Surfer SEO

Surfer analyses what is already ranking and tells you what your draft is missing. Word count, headings, terms, structure, scored live as you write.

What it does well

It turns on-page SEO from opinion into a checklist. The Content Editor scores against the current top results rather than a fixed rulebook, so guidance shifts when the SERP shifts. The audit tool does the same for pages already published, which is where most sites have the fastest wins sitting untouched.

For teams, it standardises briefs so freelancers deliver something consistent without a long onboarding.

What it costs

Plans start around $99 a month and scale by articles tracked and team seats. There is no free tier. This is a professional purchase and priced like one.

Where it falls short

Chasing the score produces bad writing. Hit 90 and you often have a keyword-stuffed page that reads like it was assembled by a machine, because it partly was. The tool measures correlation with ranking pages, which is not the same as causation, and treating it as gospel is how sites end up with a hundred identical articles.

It also does not do keyword research or backlinks, so it is an addition to your stack, not a replacement for it.

Who it's for

Content agencies, freelance SEOs and in-house teams publishing regularly. Use it as a check before publishing, not as a target to optimise toward. If you publish twice a month, the price is hard to justify.