Surfer SEO Review 2023: Features, Pricing, and Alternatives

by | Oct 27, 2022

Have you been scouring the internet for the best SEO tool on the market? If you’re hoping to skyrocket your rankings but aren’t sure if Surfer SEO is the right software for you, then you have come to the right place. 

As an avid user of the tool, I have witnessed its supreme capabilities firsthand and know just how much it can help a website grow. In this comprehensive Surfer SEO review, I’m covering everything you need to know before investing in the software for yourself. 

Get ready to learn all about the Surfer SEO tool, from its many features and pricing options to the comparable alternatives that you can find online. Now, let’s dive in.

 

What is Surfer SEO?

Surfer SEO

Surfer takes the guesswork out of SEO by serving as a comprehensive tool designed to help users create optimized content for blogs and websites. As you may or may not already know, proper SEO and the right keywords can be the difference between ranking on page 1 and page 5 on Google. 

This web-based application provides guidance on how to optimize your content and rank higher on search engines. By analyzing over 500 ranking factors, Surfer SEO provides users with a data-driven analysis of what’s currently missing from your content plan and offers ways to improve. 

Surfer SEO works by doing keyword research for you, helping ensure that you’re using all the semantic keywords that Google is looking for when it scans your blog post or article. Once you plug in what you’ve written, Surfer will assign a content score based on the quality and relevancy of your content. There are tons of SEO tools out there that promise stellar results, but in my opinion, Surfer is the best option for SEO tools and one of the best tools for bloggers in 2023.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=doRUVBeEGvQ

Who is Surfer SEO For?

Surfer SEO is a great choice for anyone looking to improve their on-page SEO and rank higher in the SERPs. As I’ve mentioned, I started using Surfer SEO a while back and have found it to be the most helpful SEO tool out of all the ones I’ve tried out. 

While it may not seem like the most user-friendly tool right off the bat (there are tons of functions to take advantage of), you’ll quickly get the hang of things and learn how to make the most of this awesome software. 

If you’re a blogger or website owner looking to rank higher for your target keywords, Surfer SEO is worth investing in. With Surfer’s keyword research tool, you can say goodbye to countless hours spent on keyword research. Hallelujah! 

Take it from me – you don’t have to opt for the most expensive package to reap the benefits of this SEO tool. But don’t just take my word for it, let’s break down Surfer’s various features in the next section of this SEO review. 

Surfer SEO Features

Content Planner

Raise your hand if you’ve ever had a tough time coming up with fresh, relevant content… I’ll wait. Is your hand up yet? Okay, go ahead and put it back down. 

Surfer’s Content Planner tool is the answer to the endlessly stressful question of “what the heck should I write next?” With this handy little tool, you can stop scratching your head and simplify your content strategy for good. 

Content Planner

The Content Planner creates topic clusters with dozens of ideas to help you dominate your niche based on your target keyword. All you have to do is enter your keyword of choice and watch as topic ideas classified by keyword intent populate for you.

For all you bloggers and website owners who struggle to come up with new blog post ideas that will rank on Google, this Surfer tool is magic.

Content Editor

Once you’ve used the Content Planner tool to select a great topic for your next article, it’s time to begin crafting it with the Surfer SEO Content Editor. If you thought the Content Planner was magic, get ready to be amazed. 

Surfer’s Content Editor tool uses expertly sourced data to help you determine exactly how to create your article by providing insights on word count, headers, keyword density, and even the number of images to aim for.

Content Editor

The suggested keywords you’ll see in the box on the right side of the content editor are all based on the articles that are currently ranked in the top 10 on Google. As you update your content, you should see your content score gradually increase. 

Don’t get hung up trying to achieve a perfect score of 100 – more often than not, this won’t happen. And that is okay. When you create a new blog post, you should always shoot for a score in the green, which could be anything from 67 to 100. 

Most experienced bloggers aim for a score of 80 to 90 on Surfer, which is usually a surefire way of guaranteeing that your content will rank high in the SERPs. While using Surfer SEO doesn’t guarantee that you’ll suddenly shoot to the top results on Google, it does give you the tools you need to start performing better fast. 

Keyword Research Tool

Surfer SEO Keyword Research

With so many keyword research tools on the market, you might be wondering if Surfer is worth getting for theirs. If that’s all you’re looking for, Surfer SEO offers a free Google Chrome extension for keyword research that allows you to quickly reveal search data and content guidelines for your keywords while you work in Google docs. 

The Google Chrome extension is nice as an on-the-go tool since it automatically analyzes and displays metrics for anything you enter into the Google search bar. 

I wouldn’t recommend purchasing Surfer for its keyword research tool alone, but it can be useful for coming up with new keyword ideas if you’re having trouble. Surfer’s tool is helpful for finding high-traffic keywords, but it lacks data on low-volume keywords. So, do with that what you will.

