It is common that, after creating your website or blog, you do not receive the expected visits. The reason? Content that, despite being of good quality, has not been optimized for SEO. Although we can solve this handicap manually, improving our ranking in search engines is a slow and sometimes frustrating task. Fortunately, there are specialized tools like Surfer SEO that make it much easier.
What is Surfer SEO?
SurferSEO is a cloud-based optimization tool that analyzes and compares your page content with those that appear in the top results of search engines (SERPs). Its secret weapon is that, unlike its competition, Surfer SEO does not guess what Google likes. Instead, it analyzes more than 500 ranking signals to optimize your content.
After conducting a thorough analysis of its features and characteristics, we will provide you with all the reasons why we believe your business should -or should not- implement Surfer SEO in its workflow.
Why choose Surfer SEO?
Overall, Surfer SEO is an on-page optimization tool that deserves a score of 8.8 out of 10. It is ideal for increasing the online visibility of small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs), and we consider it one of the best options on the market to improve Google ranking.
Surfer SEO stands out from other optimization tools because:
- Its SEO optimization recommendations are based on reliable data.
- Fast and smooth article review and refinement system.
- Offers a content editor with real-time SEO scoring that facilitates optimization for search engines.
- Creates comprehensive on-page SEO audits, making it easier to detect and implement improvements.
The Best of Surfer SEO
Surfer SEO offers a complete suite of features and functionalities that allow you to create, analyze, and optimize your content from scratch. These cover all the steps to generate such content: From its beginnings with keyword research and analysis (Keyword Research) or SERP analysis (SERP Analyzer), to a powerful content editor (Content Editor) that easily adapts on-page SEO to a search intent.
But that's not all, SurferSEO also allows you to audit your content or that of your competitors simply by sharing their URL (Site Audit). This is very helpful if any of your pages have not achieved the expected performance. Just share the address and follow the recommended steps to optimize its SEO in just a few clicks.
We finish with another of the factors we like most about Surfer SEO: Its ease of integration, implementation, and use. Thanks to its plugins and intuitive interface, it is not necessary to be an IT or SEO expert to start using any of its features.
In fact, the user satisfaction rate of SurferSEO never drops below 80%, making it one of the most valued SEO tools on the market.
The Worst of Surfer SEO
After reviewing all its features, we have gathered the aspects of Surfer SEO that clients like the least. Among them, we highlight its high price, which can sometimes be prohibitive for SMEs with a tight budget.
Closely related to the previous point is its credit system. These are required to perform each of Surfer SEO's functions and features (except for keyword research).
With a monthly limit depending on the plan contracted, many companies end up needing more credits than they initially have. This is why they end up incurring an extra monthly expense that they do not always have the budget for.
Finally, it is also worth noting that, despite having a very intuitive interface, the amount of information displayed on the screen can be overwhelming. This is especially true for users who only have a basic notion of SEO.
Who do we recommend Surfer SEO for?
Before adopting Surfer SEO for your business, it is important to know if this tool fits your business needs.
After thoroughly analyzing its features and its good results in search engine rankings, we recommend Surfer SEO for:
- Content marketers, content editors, and bloggers who want to optimize the SEO of their articles.
- SEO professionals who adjust website content to improve its Google ranking.
- Agencies that manage the performance of their clients' pages.
- Companies and businesses that want to increase their organic traffic.
If Surfer SEO does not meet your needs, there are interesting alternatives to this tool with which you can improve your page’s ranking. Among them, we highlight Semrush, Clearscope, and Ahrefs.
Key Features: What is Surfer SEO for?
As we have already mentioned, Surfer SEO is a platform designed to analyze and optimize the content of your page. Whether it is an article or a blog post, Surfer SEO will become your ally when it comes to achieving a high ranking on search engines.
Setting itself apart from SEO tools that promise the same, Surfer is capable of analyzing the content of your page and comparing it with more than 500 ranking signals. Among these are relevance to the topic being addressed, the information provided about it, or the keywords the article should focus on.
After that, Surfer SEO offers a wide range of suggestions and keywords with which you will improve your online positioning.
Content Editor: A powerful assistant to optimize on-page
El editor de contenido (Content Editor) de Surfer SEO es, sin duda alguna, la herramienta más potente y útil de esta suite de optimización. Este asistente en tiempo real te permite optimizar cualquier contenido que ya hayas creado en un documento o, si lo deseas, ayudarte a crearlo desde cero.
Para ello, simplemente es necesario elegir las palabras clave del tema que vas a tratar y, a continuación, seleccionar aquellas web de la competencia que tengan mejores posiciones en Google. Una vez hecho esto, Surfer SEO trazará una estrategia SEO con la que dar forma a ese tema, asegurándose que estará optimizado para que aparezca entre los mejores del buscador.
