Looking to drive more organic traffic to your website? Whether you’re starting from scratch or looking to take your existing website to the next level, it’s important to have the right tools and strategies in place to succeed.
With so many competitors in the online space, it can be challenging to stand out and claim your spot on the first page of search results. That’s where Surfer SEO comes in.
This powerful SEO tool offers a unique set of features that can help you optimize your content for better rankings and drive more traffic to your website.
It is similar to many SEO tools on the market, like Ahrefs and Semrush, but with its own set of unique capabilities that set it apart.
What is Surfer SEO?
Surfer SEO is a software tool that helps website owners and digital marketers like you to improve your website’s search engine optimization (SEO) performance. It is an all-in-one SEO tool that offers a range of features to help you analyze your website’s SEO performance and make data-driven decisions to improve its search engine rankings.
It is like a GPS navigator that helps you find your way to a specific location (the information or content people are searching for online) by providing you with detailed directions (keyword research) and real-time traffic updates (analyzing the top-ranking content).
Like a GPS navigator, Surfer SEO helps you to find the right path (optimizing your content) to reach your destination by providing you with insights on the most efficient route ( internal and external links, content structure, content format) and alerts (SEO Audit) when there are any roadblocks (SEO issues) on your way.
Surfer SEO guides you in promoting your content, monitoring your results, and creating more valuable content.
The tool provides a range of features such as keyword research, on-page SEO optimization, content analysis, backlink analysis, site audit, and SERP analysis. With these features, you can analyze your website and your competitors to identify areas that need improvement, track their website’s search engine rankings over time, and make data-driven decisions to improve their website’s visibility in search engine results.
Surfer SEO analyses a website’s on-page elements, backlinks, and search engine results pages (SERPs) for specific keywords. The tool uses this data to provide actionable insights and recommendations for improving your website’s SEO performance.
Whether you want to create blog posts, pillar posts, emails, social media posts, and what have you, Surfer SEO is the best tool.
The software comes with rather simple yet powerful tools.
Built-in Tools and How they Work
Surfer SEO has various tools that help website owners and digital marketers analyze and optimize their website’s SEO performance.
Some critical tools built into Surfer SEO include the audit, content planner, SERP analyzer, and keyword research tool. Let’s digest them one after the other.
Content Editor
Many people sign up for Surfer SEO mainly for the content editor feature and for many reasons. The Content Editor feature in Surfer SEO is designed to help you optimize your website’s content for search engines by analyzing the content of the top-ranking websites for a specific keyword.
It provides data on the content’s length, structure, and keyword density and suggestions for headings, subheadings, and related keywords that should be included in the range.
The best part is that it gives you these insights and scores in real-time right in the editor while you type. This makes it easier to tweak your content for a higher position in the SERPs.
Aside from that, the editor also includes a built-in readability checker that analyses the post for readability, grammar, and punctuation. The content editor will notify you whether the post is too wordy, has too many passive voices, or has some plagiarism.
It checks for common SEO issues such as duplicate content, keyword stuffing, and missing meta tags. This ensures that the content you produce is easy to read and understand for both humans and search engines.
Additionally, it lets you preview how the content will appear on search engine results pages (SERPs), thereby helping you optimize the meta tags, titles, and descriptions to increase click-through rates.
This feature comes in handy when designing or adding images to your posts, as it helps you correct design errors before the post goes live.
When you’re finally done with your post, the content editor will give you a score based on the length, structure, keywords, and anything else in-between. A good score is 70 and above out of 100. Strive to be in that range when you use Surfer SEO.
As you work on fine-tuning your content to check all the boxes, you also need to have your finger on the ‘pulse’ of your website and that of your competition, and the audit feature handles that marvelously well.
Audit
Just as we humans need to go for routine checkups to detect health conditions and maintain good health, your business and website need a way to fix problems and maintain a consistent flow of revenue. That’s where the audit feature comes to play.
