Surfer SEO vs WriterZen: Which Is The Best SEO Tool?

Want the best optimization tool but are stuck with making a choice from Surfer SEO vs WriterZen? No worries! I’m here to help you.

I’ve tried both tools and will share my experience with you. Both optimization tools are good in their ways but after exploring their features in this blog post, you can make an informed decision as to which is best for you.

Surfer SEO vs WriterZen (Overview)

	Surfer SEO	WriterZen
SERP Analyzer	More advanced, analyzes top 50 pages ranking for a keyword with the detailed insight and action to take	Analyzes only the top 20 ranking pages to provide insight
Keyword Research	Free keyword research tool with chrome extension + a function that generates the content outline for the topic you want to write about	Keyword research is tied to credit and is attached to the keyword explorer. 1 keyword research equals one credit
Content Planner	Has a standalone content planner tool that creates topic clusters for you based on the keyword you entered	Its content planner is tied to the topic discovery feature
Audit Tool	Yes, the stand-alone audit tool analyzes your page URL against your competitors and offers insight on how to boost your ranking	No, but a similar function can be seen in the content creator feature
Supported languages	Keyword research =70 languages NLP = 4 ( English, Danish, Dutch & Polish)	English only
AI Writing Assitant	No in-built but integrates with Jasper AI, a top AI writing tool	Yes, has an in-built, mid-range AI writing tool
Plagiarism Check	No, but Jasper AI which it integrates with gives you access to Copyscape an advanced plagiarism checker	Yes, but no advanced
Integration	Integrates with Semrush to help you with off-page SEO	No
Collaboration	Yes, you can share content URLs with others, invite up to 10 members of your tea to collaborate with you on a project	Yes, you can only share content URL
Import & Export Data	Yes	Yes
Content Editor	Yes, you can use it to plan your content before writing or improve the performance of an already published page	No, but the content creator feature has functions that can handle this.
SEO Course	Yes, and it’s free. You learn how to use Surfer to plan, create, edit and optimize your content as a Pro. You also get certified at the end of the course	No
Free Trial	No	Yes
Refund Policy	7-day money-back guarantee	48-hour money-back guarantee
Pricing Plans	Basic ($59/month) Pro ($119/month) Business ($239/month) Custom Plan (contact sales team)	Basic ($39/month) Standard ($59/month) Advanced ($99/month)
Customer Support	Has an active Facebook community of 10K plus members where the Surfer team including the founder, Michael Suski is happy to help you. There are plenty of video tutorials and knowledge-based articles. You can email them and get a response within 24 hours	Has plenty of video tutorials and FAQs to help you. Also, you can shoot them an email and get a response within 24 hours
Website	Surferseo.com	WriterZen.net

What is Surfer SEO?

Surfer SEO is an all-in-one AI Content SEO tool that helps you plan, create, edit and optimize your content to rank on search engines. Michael Suski, a renowned SEO expert, founded this intelligent tool in 2017 with the aim of helping you outrank your competitors through the insights artificial intelligence provides. Surfer has advanced features like SERP Analyzer, Content Planner, Audit Tool. It boasts of a team of 30 developers and techies. Plus over 30,000 content and digital marketers trust Surfer to create and optimize their content.

Features of Surfer SEO 

Let’s dive into the features of Surfer for you to see what to expect from the tool.

1. Keyword Research Tool ( Keyword Surfer)

You can use it to check the search volume of your main keyword or also see other related keywords. This keyword research tool is available in 70 different languages and you can choose any location of your choice.

When you install the Chrome extension, it provides the following data for a target keyword directly from your browser:

• Monthly organic traffic of pages ranking on Google’s search results for a particular keyword 
• Their word count
• Number of times their main keyword appeared in the content 

When you scroll down, you will see an option to generate an outline using Surfer for the keyword you want to write about.

2. SERP Analyzer 

This is the engine of Surfer SEO. It analyzes pages ranking on Google for a particular keyword and provides a detailed insight on what to do and avoid to get your on-page optimization right. Enter the keyword you want to analyze, set a location, choose a language and click run SERP Analyzer. 

Surfer scans the over 50 pages ranking top for such keywords and provides insight which can be seen in the screenshot below.

First, you see a graph that tells you the word count your content should have to compete for positions 1-10. Also, Surfer lists and analyzes the 50 top pages that dominate the search result for that keyword.

You see the content score, backlink score, and option to exclude any of the pages in your analysis. There is also a shortcut to view the content outline, run an audit, paste HTML and take a screenshot for each of the pages. 

Let’s explore Surfer’s SERP Analyzer more and check out other features that matter.

Common backlinks: These are links that  all top-ranking pages acquired from the same website 

Prominent words & phrases: They are phrases and words that Google thinks are relevant and can influence the ranking of such pages.

