Table of Contents
In my review I ’ ll cover :
- How Surfer SEO works
- Important features
- Things to improve
- How it compares to Clearscope
thus without foster bustle, let ’ s catch started .
What Is Surfer SEO and What Does It Do?
Surfer is a tool designed to help SEO-optimize written content, like blog posts and articles.
It works by analyzing the capacity of a page against “ 500+ on-page ” signals .
It besides has a built-in keyword research tool .
now, I ’ ll become into the features of the cock in a hour .
But the basic kernel is that you write a blog mail. Use Surfer to analyze the first page SERPs for your prey keyword .
then, use that information that you get to optimize your page .
The estimate hera is that the first page results are ranking for a reason. And you can rank excessively if you copy the on-page SEO approaches that your competitors are already using .
With that, let ’ s get into the actual features .
SERP Analyzer: Detailed Breakdown of Google’s First Page
This is Surfer SEO ’ s main feature .
It ’ south basically a identical in-depth dislocation of the SERPs for a given keyword .
In this dislocation you get data on :
- Average word count (aka content length)
- Keyword density and frequency
- Use of partial match keywords
- Hidden content
- Page speed
- Characters count in title tags
- Alt text
And a crowd more stuff .
I ’ ve personally tried ( and reviewed ) over 200 SEO tools. So it ’ second bazaar to say I ’ ve seen pretty much every sport under the sun .
And yes, I HAVE seen a draw of the datum you ’ ll find in Surfer in other tools .
But Surfer goes into much more contingent. And provides some data that I haven ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate seen before .
For exemplar, they actually show you how many words appear above the fold on a page .
The average count of H2 headings that appear on each page .
And how many links a first page resultant role tends to have .
I think this data is interest. And alone .
But is it utilitarian ?
I ’ megabyte not 100 % convinced. here ’ s what I mean :
Let ’ s say you fair wrote a web log stake. And you want to make sure it matches the on-page SEO that content on the first page is already using .
well, you pop that keyword into Surfer… and get this :
What do you do with all of this information ? Should you match the phone number of H2s that your contest has ? Or add hide content equitable because it ’ randomness correlated with rankings for that keyword ?
It ’ south reasonably submerge .
Besides, on-page SEO is on-page SEO. There international relations and security network ’ t a separate Google algorithm for each keyword .
so why wouldn’t you include your target keyword in your title ? Or not mention your keyword above the fold ? This is farce that you should do anyhow .
overall, I think the SERP Analyzer is reasonably aplomb .
It has a draw of unique data points. Some of which are helpful .
But I think they should actually remove some of these data points. That way, they can help users focus on the stuff that actually matters .
Content Editor: LSI Keyword Finder
The Surfer Content Editor helps you draft and write content that ’ s optimized for search engines .
specifically, it scans the subject on the first page for LSI keywords. And helps you weave those into your message .
This feature besides analyzes the content structure of the first page results… including password count, number of images, and average paragraph count .
correct off the cream, I found something I already very like : the fact that you can choose which pages on the beginning page that you want to analyze. And that they focus on the top 5 results by nonpayment .
Why is this a boastful share ?
well, most message analysis tools scan the top 10 or 20 results. That always kind of bugged me. I ’ m like : “ Why would I want to copy person on the second page ? ” .
so I like that you can focus on the crown 3, 5 or 10 results. Or even exclude one of the top rate pages if you don ’ metric ton want to include that in the analysis .
other than that, the contentedness editor is pretty straightforward .
You copy and paste your contentedness into it. The instrument tells you the claim LSI keywords that you need to add. And how many times to mention them .
They even suggest a few “ Topics and questions to answer ” .
These are pulled from Google ’ s “ People besides ask… ” box. And are designed to help you plan out message universe for that subject .
Plus, you can partake this report with writers… without them needing to login. That way, they can write the enlist in Google doctor. And optimize it there. Helpful .
After using this feature, I can say that it ’ mho very well done. It ’ mho easy to use. Has solid data. And you can customize it to your wish .
NLP: Sentiment Analysis
Surfer SEO has a built-in natural language process feature .
This feature uses IBM ’ s Watson to find the sentiment of the search results .
At first gear I couldn ’ thymine get this feature to work properly .
For case, when I used the NLP psychoanalysis, I saw this :
The graph notes that the “ sentiment ” as .756. But I have no clue how to use this data. Or what it means .
I finally figured it out. When you click on one of the results, you see a page ’ mho “ true concentration ”. Along a rig of related phrases. Here’s where they show you the NLP sentiment around each of them .
honestly, I don ’ metric ton understand why this is helpful. What does it matter if the sentiment of 100 related keywords are positive or negative ? It has zero bear on rankings .
overall, this sport felt kind of forced .
Keyword Research: Find New Keywords to Target
following, I wanted to try Surfer ’ s keyword inquiry joyride .
This works like pretty much any keyword joyride on the market. Type in a seed keyword. And get a list of associate keywords. Along with search volume .
sol : how is this have overall ?
On the plus side, it has a helpful have that I ’ ve never seen in another keyword tool : “ SERP similarity ” .
This is basically how much overlap there is with the keyword that you typed into the tool .
For example, let ’ s say you used keyword A as your seed keyword. Well, if a batch of the pages that rank for keyword A besides crying for keyword B, then keyword B will have a high SERP similarity .
Why is this helpful ?
well, it ’ s something slippery to know whether you should create different pages optimized around different long buttocks keywords. If the search results are different, then you credibly should write a page for each keyword .
But if the SERPs are basically the same, it means that Google considers the two keyword synonym. So you want to optimize one page around both terms .
This is a HUGE pain to do manually. Which is why I think “ SERP similarity ” is a cool, alone feature .
