Surfer SEO Review – How I Used It To Win The #1 Position

If you’re like me:

You’ve probably written a few pieces of long-form content…

Because everyone says comprehensive content ranks better right?

But you’ve also probably found that your content isn’t ranking that well.

So if you want to increase your search traffic quickly, you’ve only got two options.

You can manually optimise your on-page SEO (by following online advice and personal intuition)…which will take you at least a few hours on each blog post.

OR, you can automate this process with Surfer SEO.

Surfer reviews the current top 10 ranking websites by analyzing over 500 different signals and compares them with yours!

And then generates an easy to follow guide for optimising your content based on what’s working in the real world right now.

So in this Surfer SEO Review, I’ll show you how you can use Surfer to optimise your content’s on-page SEO including how I used it to steal the #1 position.

Why You Need To Pay Attention to Surfer SEO

I seriously suggest you watch this video (including the updated bit at the end)-

The other day, Surfer SEO gave me some pretty weird advice…

I had an extremely detailed and comprehensive SEMRush Review with 26,083 words.

Although I was pretty pleased with the post, I ran it through Surfer SEO.

And this happened.

Surfer SEO said that I should delete 22,210 words of my content. That adds up to be 85% of the total content in that post.

That’s really weird advice. Especially if your a fan of skyscrapering or 10x’ing your content.

So I decided to take a closer look.

When I clicked on extra details, you can see my content is the most detailed and comprehensive (by far!)

But it’s actually the outlier in the group! Because everyone else sits at around 3,000 words and I’m way over that.

So I decided to put Surfer SEO to the test.

I deleted the majority of my content!

I then checked my article – to see that my 4,000-word count is now within the favourable range and in-line with everyone else.

But here’s the thing…

I made these changes on October the 18th 2019.

And the next day… the post moved into 1st position in Google!

And has more or less held steady in the 1st position since!

And despite it being a .co.uk domain…

I’ve also seen an increase in positions on Google USA Desktop as well!

So if I could get these results by simply deleting my content…

What does that mean for your content? Especially if you’ve focused on developing long form content like I have!

What Is Surfer SEO?

Surfer SEO is an SEO tool that compares and analyzes 500 different factors of your page’s content against the top 10 ranking SERPs.

It takes the guesswork out of on-page SEO optimization by using data to show you what is missing. It has three key features to help you optimise your content-

Don’t Worry.

I am going to show you how to use Surfer SEO to optimise your content in a moment.

But before we do that, I want to talk a bit more about how Surfer SEO works and why it’s delivering incredible results.

Data-Driven Content Optimisation

If you’ve optimised content in the past, you know that it’s generally based on your intuition and experience.

This might have worked a few years ago.

But it takes a lot of time…and it’s also prone to human error.

With Surfer SEO’s data-driven model…

You can find common patterns from the top pages.

Because Surfer SEO will analyse 500 different factors across the top 10 results and then compare those with your page.

This gives you reliable, data driven information on what’s working right now for your specific keyword.

Surfer currently analyzes ranking factors like:

It makes it really easy to compare your page to the competition and then optimise the specific factors that influence rankings for your keywords.

Meaning you can discover not only the optimal keyword density.

But also learn what other words you should be including to make yourself as relevant as possible to the current top 10-

It also finds correlations between position in SERP and 500+ factors before generating a plan of attack.

And you can gain actionable data for any location-

Surfer SEO’s databases work with different languages and countries so you can bring in results for many different locations.

1 Click On Page SEO Audits

If you’ve written a lot of content.

And you want to boost its current ranking, you can use Surfer’s 1-Click Content Audit.

Just generate a report and enter your URL-

Click on the word ‘Compare’.

And you should see your website appear below.

On the left is your rank.

While to the right is the 1-click audit button.

To begin, click on ‘Audit’ and you’ll see something like this-

This is an audit for my article for the search phrase SEMRush Review.

The audit gives you detailed information on:

If you want to find out further information on a key factor, you can click on the ‘show details’ button to your right.

You should see a bar graph that compares your content with the other top-ranking pages.

Not only can you audit your own content.

But you can also audit your competitors as well!