The audit feature in Surfer SEO is a tool that allows you to analyze your website’s existing content for technical SEO, user experience, and content to identify any issues impacting their search rankings.
It is the most useful when you already have a bunch of content and are looking for ways to improve their position on the results page. Surfer would give you insights into exactly what’s wrong and what measures to take.
The audit tool checks for common SEO issues, such as
- broken links
- missing meta tags
- duplicate content, and more complex problems, such as
- slow page load times
- poor mobile optimization
- missing structured data.
The audit also analyses the website’s content, including keyword density, readability, and structure.
If your website is relatively new, you won’t use the audit feature that much. However, you can utilize it to discern what your competitors are doing right or wrong and read up on them.
Identifying user experience issues can help improve the website’s overall performance and increase the number of visitors.
Once the audit is complete, Surfer SEO provides a detailed report highlighting any issues that have been identified. The information also includes recommendations for how to fix the problems and improve the website’s performance.
Content Planner
It’s a known fact that having a clear and compelling content strategy is crucial for the success of any online business.
A content strategy is a plan for creating, managing and delivering content that aligns with the goals and objectives of an organization. It outlines the types of content that will be made, the target audience, what channels will be used to distribute the content, and how the content will be measured for success.
With a content strategy, an enterprise can attract and retain customers and establish a clear brand identity and message.
On the other hand, a lack of content strategy is one of the common reasons for online business failure, as it leads to a lack of direction, inconsistent messaging, and an inability to attract and engage the target audience.
The Content Planner in Surfer SEO is a feature that helps you create a practical and workable content strategy for your business in a few steps. It enables you to identify the themes and topics most relevant to their industry and create a content strategy accordingly.
By analyzing the content of top-ranking websites for a specific keyword, the Content Planner provides information about the keywords, headings, and subheadings used on those websites. It also suggests related topics that may be worth covering in your content.
With Surfer, you can track the trending topics in your niche and understand what people are searching for.
One cool thing about the content planner is that it allows you to organize the themes and topics you want to cover in a calendar view, making it easy to plan your content and ensure that you cover all the essential issues in your industry.
SERP Analyzer
The SERP Analyzer may be less useful to new website owners and SEO amateurs. For non-professionals, the content editor and audit are sufficient to cater for your SEO needs.
SEO experts use this tool a lot, and it’s a feature within the Surfer SEO tool that provides data on the top-ranking websites and the keywords they are ranking for, which can be used to identify the most relevant keywords for specific industry and market gaps.
With the SERP Analyzer, marketers can input a seed keyword, and the tool will analyze the SERP for that keyword. The software will then provide data on the top-ranking websites, including their Domain Authority (DA), page authority (PA), the number of backlinks, and the keywords they are ranking for.
This information can be used to identify the industry’s most important keywords and market gaps.
Additionally, the SERP Analyzer allows you to analyze the on-page elements of top-ranking websites, such as the meta tags, header tags, and content.
If you take your SEO a step ahead, you can optimize your website’s on-page factors to match those of the top-ranking websites to improve search engine rankings for that keyword.
You can also use this feature to analyze your website’s ranking for a specific keyword and track its progress over time. It allows you to see how your website performs compared to your competitors and identify areas where you can improve.
Keyword Research
Keyword research using Surfer SEO allows you to identify keywords that are relevant to a business and have the potential to drive traffic to a website. The Surfer SEO tool allows users to research keywords and phrases pertinent to their business and provides data on the search volume, CPC, and competition for each keyword. It also suggests related keywords that users may want to target.
The process of keyword research using Surfer SEO typically involves the following steps:
The first step is to enter a seed keyword into the Surfer SEO tool, a broad term related to a business or industry. This is ideal when you’re doing keyword research from scratch or looking for more relevant keywords for your existing website.
The tool will then analyze the search engine results pages (SERPs) for that keyword and provide data on the top-ranking websites and their ranking keywords. Apart from the short and longtail keywords, you also get question-based keywords that are similar to the terms you’re targeting.
