Surfer SEO Review: Is It The Best Tool for Higher Rankings As They Say?

Are you writing content on your website or blog and wish to rank on Google’s top pages? If you’re targeting low-competitive keywords, that may be easy. However, targeting high-competition keywords requires a strategy.

In this Surfer SEO review, I’ll show you how to leverage this AI SEO tool to help you rank high on search engines and have fun while doing so.

Any SEO strategist knows that quality content is a crucial ranking factor. Besides, the content must target user search intent for Google to consider it relevant. That’s why SEO software like Surfer can come in quite handy.

Let’s begin.

What is Surfer SEO?

Surfer SEO streamlines the process of optimizing website content for improved search engine rankings. Through its comprehensive on-page SEO features, this tool is an essential solution for any business looking to enhance its digital presence.

It provides actionable insights and recommendations based on real-time data, allowing you to create content that ranks higher on search engines like Google, Bing, and others.

The platform offers many features, including keyword research, content editor, SERP analyzer, and more.

Who Created Surfer SEO?

The company behind Surfer SEO is Surfer Sp. z o.o., a Poland-based technology firm founded by Michał Suski and Sławek Czajkowski in 2017.

The duo has extensive experience in the SEO and digital marketing industry, and their mission is to provide you with a comprehensive solution that simplifies and streamlines the process of creating high-quality SEO-optimized content.

Who is Surfer SEO For?

Surfer SEO caters to a wide range of professionals and individuals.

• Content Creators and Marketers – You can write and optimize content in real time, ensuring higher chances of ranking high on search engines. The topic cluster features help you come up with relevant keywords to gain topical authority on a subject.
• SEO Professionals and Agencies – Thanks to its data-driven approach, Surfer SEO offers in-depth analysis and optimization recommendations to help you craft better content for your clients.
• Small Business Owners – Even without extensive SEO knowledge, you can create meaningful and quality content to attract potential customers to your website or online store.

Surfer SEO Features

Surfer SEO offers many features to help you create, analyze, and optimize your new and existing content for better search engine visibility.

In this Surfer SEO review section, I will dive into some of its most important features.

User Interface and Ease of Use

Surfer SEO has an intuitive and user-friendly interface and offers a quite pleasurable work environment.

On the left-side panel, you have all the tools Surfer provides.

The clean and straightforward design of Surfer SEO ensures that you can quickly familiarize yourself with the tool and start optimizing your content for better search engine rankings.

Keyword Research Tool

Keyword research is a crucial aspect of any SEO strategy, and Surfer SEO excels in this department.

Surfer SEO keyword research tool provides valuable insights to help you target the right keywords and increase your content’s relevance and searchability. It offers basic keyword research tools:

• Keyword Suggestions – Surfer’s keyword research tool offers a list of relevant keyword suggestions based on your seed keyword. This helps you discover new opportunities and expand your content’s reach by targeting long-tail and related keywords.
• Keyword Difficulty – Surfer SEO provides a keyword difficulty score that indicates how challenging it is to rank for a particular keyword, helping you make informed decisions about your keyword targeting strategy.

Content Editor

The Surfer SEO Content Editor is a powerful feature that helps you write and optimize your content in real time.

All you have to do is input your target keyword and hit the button. The Content Editor will appear, and you can start writing or optimizing your existing content.

This tool ensures that your content is both engaging and SEO-friendly, giving it the best chance to rank higher in search results.

Real-time Content Analysis

The Content Editor provides real-time content analysis, which allows you to see how your content is performing in terms of SEO as you write. This feature highlights areas where you can improve your content, ensuring it’s optimized for your target keywords and follows best practices for on-page SEO.

Optimization Suggestions

Surfer SEO’s Content Editor also provides optimization suggestions tailored to your content and target keyword. These recommendations help you fine-tune your content’s structure, keyword usage, word count, and overall SEO strategy to ensure it ranks well in search engine results.

Another thing I highly appreciate about Surfer’s keyword suggestion is that new suggestions will pop up while you’re typing your text, so you don’t always have to scroll endlessly searching for a keyword to use.