Serp Analyzer Tool

Surfer’s Serp Analyzer tool shows you the on-page SEO factors and features a chart that breaks down your content in terms of quality, word count, and domain score. 

This is a great way to analyze the top-ranking articles more closely and figure out how to outperform them. 

If you want to check out how an existing article stacks up against your competitors, you can simply paste the URL to see how it measures up in comparison.

Outline Builder

Within Surfer’s Content Editor, you will see an Outline button towards the top of the righthand side of the screen. This is the Outline Builder and it works by showing you a list of potential titles and headings for each title idea. 

Surfer SEO Outline Builder

Each suggestion is put together by Surfer using AI and is wildly helpful if you need a boost to create the framework of your article. As we all know, AI content is never perfect, so it’s important to rewrite the suggested content as needed. With that said, this tool has gotten me out of more ruts than I can count when I was facing writer’s block.

SEO Audit Tool

The Surfer SEO Audit tool is one that you won’t use until your article has already been published. After publishing a new article on your website, you can quickly run an SEO audit to determine which tweaks you need to make to rank higher on Google. 

Rather than spending hours conducting keyword research and analyzing your content, Surfer does the work for you in under a minute. The SEO Audit tool offers many insights, including: 

  • Missing backlinks
  • Referring domains
  • Meta tags structure
  • Page speed
  • Keyword density
  • Content length
  • Number of headings
  • NLP entities coverage 
  • NLP Sentiment

By implementing Surfer SEO’s step-by-step instructions on how to optimize your content, you can uncover the important factors that are missing from your article and quickly make changes to improve. 

Pros and Cons of Surfer SEO

Before investing in a new SEO tool (or anything, really), it’s important to be aware of the advantages and drawbacks that come along with it. Below, I’m breaking down the pros and cons of Surfer SEO that you’ll want to keep in mind. Spoiler Alert: Cons aside, I still think this application is totally worth it. 

Pros

There are many pros of the Surfer SEO tool, including: 

  • User-friendly interface and functions
  • Constantly updating its tools to make improvements
  • Boasts a comprehensive guideline on how to create blog content, from LSI keywords and keyword density to word count and header tags
  • Complex audits of your site can be completed in just minutes
  • Customer support is incredibly helpful, as is the Facebook community group

Cons

While I can confidently say that Surfer SEO is the best SEO tool for bloggers, there are some drawbacks to be aware of, including: 

  • The Content Editor tool should be used as a guideline for ranking, not an absolute guarantee of making the top results in the SERPs
  • With so many different functions, it can be difficult for a beginner to grasp
  • The lengthy list of requirements is not always completely accurate

Surfer SEO Pricing

Surfer SEO offers tiered pricing with three options to choose from depending on your content needs and the number of people on your team that will be using the platform.

According to their website, the Basic plan is best suited for small businesses and bloggers, the Pro plan is best suited for medium-sized organizations, and the Business plan is best suited for large organizations managing 10+ websites. 

Basic Plan

  • $49 per month
  • Optimize 10 articles per month
  • Audit 20 pages per month
  • Invite 1 team member to join

Pro Plan

  • $99 per month
  • Optimize 30 articles per month
  • Audit 60 pages per month
  • Invite 3 team members to join

Business Plan

  • $199 per month
  • Optimize 70 articles per month
  • Audit 140 pages per month
  • Invite 10 team members to join
  • Dedicated backlink building and metric reports

 

 

Surfer SEO Alternatives

Of course, Surfer isn’t the only SEO tool on the market. What kind of Surfer SEO review would this be if I didn’t at least provide some alternative choices? As far as on-page SEO tools go, there’s no doubt that this one is my top pick. 

But if you’re curious about researching some of Surfer’s top competitors to determine which one is right for you, here are some of the best Surfer SEO alternatives to consider: 

  • Cora
  • MarketMuse
  • Semrush
  • Page Optimizer Pro
  • Frase.io

Surfer SEO Review Conclusion: Is It Worth It?

Ah, you’ve made it to our Surfer SEO review conclusion! Whether you managed to stick around this long or decided to skip to the end (no judgments here), I can gladly tell you that in my personal experience, Surfer SEO is definitely worth it. 

Of all the SEO tools out there to choose from, this one has proven to offer the most bang for its buck. Keep in mind that this tool is meant to help you create optimized content that ranks, but it won’t do all the work for you. 

If you ignore the guidance Surfer provides when crafting a new blog post, then you obviously won’t see improved results. However, if you follow its content guidelines to the best of your ability, then I’m confident you’ll quickly see a major difference in the way your content ranks in the SERPs. With a money-back guarantee, you really can’t go wrong with giving it a shot. 

What are your thoughts on Surfer SEO? Have any questions this SEO review didn’t cover? Drop your questions and comments down below – I’d love to hear from you. Otherwise, I wish you the best of luck in all your SEO adventures. Happy surfing!