En pocos segundos SurferSEO te ofrece una plataforma desde la cual podrás crear o editar contenido ya creado. Ésta cuenta no sólo con un editor de contenido, sino también viene acompañado de una serie de sugerencias como el número de palabras, encabezados y párrafos a escribir.
También tendrás una lista de palabras clave y términos clave a incluir, así como ideas de temas relacionados o que deberías cubrir para que tu contenido sea completo.
Para finalizar, Surfer SEO asignará un ranking de calidad del 1-100, dividida en una escala de colores (rojo, naranja o verde). Dependiendo de su color, sabremos si debemos mejorar nuestro contenido o si este ya está listo para ser publicado.
¿Y si no tenemos tiempo de optimizar a mano todos los cambios sugeridos? Sin problema, Surfer SEO lo tiene todo previsto. Con la ayuda de una inteligencia artificial, es posible aplicar todas las mejorías detectadas por Surfer y añadirlas a tu contenido con un sólo clic.
SERP Analyzer: Discover what websites do well or poorly
SEO Surfer cuenta con un potente analizador de SERP (Search Engine Result Pages), con el que podrás tener una visión clara del por qué del éxito de algunas páginas web. ¿Por qué importa esto? Muy sencillo. Gracias a esta función podrás conseguir gran cantidad de ideas, además de trazar fácilmente una estrategia de contenido exitosa.
El SERP Analyzer realiza un análisis profundo de más de 50 páginas y los compara con cientos de factores de ranking. Una vez hecho esto recibiremos un completísimo informe en el que veremos el número de palabras, enlaces entrantes (backlinks), dominios de referencia, keywords y mucho más. Como puedes imaginar, son datos de incontable valor para cualquier especialista SEO.
Gracias al informe del SERP Analyzer, podrás mejorar la calidad de contenido y tener una idea mucho más clara acerca de qué artículos escribir en tu página o blog.
También es especialmente útil poder comparar estos datos con los de tu propia página, obteniendo sugerencias de correcciones con los que mejorar tu posicionamiento web.
SEO Audit: Compare your content with the best websites
Surfer SEO también incluye una útil herramienta para realizar auditorías SEO. Esta es ideal para analizar tu contenido y compararlo con el de tu competencia. Simplemente escribe la URL de tu artículo o entrada en un blog, añade las principales keywords del tema a tratar y deja que Surfer se ocupe del resto.
Y es que en segundos, SEO Audit comparará tu URL con la de tus 50 principales competidores y sus factores de ranking, dándote instrucciones claras acerca de qué debes cambiar.
Uno de los puntos fuertes de SEO Audit es principalmente su claridad. Y es que sus sugerencias vienen especificadas punto a punto, enumerando los cambios necesarios en conteo de palabras, encabezados, imágenes a añadir o temas de los que tu artículo carece.
Keyword Research: Keyword research for your SEO
Surfer SEO incluye Keyword Research, una herramienta de investigación de palabras clave, pensada para identificar palabras y frases relevantes para mejorar tu SEO on-page.
Su funcionamiento es muy simple e intuitivo. Primero de todo introduciremos la palabra clave objetivo a la que queremos apuntar, el país del que queremos resultados y Surfer generará una lista de resultados, dividida en grupos temáticos.
Cada grupo temático o cluster viene dividido según su intención (si es una búsqueda local, informativa, de navegación, etc.). Así pues, dentro de estos grupos encontraremos una lista de palabras clave relacionadas, dándonos datos e información como su densidad, búsquedas mensuales y tráfico generado.
Keyword Research es una herramienta útil para encontrar nuevas ideas de creación de contenido y apuntar mejor a los temas que pueden llevarnos a mejorar los resultados en los motores de búsqueda.
Sin embargo, comparada con otras herramientas como Ahrefs nos damos cuenta que su investigación de palabras clave es algo básica y, en definitiva, se queda algo corta.
Keyword Surfer: Keyword search, directly in Chrome
A modo de complementar la herramienta de búsqueda de palabras clave, Surfer SEO ofrece Keyword Surfer. Esta interesante extensión para Google Chrome brinda estadísticas básicas de palabras clave, cómo puede ser el volumen de búsqueda y las frases o palabras clave relacionadas de acuerdo al país.
A pesar de ser una herramienta para encontrar palabras clave algo sencilla, Keyword Surfer es de gran ayuda a la hora de buscar temas a tratar en nuestros textos. Además de ello, es completamente gratuita.
Surfer AI: Effortless optimized content creation
Con el boom de la inteligencia artificial, Surfer SEO ha añadido la opción de crear textos con la ayuda de una IA. Surfer AI es una nueva opción, escalable desde los distintos planes de pago de Surfer, desde la que podremos escribir contenido SEO en apenas unos clics.