The tool itself will recognize the beginnings of the word you’re typing and find keywords that might fit into the sentence, highlighting it for you.

A new feature that can also be useful is “Insert terms“. Once you’re done writing your text, simply click on this button, and Surfer SEO will give you another round of suggestions for the unused keywords and where in the text you can place them.

SERP Analyzer

The Surfer SERP Analyzer feature provides valuable insights into the SERPs (search engine results pages) for your target keywords.

This tool enables you to analyze your competition and identify areas where you can improve your content to outrank them.

• Competitor Analysis – Surfer SEO’s SERP Analyzer allows you to perform competitor analysis by examining the top-ranking pages for your target keywords. This feature helps you understand what your competitors are doing well and what you can do to outperform them.
• Keyword Usage in Top-ranking Pages – The SERP Analyzer also reveals how your competitors use keywords in their top-ranking pages. This information can help optimize your content and keyword usage to outrank your competition and secure higher search engine rankings.

SEO Audit

The Surfer SEO Audit Tool enables you to identify areas for improvement within their websites and content. This functionality helps you enhance your site’s overall performance and search engine rankings.

The audit process includes on-page optimization and technical SEO analysis.

On-page Optimization

The on-page optimization tool in Surfer SEO focuses on assessing the quality and relevance of your content. It provides insights and recommendations for optimizing elements such as title tags, meta descriptions, meta tags structure, headers, keyword density, and more.

By following these suggestions, you can improve your website content’s relevancy and ensure it aligns with the latest SEO best practices.

Additionally, the Surfer SEO Content Editor can further enhance your on-page optimization efforts. This feature allows you to write content while receiving real-time optimization tips, ensuring your content is engaging, informative, and SEO-friendly.

Technical SEO Analysis

Surfer SEO’s Technical SEO Analysis helps you uncover and resolve issues that could negatively impact your site’s performance and search engine rankings.

The tool examines various aspects of your website, such as site speed, mobile-friendliness, indexing, crawling, and security, to ensure that your site adheres to the best practices for technical SEO.

By addressing these issues, you can enhance your website’s overall performance and user experience, which, in turn, can lead to increased traffic.

Content Planner

The Surfer SEO Content Planner is an essential tool that simplifies the process of creating high-quality, optimized content.

• Main Keyword & Related Keywords Analysis – The Content Planner analyzes the main keyword and identifies related keywords to ensure your content is well-rounded and comprehensive. This helps cover a topic’s important aspects while improving the overall SEO content score.
• Top Pages Insights & Length Suggestions – The Content Planner provides insights into the ideal content length and structure by analyzing the top pages ranking for your target keyword. This helps you create a blog post that is competitive and well-optimized to rank higher in search.

Content Score

Surfer SEO’s Content Score feature provides valuable feedback on the quality and optimization of your content, helping you fine-tune your SEO efforts.

• Content Optimization & SEO Content Evaluation – The Content Score evaluates your content based on various factors such as keyword usage, readability, and relevance. This helps you create content that is both engaging and optimized for search engines, ensuring better performance in organic search.
• Real-time Content Score Updates – As you write and make changes to your content, the Content Score updates in real time, allowing you to see the immediate impact of your optimizations. This real-time feedback helps you make informed decisions and create content that meets your SEO goals.

Google Chrome Extension

Surfer SEO offers a Google Chrome add-on that provides valuable information on search results and assists with on-page SEO analysis while browsing the web.

Here are the main features you can find using Surfer’s Chrome extension:

• Search Results and Keyword Analysis – The keyword Surfer extension allows you to view important data such as search volume, the difficulty for each keyword, and related keywords directly on the search results page. This makes it easy to perform basic research and discover new opportunities in content creation.
• On-page SEO Analysis While Browsing – With the Chrome extension, you can also perform on-page SEO analysis on any webpage you visit. This can be useful for identifying areas of improvement in your own content or analyzing competitors’ websites to gain insights into their SEO strategies.