From the data provided by the tool, you can specify and select relevant keywords and phrases that you may want to target. The tool shows the monthly search volume, cost per click, and competition for each keyword, which can help you identify the keywords that are most likely to drive traffic to their website.
Surfer SEO allows digital marketers to analyze their competitors’ websites and see the keywords they target and how well they perform. This information is useful in identifying the industry’s most important keywords and market gaps.
Once you’ve identified the relevant keywords, you can use the tool’s on-page optimization feature to optimize your website’s content and meta tags to rank higher in search engine results for those keywords.
Surfer SEO in Action
We’ve explained the features and built-in tools of surfer SEO. However, concepts like these are best understood with examples. Here’s an example of walking you through how to use Surfer SEO. Let’s assume your business is about dog training. Here are the steps you may take, from finding the right keywords to crafting a catchy headline to writing the whole post.
Research the Keywords you want to Target
Use the keyword research tool to identify relevant keywords and phrases related to dog training, such as “dog obedience training,” “how to train a puppy,” “dog behavior training,” etc.
Analyze the Top-ranking Content
From the keywords you’ve identified, use Surfer SEO to analyze the top-ranking content for those keywords. The software can help you understand the common on-page elements (e.g., headlines, subheadings, images, etc.) and off-page factors (e.g., backlinks, social signals, etc.) associated with high-ranking content.
Optimize your Content
You can use the insights from step 2 to optimize your post for your target keywords. This may include:
1. Writing a compelling headline that includes your target keywords
2. Using subheadings and other formatting elements to break up your content and make it more readable
3. Including relevant images and other media
4. Incorporating internal and external links
5. Use Surfer SEO’s SERP features, such as Content Editor, Content Audit, and SEO Audit, to fine-tune your post.
Run a Content Audit
Use Surfer SEO to run a content audit on your website. This will help you identify any issues or opportunities for improvement on your existing content.
Publish and Promote
Once you’ve optimized your content, publish it on your website and promote it through social media and other channels to drive traffic and engagement.
Monitor your Results
Use Surfer SEO to track your content’s performance over time and make necessary adjustments to improve your rankings and traffic.
Repeat
Repeat the steps above to create more valuable content to help you rank better and drive more traffic to your website.
It’s also worth noting that Surfer SEO provides a correlation study that analyses different SEO factors and helps you understand how they impact your rankings and how you can optimize your website accordingly. With this feature, you can also understand how your competitors rank compared to your website.
Ten Hacks to Massively Boost Lead Generation
By now, we know you’re super excited to give Surfer SEO a shot. We’ll uncover the top 10 hacks for using this tool to boost your website’s visibility and attract more leads.
From identifying the intent behind a query to analyzing your competitors’ top-ranking pages, these hacks will help you optimize your website for search engines and your customers.
1. Use Surfer SEO to Analyze your Competitors’ Content and Keywords
Running a business online is a whole battlefield on its own. To have an advantage is to learn from your rivals’ strengths and weaknesses. Surfer SEO can turn you into that ‘online detective’.
You can use Surfer SEO to analyze your competitors’ content and identify their ranking keywords. The tool explores your competitors’ content’s keywords, topics, and readability.
It also reveals the frequency of these terms in the content and how often it ranks for those keywords. This can help you identify a strategy for writing content that will compete with your competitors.
When analyzing your competitors’ content and determining their ranking keywords, you’re looking at their websites and identifying the specific keywords and phrases they use in their content.
By identifying these keywords, you can gain insight into what keywords are working well for your competitors and how you can use them to improve your own website’s search engine rankings. For example, if you notice that a competitor is ranking well for a specific keyword, you can optimize your content to include that keyword and try to rank for it.
2. Optimize your Website’s Meta Tags and Descriptions
The description and title tags are two crucial HTML tags that provide information about a webpage to search engines and users.