Questions: What users ask about a particular keyword 

Popular phrases: Group of words that most users search before landing on most of the pages ranking for the target keyword

Common phrases: These are phrases are appear in all the pages ranking for a target keyword

Keywords: They are related keywords pages ranking for a target also rank for.

The idea is to know how and when to include each of the keywords or phrases the SERP analyzer provides in your content to optimize it for search engines.

3. Audit Tool

Use the audit tool to boost the ranking of your pages on search results. Enter your URL, keyword and click Run an Audit. Within seconds, Surfer collects data for that page, analyzes it against its competitors, and provides an insight into the performance of the page.

It shows you the content score for that page and compares it against the pages ranking on positions 1-10. Also, it shows missing backlinks which may affect the ranking of your page. Missing backlinks are websites linking to your competitors but not you.

So it’s up to you to work to acquire backlinks from such websites. Internal link structure is a ranking factor and the audit tool shows internal links on your page and that of your competitors. Here you check if they’re relevant to the page. The audit tool provides the following insights:

• NLPs in the content 
• Load time
• Time to byte 
• Partial & exact keyword
• Title & meta description length 
• Page structure 
• Word count 

4. Content Planner

Content planner helps you build clusters. Ranking for competitive terms requires you to create and write topic clusters to support the main topic.

When you enter the focus topic you want to write for, the content planner creates the clusters you should write, publish, and inter-link to boost your chances of ranking for the head term. 

5. Content Editor

You can use the content editor to plan your content before writing and also boost the on-page SEO of a page you have published already.

Enter the keyword you want to write and Surfer will analyze the top-ranking pages and return a structure your content should follow and that includes:

• Number of images 
• Word count 
• Number of paragraphs 
• The number of headings your content should have

The content editor has advanced options which you can use to enable the NLP, customize your content structure, and narrow it down to fit your needs.

For example, you can exclude social media pages like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter to ensure that your content structure captures only what your main competitors have done. 

There are suggested terms that influence the ranking of your competitors’ pages and therefore should be in your content. 

How does Surfer arrive at the suggested words and phrases that should be part of your content?

It uses NLPs to verify terms that influence ranking, its algorithm, and core keywords in your competitors’ pages. 

Below is a video on how to write SEO content with Surfer’s content editor

6. Content Writing

When you are done with creating a structure with the content editor, it’s time to write your content. The content editor has space to write your content, or connect with Google Docs or Jasper AI. Since Surfer integrates with Jasper AI  you can easily enable it and have the Jasper assistant write for you.

7. Collaboration

Surfer allows you to invite up to 10 members of your team to work with you. Also, you can share the link to your project with your colleagues without giving them access to your backend. 

8. Integration 

Working with other tools on Surfer is possible via integration. Jasper, a top AI writing assistant integrates with Surfer to help you write long and short-form content of different types and then optimize with Surfer.

WordPress and Google Docs also integrate with Surfer and you can optimize your content within these interfaces. 

In addition, Surfer recently partnered with Semrush, another superb SEO tool. The goal is to take your off-page SEO strategy to another level. Integrating Surfer with Semrush will help you understand the link-building strategy of your competitors. You can monitor their changes in rank for keywords and recent referring domains; this is to identify websites worth acquiring links from. 

9. Languages 

Surfer supports different languages for its features and below is the breakdown:

NLP Analysis: 4 languages ( English, Danish, Polish, Dutch)

Keyword Tool: 70 languages which include major languages like English, French, German, Spanish, Swedish, etc.

10. Customer Support 

Surfer SEO offers support on its active Facebook community of 10K plus Surfer users. Michael Suski, the founder of Surfer, and other friendly team members at Surfer are willing to help you.

There are plenty of tutorial videos and knowledge-based articles to help you resolve issues yourself.

Register for the free SEO course where you learn how to use Surfer like a pro. Of course, you get certified at the end if you pass the test. You can email the support team and get a response within 24 hours. 

Surfer Pricing Plans

Surfer SEO has 4 pricing plans:

1. Basic Plan: $59/month ( Best for personal use)

This plan is suitable if you’re an individual who manages a website or blog and wants to optimize your pages. It allows you to use the content editor 10 times per month, and run 20 audits per month. Also, you can access the NLPs for free ( first month only).

This means that the NLP feature won’t be available on your plan for the subsequent months and the implication is that you won’t have insights on core terms that influence the ranking of the keyword you want to write about. The content planner and SERP analyzer are included in this plan. 

2. Pro Plan: $119/month ( Best for freelance SEO content and copywriters)

The Pro Plan supports the NLP, Content Planner, and SERP Analyzer. It allows you to use the content editor&#