El funcionamiento de Surfer AI es simple. Primero de todo necesitaremos seleccionar las palabras clave de interés, elegir una plantilla de tipo de contenido (blog, artículo, etc.) además de la voz y el tono que debe ser utilizado (profesional, divertido, cercano, etc.). Tras ello, Surfer nos brindará una serie de encabezados con la información y los temas que va a tratar, pudiendo seleccionarlos o quitarlos según lo deseemos.
Una vez hecho esto, Surfer AI creará y dará forma al artículo, normalmente alcanzando las puntuaciones máximas de rango posibles por la plataforma. Por último también podremos hacer los cambios que queramos desde su editor de contenido.
Es también interesante mencionar que la función incluye la posibilidad de impedir que el texto sea detectado como generado por inteligencia artificial, aunque ya nos advierten que su calidad puede disminuir por ello.
Pros and Cons of Surfer SEO
Now that we know the main features and functions of Surfer SEO, let's analyze its strengths as well as its main shortcomings. Thanks to this, it will be much easier for you to assess whether Surfer is the tool that best suits your business.
Pros of Surfer SEO:
- On-page SEO content editor
- Clear and intuitive interface, with real-time recommendations.
- Powerful SERP analyzer
- Complete SEO audits, both own and competitive
- AI-generated content structure suggestions
- High user satisfaction level (89% recommend it and 94% intend to renew their subscription)
- Excellent data-driven SEO strategies
Cons of Surfer SEO:
- Its monthly credit system limits usage
- High price not affordable for all businesses
- Its keyword research tool is very basic
- The amount of data it offers can sometimes be overwhelming
Should my company adopt Surfer SEO?
Surfer SEO is a very intuitive tool, capable of giving any content the boost it needs to improve its web positioning. Its main appeal is that all the SEO suggestions it provides come from a complete analysis and, furthermore, they are offered on-page and in real time.
That is why we consider Surfer SEO ideal for any business looking for precise SEO recommendations, instantly and data-driven.
Due to its ease of use, Surfer SEO is also an excellent option for companies that want to improve their content SEO without needing to hire specialized personnel. Surfer has been designed so that editors and writers themselves become SEO experts almost without realizing it.
Why do some companies stop using Surfer SEO?
Despite being an excellent tool, not all companies decide to keep using Surfer SEO. The main reason why some businesses cancel their Surfer subscription is its high price. Even though there are different plans, at first they are quite expensive and unaffordable for small SMEs.
Additionally, its credit system limits its use and sometimes generates extra expenses each month.
Finally, another major reason why companies stop using Surfer SEO is its keyword research tool. It is too simple and basic, offering very few analysis metrics and, sometimes, incorrect analysis or meaningless keywords.
That is why many businesses and professionals prefer to use alternatives like Semrush or Ahrefs.
Plans and Pricing: How much does Surfer SEO cost?
Surfer SEO offers different plans and prices, designed to fit the needs, size, and budget of each company. They are as follows:
- Essential: $99 per month (€94.61/month), allowing us to analyze 200 pages, write and optimize 30 articles per month, generate 5 AI articles, invite up to 5 coworkers, create topic maps, and perform keyword analysis.
- Scale: $219 per month (€209.28/month), including analysis of 1000 pages, optimization of 100 articles, creation of 20 AI articles, inviting up to 10 coworkers, and analyzing 100 SERPs per day.
- Enterprise: Custom plan for large companies that requires a prior call to agree on business needs and generate a preliminary budget.
It is important to note that if you choose to make an annual payment instead of monthly, Surfer SEO offers a 20% discount on the price across all its plans.
Implementation: How to adopt Surfer SEO in your company?
Implementing Surfer SEO in a business or SME is quite simple, with 53% of its users highlighting how the process has been smooth and intuitive. In fact, the average time a company needs to integrate it into their workflow is just one or two weeks.
It is also noteworthy that, unlike its main competitor, Surfer SEO is a tool that does not require technical knowledge for adoption. Both its setup and maintenance can be carried out by any type of person, regardless of their IT experience.
Regarding its users, Surfer SEO is a tool mostly used by a company's digital marketing team. However, due to its ease of use and emphasis on content optimization, it is also perfect for editors with SEO knowledge.
Finally, it is necessary to emphasize that when adopting Surfer SEO, companies value its commitment to data security. This tool complies with all industry standards, protecting all sensitive company information from prying eyes.
Usability: Is Surfer SEO easy to use?
Surfer SEO is an intuitive tool, easy to start using although, as its customers point out, hard to master.
It features a very clear interface, from which it is very easy to access all its tools and functionalities. On the other hand, sometimes Surfer provides too much data and recommendations on the screen, which can overwhelm users who are not SEO specialists.
To make its use easier, the tool has Surfer Academy, an online resource library where you can read tutorials, watch videos, and learn countless tricks to get the most out of Surfer. When this is not enough, it’s worth checking out the many tutorials available on the Internet.