The meta title tag is the text in the blue clickable link of a search engine result, and the meta description tag is the text that appears under the title in the search engine result. Both of these tags are important because they provide search engines and users with information about your website.
For example, if you’re running an e-commerce store and want to optimize your website for searches related to shopping, you could use the meta title tag to include phrases like “shopping online” or “online shopping”.
This will help search engines understand what your site is about so that it shows up in search results when people are looking for those terms.
With Surfer SEO, you can analyze the meta tags and descriptions of your website and those of your competitors and make necessary adjustments.
By examining this information and adjusting your meta tags and descriptions, you can improve your website’s visibility and click-through rate in search engine results. This can increase the number of people visiting your website, boosting your lead-generation efforts.
3. Use Surfer SEO to Identify High-ranking Themes and Topics in your Industry
Search engine algorithms consider the relevance and authority of a website in part by evaluating the quality of its content. If your website has high-quality, authoritative content, search engines will reward you with higher rankings.
You can use the Surfer SEO tool to identify what topics and themes are prevalent in your industry by looking at how often they are searched on Google and how many websites are currently ranking for those terms. You can then focus on creating content relevant to those topics and themes.
With Surfer SEO, you can use the Content Editor feature, which allows you to analyze the content of your website and your competitors’ websites in a particular niche and identify the common themes and topics that are ranking well.
The tool will show you the keywords, phrases, and topics most frequently used in the content of your competitors’ websites and the readability score.
Identifying the common themes and issues ranking well in your industry can help you gain insight into the types of content that resonate with your target audience and are likely to be well-received by search engines.
By identifying these themes and topics, you can create content that is more likely to rank well in search engine results and attract more leads to your website.
4. Utilize Long-tail Keywords
Long-tail keywords are phrases rather than single words, which are more specific. They’re typically made up of three or more words people use when searching for something online, such as “how to” or “best way to.”
For example, if you’re selling women’s clothing online, a broad keyword like “women’s clothes” will get you nowhere fast. A better strategy is to create content around long-tail keywords that are more specific, such as “How to find the best women’s jeans.” This will help you attract more of the right people looking for information on a specific topic.
Another example. “Best running shoes for flat feet” is a long-tail keyword, while “running shoes” is a short-tail keyword.
Long-tail keywords are advantageous because they tend to have a lower search volume, which means there is less competition for them in search engine results.
They are also more specific, which means that the people searching for them are more likely to be looking for something specific and are more likely to convert into leads.
With Surfer SEO, you can use the Keyword Research feature to identify the long-tail keywords relevant to your industry and that your competitors are ranking for.
The tool will show you the search volume, the CPC and the difficulty of each keyword, the related keywords, and the SERP features that appear for each keyword.
5. Use Surfer SEO to Analyze the Readability and User Experience of your Website
Analyzing your website’s readability and user experience means using the tool to evaluate how easy it is for users to understand and navigate your website.
A website that is easy to understand and navigate is more likely to have a better user experience, which can lead to higher engagement, longer visit duration, and more conversions.
Readability refers to how easy it is for users to understand the content on your website. It considers factors like the complexity of the language used, the length of sentences, and the formatting of the text. The easier it is for your customer to read and understand your content, the more they’d engage with it.
A website with high readability is likelier to have a better user experience, as it is easier for users to understand and engage with the content.
User experience (UX) is a user’s overall experience when interacting with your website, including the site’s design, navigation, and functionality. A user experience that is easy, intuitive, and streamlined can improve your site’s conversion rate.
Surfer SEO allows you to use its Content Editor feature, which lets you view and analyze your website’s content and those of competitors.
It shows your website’s internal and external links, which can help you identify potential issues with your website’s navigation and functionality.
The tool uses readability tests like Flesch-Kincaid, Coleman-Liau, and Gunning-Fog to calculate the content’s readability score and suggest improvements.
By analyzing your website’s readability and user experience using Surfer SEO, you can identify areas that need improvement and make changes to improve the overall user experience of your website, which can lead to higher engagement, longer visit duration, and more conversions.
