking pages for a target keyword. It considers factors like word count, keyword density, NLP (Natural Language Processing) terms, header structures, and overall content layout of competitor pages. This ensures your content is aligned with what’s already performing well, while maintaining a high quality standard.
SERP Analyzer
Surfer’s SERP Analyzer offers a detailed breakdown of over 500 ranking factors for any given query, such as page speed, word count, keyword usage, and backlinks of top-ranking competitors. This granular analysis enables users to develop data-driven strategies, making it easier to create content that can outpace the competition.
Audit Tool
The Audit Tool is invaluable for enhancing existing content. It evaluates your page against top-ranking competitors, highlighting gaps in areas such as missing backlinks, word count differences, keyword usage, and content depth. This feature is useful for breathing new life into underperforming content, allowing you to optimise without starting from scratch.
Keyword Research
While Surfer SEO has introduced a keyword research tool, dedicated tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush are more comprehensive. Nevertheless, it allows for keyword clustering, discovering secondary keyword opportunities, and generating content ideas related to your main keyword.
SEO Chrome Extension
For those who prefer to work in Google Docs, the Chrome extension integrates Surfer’s real-time suggestions directly into the writing process. This is ideal for users who like to stay within their preferred environment while still benefiting from Surfer’s optimization guidance.
Strengths
- Data-Driven Insights: Surfer’s reliance on comprehensive data sets it apart, offering precise, actionable advice across a wide range of ranking factors. This takes much of the guesswork out of on-page SEO.
- Ease of Use: The platform is intuitive and accessible, catering to both beginners and more experienced users. Visuals such as graphs and charts make complex data more accessible to digest.
- Time Efficiency: Surfer dramatically reduces the time spent on manual content audits by providing instant, data-backed recommendations for optimising content.
- Content Optimisation: The synergy between the Content Editor and the Audit Tool makes Surfer exceptionally good at optimising both new and existing content, improving the likelihood of higher rankings.
Areas for Improvement
- Backlink Features: While Surfer is exceptional for on-page SEO, its backlink capabilities are limited compared to more holistic tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush. For link-building campaigns, you’ll need to rely on additional tools.
- Keyword Research: While useful, Surfer’s keyword research tool is still relatively underdeveloped. For those who need in-depth keyword analysis, this feature may not be sufficient on its own.
- Price: For smaller businesses or individuals, Surfer’s pricing can feel steep, especially if other tools are needed for more comprehensive SEO tasks like backlink analysis or advanced keyword research.
Pricing
Surfer SEO offers various pricing tiers, from £40/month for the Basic Plan to £160/month for the Business Plan, with customized pricing available for enterprises. While the pricing is reasonable considering the feature set, it can become expensive when paired with other tools to cover all SEO aspects.
Competitor Comparison
Surfer SEO stands out for its on-page SEO and content optimisation capabilities, offering real-time data and highly specific recommendations that competitors like Clearscope and MarketMuse struggle to match. However, for off-page SEO, such as backlinks or more thorough keyword research, tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush still reign supreme. If content creation and optimisation are your main priorities, Surfer delivers deeper insights compared to these alternatives.
Conclusion
Surfer SEO is an exceptional tool for anyone prioritising on-page SEO and content optimisation. Its data-driven insights, user-friendly interface, and time-saving features make it a powerful ally in crafting content designed to rank well. However, it lacks the full SEO suite capabilities found in more comprehensive tools like Ahrefs or SEMrush, particularly in terms of backlink analysis and keyword research.
For content creators, marketers, and SEO professionals focused on boosting their SERP rankings, Surfer SEO is a must-have, but it works best when paired with complementary tools to fill in the gaps.