Customer Service: How to Contact Surfer?
Surfer SEO has a customer service system available both via chat and through email and forums. Despite this, only 47% of users are satisfied with this service. Most opinions indicate that the response time is very variable, often taking too long on certain occasions.
What alternatives are there to Surfer SEO?
There are different alternatives to Surfer SEO designed to meet the needs of any business or SME. To make your choice easier, we have analyzed and compared each of them, highlighting their functionalities and features, as well as how they differ from SurferSEO.
SurferSEO vs Semrush
One of the alternatives we like the most is Semrush, an all-in-one SEO platform very similar to SurferSEO.
It includes SEO tools for:
- Keyword research: Semrush features its famous Keyword Magic Tool. It can analyze and create a report on useful keywords to improve your traffic, as well as provide ideas for related keywords and their PPC.
- SEO audit: This tool can detect errors and deficiencies on your page, in addition to creating a report on its performance. This is especially useful for a company's SEO team.
- Content optimization: Semrush has two tools designed to improve your content: a writing assistant and a SERP analyzer. Although they are useful, they lack the many features and good results of Surfer SEO’s Content Editor.
Another point to consider is its price. Similar to Surfer SEO, Semrush offers monthly plans scalable according to the SME’s needs. These start at $139.85 (€133.19) per month compared to Surfer SEO’s $79 (€75.49), making them considerably more expensive.
As is clear, Semrush is a versatile platform aimed at much broader aspects than Surfer SEO. Among these are commercial marketing strategies, ads, etc.
If the only goal is to improve content ranking, SurferSEO is the best option.
Surfer SEO vs Clearscope
Another good alternative to Surfer SEO is Clearscope, a platform that uses AI and natural language processing (NLP) to optimize the content of your articles and websites.
Among its features and characteristics we highlight:
- Keyword research: Keyword analysis is integrated into Clearscope's editor.
- Content optimization: Content is optimized based on latent semantic indexing (LSI) keywords.
- AI assistant: Clearscope structures all the content to be written clearly and concisely thanks to the use of artificial intelligence.
- Performance analysis: Clearscope allows SEO specialists to thoroughly track content performance through Google Search Console.
Regarding pricing, Clearscope offers different plans, starting with Essentials (189$/180.61€ per month). These are considerably more expensive than those offered by Surfer SEO, which could be a drawback for companies with a limited budget.
In short, Clearscope is a good alternative to Surfer SEO, although with a much less competitive price. The platform stands out for being very easy to use and having a truly intuitive interface, making it very simple to add SEO improvements to page content.
For this reason, it is ideal for companies that value simplicity and ease of use.
Surfer SEO vs Ahrefs
We conclude our selection of alternatives with the well-known Ahrefs. For many companies, it is one of the best SEO tools on the market to improve their web positioning.
Let's look at its key features and functions:
- Keyword Explorer: Ahrefs allows you to find thousands of relevant keywords for your content in just a few clicks. Alongside them, you will find important data and metrics such as intent, volume, difficulty, CPC, traffic, SERPs, etc.
- Site Explorer: This function can analyze a website and provide all relevant data about it (positioning, referring domain, relevant content, broken links, etc.)
- Content Explorer: With this, you can obtain a list of contents, divided by topics that have mentions or backlinks.
- SEO Audits: Ahrefs can create an SEO analysis of a website, with a list of all the technical issues it might have.
- Position Tracker: Ahrefs' Rank Tracker is perfect for tracking keywords and knowing how they are positioned on a website over time. Ideal for seeing their evolution in the SERPs.
As is usual in this type of platform, Ahrefs offers different plans and prices, depending on the needs and budget of each company. The cheapest is the Starter plan, which allows starting to use Ahrefs for only €27 per month.
We recommend using Ahrefs over Surfer SEO for all companies or SMEs looking for a powerful tool for keyword research.
Although Surfer SEO also includes a function for this (Keyword Research), it is still very limited and its results often lack depth.
Conclusion
Surfer SEO is a powerful tool, ideal for any company that wants to optimize their website content and prioritize on-page SEO editing. Surfer provides real-time, data-driven suggestions, resulting in higher quality content optimized for better search engine performance.
Features like its powerful Content Editor, SERP Analyzer, or SEO Audit are very helpful when it comes to improving website content. However, its price and credit limitations may discourage some companies from adopting it.
In short, Surfer SEO is an exceptional ally for content editors, marketing teams, agencies, and SEO specialists looking to easily improve the performance of their web pages.
If, on the other hand, an all-in-one solution is sought to manage a business's SEO approach, we recommend an alternative with much broader tools such as Semrush or Ahrefs.
Do we recommend Surfer SEO over its competitors? Yes. Without a doubt, it is an ideal tool for any type of content-based SEO strategy.