6. Use Surfer SEO for a Technical SEO Audit
When you use Surfer SEO for a technical SEO audit, it helps you analyze the technical aspects of your website and identify any issues that may be impacting its search engine rankings.
Technical SEO refers to the behind-the-scenes parts of your website that can affect how easily search engines can crawl and index your pages. Some of the most common technical SEO issues include:
1. Site-wide redirects that are not appropriately implemented
2. Duplicate content on your site or within your website structure
3. Broken links or 404 errors
A technical SEO audit can help you identify broken links, missing alt tags, slow loading times, and other technical problems that can negatively impact your website’s search engine rankings.
You can improve your website’s technical SEO and visibility in search engine results by identifying and fixing these issues.
With Surfer SEO, you can use the Site Audit feature to analyze your website’s technical SEO. The tool will scan your website and identify broken links, missing alt tags, slow loading times, and other technical problems. The tool also provides suggestions for fixing these issues and allows you to track your progress over time.
Surfer SEO also analyses the website’s structure using H1 tags, internal linking, URL structure, and canonical tags. These elements are also crucial for search engines to understand the structure and the hierarchy of the website, and they can also affect the website’s visibility in the search results.
Using Surfer SEO for a technical SEO audit can identify and fix any technical issues on your website, which can help to improve your website’s search engine rankings and attract more leads.
7. Identify your Competitors’ Best-performing Internal Linking Strategies with Surfer SEO
Internal linking refers to linking one page of a website to another page within the same website. It helps search engines understand the structure and hierarchy of a website, as well as guide users through the site.
For example, if your website is about real estate, you want to link each page to related pages. If a user lands on a page about buying a home in San Diego, they might click through to another page that explains how to find an agent or offers tips for first-time buyers.
This helps search engines understand that these two topics are closely related and should be placed near each other in the rankings.
By identifying the internal linking strategies of your competitors, you can gain insight into how they are using internal linking to improve their search engine rankings and attract more leads.
You can use the same strategies to improve your own website’s SEO. If you have a large site with hundreds or thousands of pages or just a few pages, here are a few simple steps you can take to improve your internal linking strategy:
- Identify the top 10 pages on your site and create an overview of each page’s content. This will help you identify topics that may be related or could benefit from additional information. For example, if one page is about how to buy a home in San Diego, it might link to another page that offers tips for first-time buyers.
- Create a spreadsheet with all of these topics listed in one column and each page number next to it. Then, start going through each row and writing down how you could use those two pages together (i.e., “real estate agent”).
Surfer SEO’s Site Audit can help you assess the internal linking strategies of your competitors.
The tool will show you the number of internal links pointing to each page, the anchor text used, and the number of do-follow and no-follow links. It will also show you the internal links pointing to your website and suggest improving your internal linking.
With this info, you can replicate their link-building strategy, improve your website’s search engine rankings, and attract more leads. With it, you can improve the user experience and reduce the bounce rate by using internal links to guide the users through the website.
8. Track your Website’s Search Engine Rankings Over Time
Search engine rankings can be tracked by using tools like Surfer SEO. The tool allows you to monitor your website’s search engine positioning for specific keywords and compare that with your competitors’ positions.
It will show you the ranking of your website for one particular keyword and how it has changed over time.
Tracking your website’s search engine rankings over time can help you identify patterns and trends in your search engine performance.
For example, if your website’s search engine rankings for a specific keyword have dropped, you can investigate the reason for the drop and make changes to improve your website’s performance.
Additionally, tracking the search engine rankings of your competitors can help you identify areas where they are outperforming you and adjust your strategy accordingly.
It’s important to note that tracking the search engine rankings of a website is an ongoing task and should be done regularly to identify any fluctuations or changes in the ranking.
When you track your website’s search engine rankings over time, you monitor how your website’s pages perform in search engine results for specific keywords. This can help you understand how your website performs in search engine results and identify areas that need improvement.