Finding Quick Wins

When you combine data and audits together, you can see which small fixes can make a massive difference to your ranks!

Going back to my SEMRush Review example earlier.

I had a few things I should reconsider. The biggest being the word count.

Surfer SEO suggested I remove 22,000 words from my body, so it would match with the other top-ranking pages on Google.

And when I removed those extra words…

I saw this.

And I looked at how my word count compared with everyone else’s.

That simple action took me only 30 minutes.

Instead of trying to fix everything, you can discover quick wins which can help you rank higher without spending a lot of time and money!

Just focus on those keywords that are sat in the number 3 to 10 positons first.

Super User-Friendly

If there’s one thing I know about SEO tools, some can be ridiculously hard to use.

Just have a look at Cora for example-

Cora is well known in the SEO industry as a great on-page analysis tool.

But the image you see right there…

That’s an actual datasheet. Not the most user-friendly at all!

On the other hand, Surfer SEO has a super user-friendly interface that makes optimization easy…

How to Optimise Existing Content With Surfer SEO

Surfer SEO allows you to optimize your existing content with its SERP Analyzer tool.

You can see what’s working NOW for YOUR keyword in search results.

It will analyze your URLs, audit and make suggestions of what you can do to improve.

To begin, you can enter a:

Choose whether you want to search for mobile or desktop results.

Whether you want quick or full results and in which location.

You also have a history log at the bottom (which you can go back and access as many times as you want).

Once you hit enter, you will see a graph.

The graph is the correlation between the page’s SERP position on the x-axis and the ranking factor (words will be automatically selected by default.)

For example:

Above, you can see that pages 1-10 had an average of just below 3,500 words for their SEMRush Review.

Whereas, the next group of pages had significantly higher word counts. Only to fall again after the 32nd position.

On the left, there is a list of different factors you can choose.

These include:

Below, you can also find search results from Google’s SERP.

Does all of that sound like information overload?

Well don’t worry because Surfer SEO makes it easy to generate a report that tells you exactly what you need to do.

Just paste your URL here-

And hit ‘Compare’.

Click on the ‘Audit’ button.

And you should see a detailed list of recommendations to optimise your content.

Let me show you how you can implement those recommendations to increase your rankings.

True Density

True Density is a metric you can use to assess the gaps in your content.

It’s a great way to see if you’re using specific words too often or too rarely.

According to Surfer SEO…

So if you want to up your on-page SEO, you can check to see how many extra keywords you need to add and how many you may need to remove.

• Anything with the green “all good” sign means you don’t need to take any action
• The yellow warning sign means there is a slight deviation that should be corrected
• Red indicates a large deviation from the suggested range

You can prioritize this list by clicking on relevance-

Words

Overall, my word in body paragraphs and bolded text are doing well.

But I have 168 words in H2 to H6. I should also consider removing 12 – 75.4 words from the H2 and H6 headers.

If I click on Show details…

You can see here that I’m clearly over the suggested range and have more words in H2 and H6 in comparison to other high ranking articles on Google.

I’ll remove a few extra words from the headers.

And I’ll continue this editing process until I fulfil the requirements and ensure no further action is required.

Optimising your existing content with Surfer SEO is extremely easy.

Especially since they give you a clear guide on what to do…

…and what not to do!

Missing Common Backlinks

After you have optimised your content, you should re-index it via Google Search Console and then wait to see how it reacts.

If you need to give things an extra push, you can create a link building plan based on competitors’ common backlinks.

Here, Surfer SEO will give you a prioritized list of websites to build links from based on how many of them link to your competitors.

As you can see, 7 of my competitors have a link from Quora.com that I am missing which are pretty easy to acquire.

So just work your way through this list or use my intelligent spreadsheets to steal your competitors best backlinks.

How to Create New Content With Surfer SEO

If you want to create an optimised blog post with Surfer SEO from scratch, you can use their content editor.

The content editor will give you a clear guideline on content creation.

You can also send the guidelines to a copywriter or content writer to ensure that the blog content aligns with on-page SEO recommendations like:

It really takes the hardwork out of creating SEO-friendly content and I am using it as a basis for my niche sites at the moment.

Start by clicking on the Content Editor.

Enter your keyword and select your location. Then click ‘Create’.

