When it comes to ranking higher on Google, high-quality writing is only part of the process. For content to truly perform, it must be strategically optimized. That’s where SurferSEO comes into play.
SurferSEO is an AI-driven content optimization tool that analyzes top-ranking pages in real-time, providing insights into keyword density, natural language processing (NLP), headings, and overall content structure. At seoplus+, we use SurferSEO to craft high-performing content that drives organic traffic and higher search rankings for our clients.
In this blog, we’ll cover:
- How SurferSEO supports content optimization
- How seoplus+ uses SurferSEO to create industry-leading content
- How updating your existing content can significantly boost visibility
If you’re aiming to increase organic traffic and maximize the impact of your content marketing strategy, keep reading!
How SurferSEO helps optimize content
At seoplus+, we support clients across a wide range of content formats—including blogs, website copy, landing pages, service pages, and long-form resources. Whether we’re developing something new or enhancing existing assets, our goal is the same: to create high-performing, search-optimized content that delivers results.
Whatever we’re doing, the Content Editor is one of our primary tools. When it comes to existing content, we’re able to put the link in the Content Audit, which can help run a diagnostic to tell us the best ways to optimize the copy.
1. Providing guideline suggestions for blog expansions and optimizations
SurferSEO’s primary tool used to optimize content is the Content Editor, which provides real-time optimization suggestions, including:
- Keyword recommendations: Suggests primary, secondary, and semantically related keywords based on competitor analysis and search intent. It also provides keyword frequency recommendations to maintain natural readability while maximizing SEO impact.
- Content structure: This analyzes high-ranking pages and recommends optimal word count, paragraph length, and heading distribution. It ensures your content aligns with Google’s expectations for depth, organization, and readability.
- Content score: After inputting the content, you can view Surfer’s content score, which is ranked from 0 to 100. This rank examines the content structure similar to other top-ranked pages, and a summarization of keywords used in those pieces as recommendations.
By adding the primary keyword you’re trying to rank for, SurferSEO audits top-ranking pages for the same keyword and provides guidelines for shaping content based on those pages. We can optimize well-researched content by incorporating ranking keywords and improving content structure based on suggested headings and paragraphs. The higher the content score, the higher the likelihood of improved rankings and, thus, brand visibility.
For Example, this client, an insurance brokerage business, had an existing blog with a content score of 45. Our goal was to refresh the content with updated information and expand to increase the helpfulness of the copy for readers. By integrating the target keyword and leveraging the existing content, we used SurferSEO to enhance the content quality and improve its chances of ranking well in search results.
- By leveraging suggestions for additional topics, we can see what people are expecting when they search based on the main keyword.
- Following recommendations, we added more headings and paragraphs to align with reader expectations.
- Updating the content and putting it back into the Content Editor shows the score rose from 45 to 77!
With the content score for this expansion now in green, it can serve readers (and search engines) better by offering a more comprehensive blog that answers more queries.
2. Creation of thoughtful, well-researched content
At seoplus+, SurferSEO is an integral part of our content strategy. This tool has helped increase rankings time and time again by developing outlines and offering topic suggestions to guide the content writing process. While specific topics can be complex for writers who don’t directly work in that field, the Content Editor tool develops SEO-optimized outlines and topic suggestions. These can help guide our writing into well-structured content with the right components to rank.
For Example, the Outline section within Surfer’s Content Editor allows us to add recommended headings and sections. This helps structure content more effectively while avoiding keyword stuffing. It also ensures the blog addresses common search queries, ultimately increasing organic traffic.
I experienced this firsthand while writing a blog post on car insurance—a subject outside my area of expertise. By following the outline builder and topic suggestions, I quickly identified the key information readers were searching for. This not only simplified my research but also allowed me to collaborate with a subject matter expert to produce content that was both accurate and aligned with user intent.
The Outline Builder
The outline builder consists of several suggestions. Titles are suggested titles for the content, but I focus mainly on Headings and Questions.
Headings: This section offers AI-written sections with online sources to provide ideas and research options. The Content Editor can add these sections to see how much they increase the content score.
Questions: This section suggests search queries with AI-written suggestions. Finding relevant ones to add to the content can help with organic searches by directly answering a Google search query.
Topics: Here, I found facts that could be implemented into the content and the sources to verify the information. Additionally, if this were an expansion, I’d be able to see areas already covered and what facts haven’t been mentioned.
Combining Headings, Questions, and Topics, we are able to write content that contains thoughtful information catering to search engines and end users. Crafting intelligent, well-researched content for our clients also demonstrates a greater sense of expertise in their field.
3. Auditing existing content to determine optimizations for better organic performance
If a blog has been live for three to six months and isn’t ranking as well as we’d hoped, SurferSEO’s Content Audit can help identify what needs improvement. By adding the link to the Content Audit dashboard, SurferSEO can then analyze keyword usage, backlinks, structure and page speed. By showing what’s missing from the existing content based on what’s ranking higher, we can leverage this audit to help the Content Editor determine actionable additions.
By including these additions, we optimize the content, republish it, and can accurately measure the improvement in clicks and impressions.
This tool cuts through the noise of multiple ways that could improve the content, pointing out the areas that need the most improvement, thus streamlining our revision and refresh process.
For Example, I’m about to write an expansion for a blog that isn’t performing well in GA4, and has a low Content Editor score of 29. By adding the blog link to the Content Audit, SurferSEO will analyze the page and provide me with information based on high-ranking competitors for page structure (paragraphs and images). This will help guide my content writing on how to approach the expansion.
These screenshots reveal the multiple ways the Content Audit tool evaluates the URL I shared and key ways to improve the current content. Once I’ve reviewed these details, I can work with the Content Editor to expand the copy, knowing the key areas to add.
Final results: Google Search Console (GSC) and Google Analytics 4 (GA4)
While SurferSEO provides key information to update content, we use Google Analytics and Google Search Console to determine if this information can actually help improve organic results. We’ll look at one example from an optimization republished on December 19th, 2024, to see if Surfer can not only talk the talk, but walk the walk.
Here we can see the growth in total impressions and clicks on GSC from before and after the republishing date:
I examined impressions and clicks from three months before optimization; it received five clicks and 3,500 impressions. After optimizing and updating, we can see that clicks and impressions have grown exponentially: 20 total clicks and 19,400 impressions since January 2025. This demonstrates Surfer’s value in optimizing content.
Here, we can examine the views in GA4:
Less than a month after updating the content in December, we can see a spike in views, which remained relatively steady throughout the first quarter of 2025. These results also consistently stayed above the previously published copy.
This blog is crucial to the client’s SEO strategy, which is focused on optical health and the importance of eye exams. The content discusses subtopic suggestions from Surfer along with original research of competitors, and includes several internal links to relevant pages on the client’s website and related blogs.
Conclusion
SurferSEO is a powerful platform that equips our team with the tools to turn content into helpful, relevant information that satisfies search engines and readers alike. Data-driven recommendations offer potential keywords, topics and queries to answer. Client content then benefits from increased visibility, readability, and engagement, no matter the subject or industry.
Looking to partner with content experts to secure higher rankings and more website traffic? Contact seoplus+ today to see how our SEO content specialists can help elevate your brand, from web content to blogs, and everything in between.