Surfer SEO has several features that make tracking your website’s search engine rankings easy. You can use the site index feature to generate a list of all pages on your website and then choose which ones you want to include in your tracking report.
9. Discover your Competitors’ Backlink Profiles and Replicate Them
If your competitors rank well and you want to rank higher, you will have to do what they’re doing. This means you need to find out where their backlinks are coming from and get some of them for yourself.
Discovering your competitors’ backlink profiles and reproducing them is a way to improve your website’s search engine rankings and attract more leads. It involves analyzing the links pointing to your competitor’s websites and identifying the patterns and techniques that are helping them rank well in search engine results.
Backlinks are links from other websites to your website and are essential in determining your website’s search engine rankings. By analyzing your competitors’ backlink profiles, you can gain insight into the types of websites and techniques that are linking to your competitors and how they are using those links to improve their search engine rankings.
Surfer SEO can be used to analyze your competitors’ backlink profiles and determine the number of links they’ve received from other websites, what keywords are being used as anchor text for those links, and how authoritative (Domain Authority) or trustworthy (Trust Flow) each website is that linked.
Understanding your competitors’ backlink profiles can ethically replicate them and improve your own website’s search engine rankings. It’s important to remember that repeating your competitors’ backlink profiles does not mean copying them but instead using them as inspiration to build your backlink strategy.
10. Use Surfer SEO to Identify your Competitors’ Best-performing External Linking Strategies
Surfer SEO is a great tool to use for link prospecting. It lets you see the top sites in any niche and how they link. You can then use this data as inspiration for your outreach strategy.
Use Surfer to identify your competitors’ best-performing external linking strategies. It allows you to quickly scan thousands of websites in seconds and see which ones earn the most links from authoritative sites.
Identifying your competitors’ best-performing external linking strategies can help you improve your website’s search engine rankings and attract more leads.
External linking refers to the process of linking from your website to another website. These links play a crucial role in the search engine optimization process, as they help search engines understand the quality and relevance of a website.
The Backlink Analysis feature on Surfer SEO can analyze the external linking strategies of your competitors. This feature allows you to:
1. Analyse your competitors’ external linking strategy and find out which sites are earning them the most links.
2. Identify which external links are driving traffic to your competitors’ websites and understand how this can help you improve your SEO efforts.
3. Find out which types of pages have attracted the most backlinks from authoritative sites so that you can replicate these strategies on your website.
The tool will provide information such as the number of external links pointing to each page of your competitors’ websites, the anchor text used, and the linking websites’ domain authority and trust flow. The tool will also show you the external links pointing to your website and suggest improving your external linking strategies.
Maximise Your SEO Efforts with Surfer SEO
This guide has been a long and comprehensive one. We’ve covered a lot of ground here. Let’s do a quick recap.
Surfer SEO is a powerful software that can help you optimize your website, especially your content, for search engines and readers. The software allows you to find the best keywords for your site, create a compelling content strategy, optimize your content for search engines, and determine the best way to structure it.
You can also use Surfer SEO to create new pages on your website, track their performance, and get real-time feedback on their performance. We’ve also covered ten hacks you can implement to boost lead generation and improve return on investment.
By understanding the intent behind a query and the elements that make up a high-ranking page, you can create relevant and valuable content for your audience.
However, it’s important to remember that surfer SEO is just one aspect of a comprehensive SEO strategy. You must build a strong foundation of on-page optimization and off-site content promotion to succeed in search engine rankings.
You also need to make sure that your website is technically sound and that you are using a variety of other tactics, such as building backlinks, creating high-quality content, and engaging with your target audience on social media.
By combining these elements with Surfer SEO, you’ll be able to create a strategy that generates traffic and increases sales for years to come.
Ultimately, surfer SEO is a powerful tool that can help you get ahead of the competition and increase your visibility in search engine results. Following the tips outlined in this guide can improve your chances of ranking well and drive more traffic to your website.
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