Natural Language Processing (NLP)

Surfer SEO utilizes NLP technology to provide advanced analysis and recommendations, ensuring your content is readable and optimized. Thanks to its artificial intelligence (AI) technology, Surfer SEO is regarded as one of the best AI SEO tools to improve existing content for higher rankings.

Advanced Content Analysis for Better Readability

The platform’s NLP capabilities enable it to analyze your content’s readability, sentence structure, and tone. The keywords Surfer SEO suggests for improvement help you craft content that is not only SEO-friendly but also enjoyable for your readers.

LSI Keywords and Content Structure Optimization

Surfer SEO’s NLP technology also identifies LSI keywords (latent semantic indexing) and provides recommendations for optimizing your content’ structure. By incorporating LSI keywords and organizing your content effectively, you improve its relevance to the search engines and increase its chances of ranking higher in search results.

Surfer SEO Integrations

As one of the best on-page SEO tools, Surfer SEO offers integration options with other applications and platforms, providing a more seamless experience.

Surfer SEO API

Surfer SEO provides an API (Application Programming Interface) for developers and businesses to integrate its keyword research and content optimization features into their own applications or platforms.

With the API, you can automate your content optimization process and access the platform’s powerful features directly from their own tools.

The API offers a wide range of functions, including retrieving keyword suggestions, search volume, and difficulty data for each keyword. It also allows for real-time content analysis and optimization, making it an ideal solution for businesses looking to streamline their SEO workflows.

Google Docs and Chrome Integration

Surfer SEO is compatible with various content management systems (CMS), allowing you to optimize your content directly within your preferred platforms.

The tool’s Google Docs integration enables you to draft, edit, and optimize content in real time without leaving the familiar environment of Google Docs.

Additionally, Surfer SEO offers a Google Chrome extension that can be used alongside popular CMS platforms like WordPress, Shopify, and Joomla. The extension makes accessing Surfer SEO’s features easy while creating and editing content within these platforms.

Semrush Integration

You can also connect your Semrush account to Surfer to get better insights on your backlinks and competitors. With this integration, you may add keywords to specific articles, add backlinks, or write another blog post about a relevant subject to help you improve your topical authority.

Customer Support and Resources

An important aspect of any software is the level of customer support and resources provided to users.

In this section, I will explore the different support channels and educational materials available to help you get the most out of Surfer SEO.

Support Channels

Surfer SEO offers multiple support channels to ensure you can easily find assistance when needed. The primary support channel is their responsive email support, where the team typically replies within a few hours.

Additionally, you can access a comprehensive knowledge base, which contains detailed articles and guides on how to use the various features on the platform.

For quick questions and troubleshooting, Surfer SEO provides a live chat feature on their website. You can directly communicate with the support team, who are always ready to address any concerns or issues.

Educational Resources and Webinars

Surfer SEO is committed to helping you stay updated on the latest SEO techniques and best practices. They offer a range of educational resources, including blog posts, video tutorials, and case studies.

These materials cover various topics related to keyword researching, on-page SEO, optimizing content, and more.

One of the most valuable resources provided by Surfer SEO is its webinars. These webinars are hosted by industry experts who share their knowledge and insights on various aspects of SEO. You can attend live sessions or watch recorded webinars at your convenience.

By participating in these webinars, you can deepen your understanding of SEO and learn how to effectively use Surfer SEO to improve your website rankings and organic traffic.

Surfer SEO Performance

In this Surfer SEO review section, I will discuss the performance of the platform in terms of speed and efficiency, as well as its impact on website rankings.

Speed and Efficiency

Surfer SEO is known for its speed and efficiency when it comes to conducting SEO analyses and providing actionable insights. The tool’s cloud-based infrastructure allows it to quickly process large amounts of data, delivering results in a matter of seconds or minutes, depending on the complexity of the task.

This lets you quickly identify optimization opportunities and implement changes without losing valuable time. As the tool streamlines the SEO process, it helps you achieve desired results more efficiently.

Impact on Rankings

The main reason for using Surfer SEO is to improve a website’s search engine rankings.

By providing data-driven insights and NLP suggestions based on top-ranking results, Surfer SEO enables you to create quality content and optimize it, making it more likely to rank well on search engines like Google.