Surfer SEO will analyze your top 10 competitors and their content.

Once the analysis is complete, you should see this.

On the right, you gain a clear guideline regarding:

And on the left, you can begin writing right away in the text field.

If you want to make some adjustments, click on ‘Customize’.

And you should see something like this.

Adjust Content Length

The suggested number of words is the average length of text in the analysed pages.

Try to create your content with a similar length.

The length of text directly impacts the density of every phrase you use in the text.

Review Keywords

The keywords Surfer SEO suggests are semantically related to the main keyword based on what is ranking right now.

So it’s critical you use these keywords in your content.

You can see that the keywords are split up into:

If there are a few keywords that don’t meet your expectations…

You can click on them, which will remove them from the list.

Choose Questions To Include

I’m sure you know that positioning isn’t just about the keywords and their density.

Here, you can select relevant questions to include in your writing-

This also helps to increase your chances of showing up in featured snippet or people also ask boxes.

Add Notes

And finally, if you need to add any additional information about the content…

…you can do so in the notes.

Once you’re done, hit ‘Final Customization’.

If you work with external content creators, you can simply share the unique link so they can create content based on the guidelines!

Your content editor doesn’t need their own Surfer SEO account either, just share the private link with them and voila.

Google Docs

For anyone who uses Google Docs, you’d be happy to hear that Surfer SEO released a Google Chrome Extension (in beta).

This lets you integrate Surfer’s Content Editor in Google Docs.

This makes optimising content super straightforward.

And much more convenient!

How to Find Awesome Keywords With Surfer SEO

In addition to optimising on-page content, Surfer SEO has another useful tool. They now have a new keyword research tool.

This way, you can keep the whole optimisation process in one place.

All-in-one app!

So how does it work?

Click on ‘Keyword Research’.

And enter any keyword (or multiple keywords) and choose a location.

After entering your keyword, you should see this.

Here, you will see information about:

If you’re wondering what SERP similarity means…

It’s Surfer SEO using reverse engineering tactics to check the similarity between SERPs.

For example:

You can also save the best keywords in your clipboard.

And use the list to undergo additional research and extend your keywords list.

You can also check relevant questions and terms that contain search queries, as well.

Having Same Terms

Here, you can get an idea of which keywords contain your main phrase.

And what their search volume is.

Questions

Questions work in a similar way.

Surfer suggests common questions people tend to enter into Google that are related to your keywords.

You may want to include these in your content to both help your visitors and increase your chances of showing up in the people also ask boxes.

Don’t forget to add FAQ Schema as well for some extra oomph.

Want to do some keyword research but Surfer SEO is out of your budget? Check out my list of free keyword research tools.

Surfer SEO vs Page Optimiser Pro vs Cora

Surfer has amazing features.

It’s a data-driven content optimisation tool.

That makes optimising existing content and creating new optimised content.

Super easy!

But there are other on-page SEO tools on the market as well.

I’ve briefly mentioned Cora above.

There’s also Page optimiser Pro as well.

Below, I’ve put together a table that summarises Surfer SEO’s offer in comparison to Page optimiser Pro and Cora.

While Surfer has many advantages, Page optimiser Pro and Cora win out on a few different aspects.

For a budget-friendly option, try Page optimiser Pro and if you have the time and budget to dive deep into on-page analysis, trial Cora.

But…if you prefer an easy and cost-effective way to improve content quickly, reach for Surfer SEO.

Surfer SEO Review Conclusion

Surfer SEO is ideal for anyone looking for a data driven analysis tool with an user-friendly interface and an affordable price starting from only $29 per month.

I like it because it helps me with my SEO daily tasks in a way no other tool in that price range does.

It has quickly become a key tool in my SEO process and we are seeing more and more Surfer SEO success stories by the day.

In fact, I used Surfer SEO to build out a new niche site that we launched in July-

And as you can see, we have been more than happy with the results so far.

All I have to do is share the Surfer SEO content editor URL with my writing team, and they do the rest.

So if you’re serious about:

…and keen to achieve quick wins without spending loads of time and money…

Start your Surfer SEO trial now.

Because it’s not often a new SEO tool causes this much disruption.