That said, I wish Surfer ’ s keyword inquiry tool was more flesh out. specifically, it lacks a keyword difficulty mark. Which is huge for choosing keywords to go after .
Surfer SEO Support
thus at this charge I tested out all of the key features in Surfer SEO. And it was meter to see how their support stacked up .
fortunately, asking a doubt to their support is easy : they have a little Intercom chat button at the bottom of every page .
And I decided to ask them kind of a catchy question. A question that I wanted to know the solution to : how does Surfer estimate world traffic to a site ?
I noticed this datum point in their content editor program. But there wasn ’ t a tooltip or explanation .
so here ’ second precisely what I asked :
And their response :
gratuitous to say, I was still confused. I calm didn ’ t very understand where the actual source of the keyword ’ s search book came from .
But to be fair, this is the like access that most SEO tools ( like SEMrush ) manipulation to estimate organic traffic to a site. So the overall approach international relations and security network ’ thymine that far murder. But obviously, the execution leaves a distribute to be desired .
In general, I ’ d say Surfer ’ s SEO patronize is “ good not great ”. I got a reply ace promptly ( effective ). But the initial reply didn ’ thymine in full answer my question ( bad ) .
That said, when I asked them to clarify, I got an honest, thorough response ( adept ) .
Surfer SEO Pricing
here ’ s a breakdown of Surfer ’ s price :
If you go with monthly charge, you pay $ 29/month for “ Hobby ”, $ 59/month for “ Basic ”, $ 99/month for “ Pro ”, $ 199/month for “ Business ”, and $ 649/month for “ Business Plus ”. You save about 10 % if you go for annual charge .
The features that you get access to are basically the same for each design ( with one major exception : the Hobby plan doesn ’ t come with page focal ratio psychoanalysis ). But you can run WAY more reports with the higher tier plans .
For example, you get 5 queries/day with Hobby. And 300 with Business Plus. That ’ south 60x more reports .
How does Surfer SEO ’ s pricing compare to exchangeable tools ?
well, you in truth can ’ thyroxine compare a full-fledged SEO cortege like Ahrefs with Surfer. Ahrefs has WAY more features .
Surfer basically ONLY does on-page SEO analysis. But it doesn ’ t have any features for backlink analysis, SEO site audits or rank tracking like Ahrefs has .
so I don ’ deoxythymidine monophosphate think it ’ sulfur fair to evaluate Surfer ’ s pricing based on an SEO software suite like Ahrefs. They ’ rhenium two different tools .
But you CAN compare Surfer with its chief rival : Clearscope .
Clearscope has a flat price structure of $ 350/mo .
You get 50 searches per calendar month with that. Surfer ’ mho Pro plan costs $ 99/mo. Which is 3x brassy .
obviously the tools aren ’ t precisely the same. But they ’ re exchangeable. So it ’ mho fairly to say that Surfer SEO is a in truth solid value compared to Clearscope .
Surfer SEO vs Clearscope
A lot of people ask me : “ Which tool do you prefer ? Surfer SEO or Clearscope ? ” .
so I thought I ’ vitamin d promptly comparison and contrast the two tools .
At a high level, both tools do basically the same thing : scrape the current inaugural page of Google ’ s search results. Show you the terms that show up most frequently on the top pages. And update in real-time as you tweak your content .
And both have a few differences. For case, Surfer has an extremely detail SERP dislocation feature. And Clearscope besides analyzes whether or not your page ’ second headers contains the keywords that they should .
overall, I prefer Clearscope. But it ’ randomness close .
I like Clearscope ’ s UI much more than Surfer. It ’ south clean and easier to navigate. But most important of all, Clearscope gives your capacity an overall letter grade ( and the average letter class of your competition ). Which helps you know where your content stands .
On the early handwriting, Clearscope is much more expensive than Surfer. so if you want the best value, decidedly go with Surfer .
Things I Liked About Surfer SEO
Unique Data + Features: I was systematically impressed with the singular features and data that I came across in Surfer ’ s platform. It ’ second clear that the people behind it are legit SEO experts that “ get ” SEO. And they did a solid job of including features ( like SERP similarity ) that help SEO pros do their jobs .
Excellent Content Editor: Surfer ’ s Content Editor is AWESOME. Easily their best feature .
Great Value: The lowest tier design costs $ 29/month. Yes, you only get 5 searches per calendar month with that. But you can at least try out most of the joyride ’ sulfur key features .
Things That Surfer SEO Should Improve
Can’t Prioritize By Importance: I have a love/hate relationship with Surfer ’ s SERP Analyzer. I love the depth. But I hate how you ’ re presented with ( literally ) hundreds of variables. It ’ s not practical ( or even useful ) to try to optimize for all that stuff. They need to have a button where you can sort by the most important rank factors .
Inaccurate data: Most of the data in Surfer was spot on. But I did run into some data that wasn ’ thyroxine wholly on point. For example, they said that Backlinko gets more dealings than Moz .
I wish !
Pointless NLP Feature: I was badly confused with why this feature is in the creature. It honestly feels like NLP was included as a way to make the tool seem more “ advanced ” .
Basic Keyword Tool: Their keyword inquiry tool needs to be fleshed out a small bite more .
Surfer SEO Review: Is This Tool Worth It?
overall, I think that Surfer SEO is worth a test .
It ’ s decidedly not arrant. And could use some UI work. But if you ’ re looking for a cock to help you optimize your content, you in truth can ’ t go wrong with Surfer .
What Do You Think ?
There you have it : my Surfer SEO joyride recapitulation.
now I ’ d like to see what you have to say .
Did you like it ? not like it ? Think it was just all right ?
Let me know in the comments part below .