I’ve been optimizing most of my articles with Surfer and have seen good results so far. I also like to use compare it with NeuronWriter for the best optimization possible.

It’s important to note that while Surfer SEO can provide valuable insights to improve a website’s on-page SEO, it’s just one aspect of a comprehensive SEO strategy. Other factors, such as high-quality backlinks, technical SEO, and a mobile-friendly website, also play a crucial role in determining search rankings.

However, Surfer SEO can contribute significantly to a website’s overall SEO performance and help you achieve higher rankings.

Surfer AI

Surfer AI is the newest addition to Surfer’s tool. This powerful feature lets you create articles and blog posts with the click of a button.

But what’s even better is that it includes NLP keywords automatically to help optimize the content for better rankings. You may also change the voice tone, customize your outline, and choose the organic competitors to teach the AI what it should recommend.

Moreover, it now offers an anti-AI detection tool to ensure your AI-generated content bypasses AI content detectors.

Unfortunately, this feature is not included in Surfer’s pricing plans. Instead, it’s a paid add-on at $29 per article. You can, however, check some of the best Surfer AI alternatives that can offer similar features.

Read my in-depth Surfer AI review to learn more.

Surfer SEO Pricing

In this Surfer SEO review section, I’ll discuss the sign-up process, the pricing plans available, and the overall interface, which plays a crucial role in the user experience.

To start using Surfer SEO, you must sign up for an account on their website. The process is straightforward and only requires your name, email address, and password.

Once you’ve signed up, you can choose from these pricing plans:

1. Lite ($19/mo) – Surfer’s cheapest plan is aimed at those who wish to use its services occasionally, as in a hobby.
2. Essential ($69/mo) – Aimed at freelancers and small businesses, this plan offers access to a limited set of features, including the Content Editor, keyword research, and SERP Analyzer. It is a good option for those who are just starting with SEO or have a limited budget.
3. Advanced ($149/mo) – Targeted at professional SEOs and agencies, this plan provides additional features such as the Content Planner, API access, and a higher usage limit for the Content Editor and other tools. This plan is perfect for those who require more advanced features and a higher usage limit.
4. Max ($249/mo) – Designed for large organizations and agencies, this plan offers the highest usage limits and all available features, including team collaboration, white-label reporting, and priority support. If you have a large team or require extensive usage of Surfer SEO, this plan is the best choice.
5. Enterprise (custom pricing) – If you have high content needs and wish to have a personalized experience with Surfer, this plan is for you.

In the past, Surfer SEO used to offer a free trial for those who wanted to test the platform before committing to a paid plan. Unfortunately, at the moment, there seems to be no trial.

Pros and Cons of Surfer SEO

Surfer SEO Pros

• Comprehensive On-page SEO and Keyword Research Tool – Surfer SEO covers many SEO needs, from keyword research to content optimization, making it a one-stop solution for most SEO tasks.
• User-friendly Interface – The platform is designed with ease of use in mind, offering an intuitive layout and navigation that caters to both beginners and experienced SEO professionals.
• In-depth SERP Analyzer Tool – The SERP Analyzer provides detailed insights into top-ranking web pages, helping you understand the factors contributing to high rankings and optimizing your content accordingly.
• Content Editor – The Surfer Content Editor feature allows you to draft and optimize your content directly within the platform, saving time and ensuring content is SEO-friendly from the start.
• Integrations – Surfer SEO offers integrations with popular tools like Google Docs and content management systems, streamlining the content creation process and making optimization more convenient.
• Regular Updates and Improvements – The team behind the Surfer SEO tool is continuously working on improving the tool and adding new features, ensuring you always have access to the latest and most effective SEO strategies.
• Excellent Customer Support – Surfer SEO offers responsive and helpful customer support, providing you with the assistance you need to make the most of the tool. The support includes live chat, email, and a knowledge base with helpful articles and tutorials.
• Data-driven Insights – Surfer SEO uses data-driven analysis to provide accurate and actionable insights into your content and SEO strategies. This allows you to make informed decisions and optimize your content based on reliable data rather than guesswork and intuition.
• Competitive Analysis – With its SERP Analyzer and Missing Common Backlinks features, Surfer SEO helps you identify opportunities to outperform your competitors by analyzing the top-ranking webpages and backlink profiles of competing websites. This enables you to create more effective SEO strategies and outpace your competition.

Surfer SEO Cons

• Pricing – Some users might find the Surfer SEO pricing plans to be on the higher side, especially when compared to other SEO tools available on the market (see NeuronWriter, for example).
• Dependence on Search Volume – The tool relies heavily on search volume data for its keyword research and suggestions, which might not always be the most accurate or up-to-date metric for all industries or niches.
• Limited Features in Lower-tier Plans – The Lite plan of Surfer SEO might not provide enough features for some users, forcing them to upgrade to a higher-tier plan, which can be expensive. For example, features like the Content Planner and SEO Audit are only available in the higher-tier plans.

What I Like About Surfer SEO

I’ve been using Surfer SEO for quite a while, and although not all blog posts rank on Google’s first pages, it gives me the confidence that I’m on par with the top-ranking pages for the same keyword.

SEO experts know that achieving high rankings is not easy. You must combine great content with backlinks, proper keyword research, and also other ranking factors. That’s why creating content with Surfer doesn’t guarantee that you’ll rank. 

However, after you’ve found a keyword that you have the potential to rank, Surfer SEO works pretty well. You’re reassured you’ve done everything possible to create the best content targetting your main keyword. That’s what Surfer has to offer in terms of content editing.

What I Don’t Like About Surfer SEO

The Surfer SEO cost to feature relation could be better. Starting at $19/mo (paid yearly), you only get to optimize 3 monthly articles. Although I like their NLP suggestions better than other SEO tools, it’s quite expensive for someone just starting a blog.

For this matter, they’d be better off with a Surfer alternative like NeuronWriter, which offers 25 content analyses per month plus AI writing features for about $20.

Surfer SEO Alternatives and Competitors

In the world of SEO tools, finding the right one that fits your needs and budget is essential. In this Surfer SEO review section, I will compare the platform with other popular alternatives, including NeuronWriter, Frase, and Clearscope.

Each SEO tool offers unique features and benefits, so let’s dive in and see how they stack up against Surfer SEO.

Surfer SEO vs NeuronWriter

NeuronWriter is the top Surfer SEO alternative for creating SEO content. Although more recent than Surfer, it already boasts some impressive features for optimizing content. Its content editor is very similar to Surfer.

Still, one thing stands out—whereas Surfer distinguishes between singular and plural terms as separate keywords, NeuronWriter identifies them as a single entity, similar to Google’s approach. This helps you invest more time in more relevant keywords rather than trying to tick all the green lights on the NLP suggestions.

NeuronWriter is also less expensive and features an AI writing assistant to help you develop content quickly. Additionally, it integrates with Google Search Console to give you real-time insights on your top keywords.

The downside of NeuronWriter is that it lacks integrations, and the user interface can be somewhat sloppy for some users.

Surfer SEO vs Frase

Frase is an AI-driven SEO tool focusing on content creation, research, and optimization. Like Surfer SEO, it offers a friendly user interface and includes features such as content analysis, optimization tools, and keyword research.

Surfer SEO’s powerful focus on content optimization makes it unique, unlike Frase, which tries to do multiple things simultaneously.

Surfer SEO vs Clearscope

Clearscope is not for everyone. Their pricing starts at $170 and only includes 10 content reports and 5 languages. On the other hand, Surfer offers support for 20 languages and lets you optimize way more articles for a much lower price.

Besides, Surfer provides much more features, like Surfer AI, an audit tool, and powerful integrations with CMSs and AI writing tools, such as Jasper and Writesonic.

Surfer SEO Review: Conclusion

Surfer SEO is an all-in-one tool that offers features such as content planning, on-page optimization, and content score analysis. It assists content editors in crafting high-quality blog posts while maintaining proper keyword density and content structure.

Its effectiveness and user-friendliness make it a compelling option for those who need to create content that ranks.