Keyword Surfer Tool Review | Scripted

It's nearly impossible for web pages to get first-page search engine results without optimized content that includes the right target keywords. Choosing the right keywords makes it possible for search engines to find your content and recommend it to people who can benefit from your posts. Unfortunately, the best keyword research tools often cost a lot of money. Keyword Surfer gives you a free, quick way to research keywords that can contribute to your content marketing strategy.

What Is Keyword Surfer?

Keyword Surfer is a Chrome extension that you can download from the Chrome Web Store. Surfer SEO developed the extension to give writers, developers, and business owners an easy option for researching and discovering keywords for small websites. Surfer also has paid SEO tools that start at $49.20 per month.

When you add Keyword Surfer to your Chrome browser, you can use it to:

Find the search volume for specific queries
Discover keywords related to your search queries
Focus on searches by geographic area (a good option for improving local SEO)
Estimate traffic data related to keywords
Find web pages that get high rankings for your search queries

You won't get a lot of detail from Keyword Surfer results, but you can learn enough to start optimizing your pages.

Why You Might Choose Keyword Surfer for SEO Research

There's one very obvious reason to choose Keyword Surfer over other SEO research tools: it's free! If you own a small business or you want to bring more visitors to your professional blog, Keyword Surfer gives you the basic information you need to improve your site's visibility.

Keyword Surfer also makes research easy. You don't need much experience to get started. Basically, you just need to pretend you're searching for the content you plan to publish. For example, you might enter "Austin microgreens" to research keywords for your farm near Austin, Texas. The results from Keyword Surfer will tell you how many times people search for that term. It will also recommend related search items that might make your content easier for search engines to discover.

Ideally, you should use Keyword Surfer before you write content for a web page or blog post. It helps to have a general outline that you plan to follow, though. You need to know what topics you want to cover before Keyword Surfer can give you meaningful insight into your SEO strategy.

Reasons You Should Avoid Keyword Surfer

Keyword Surfer is a great Chrome extension. If you're serious about improving your content, though, it's not the right tool for you. Surfer SEO didn't develop Keyword Surfer to perform extensive keyword research. At best, the tool acts as a marketing tactic that the company can use to advertise its other services.

Reasons that website developers and content marketers should avoid Keyword Surfer include:

Its limited results, make it difficult to know how to create competitive content.
How it relies on you to enter every keyword before you can get results.
Its focus is on researching one keyword at a time instead of letting you research batches.

To make matters worse, the tool only works for certain areas. You can get decent results if you want to reach audiences in North America or Europe. But the tool does not have any information about local keywords in many African, South American, and Asian countries.

What Keyword Surfer Users Say About the Tool

"It's a free Google plugin that provides you with a lot of helpful keyword research data. It's not as powerful as ahref or semrush, but it's helpful to include it as part of your overall keyword research strategy. The recent update also allows you to view the word count for search results... Something that neither semrush or ahref offers." - Datis M, Director of Marketing

"I'm giving surfer 4 stars coz I really love using it. It's easy to use and there're no complications when using it. But please add more countries from Africa and Asia. Do that and I'll give 5 stars." -Foxie Hub

"It does NOT work in Amazon! Why not? Keywords Everywhere did. I want to see how many people are looking for a certain keyword in Amazon. Keywords was right there with the data. Surfer, nothing. Can you make that happen? Thx" -Jason Thompson

Alternatives to Keyword Surfer

If Keyword Surfer doesn't sound like the right tool for you, check out some of these Keyword Surfer alternatives.

Free Alternatives:

Keyword Planner- Google knows more about keywords than anyone else, so why not use its free Keyword Planner tool? It will help you find the right keywords for your organic and PPC marketing. You get the same information that Keyword Surfer gives you, plus suggested PPC bids, keyword competitiveness rankings, and an account that makes future research easier to manage.

Keyword Nowhere- Another free Chrome extension that does basic keyword research. Keyword Nowhere is very similar to Keyword Surfer. Only choose it if you want to target audiences in the U.S. or U.K.

Paid Alternatives:

Are you prepared to pay for better keyword research that will get your content noticed? Try these services:

SEMRush- SEMRush has multiple keyword research tools that can help you optimize on-page and social media content. The paid service also offers:

Site audits to improve your site's global ranking.
Position tracking for any keyword.
Content analysis tools that look beyond keyword optimization.
Tools for improving ads and PPC campaigns.

SEMRush does a great job, but you have to pay for the tools that you need to get the best results. The entry-level Pro plan costs $99 per month. A Guru plan costs $199 per month. If you have a marketing agency or larger business, you should get a Business account that costs $399 per month.

Moz Pro- Moz Pro offers several keyword research and content optimization tools that can have a huge impact on your rankings. As far as keyword research goes, you get tools similar to those from SEMRush. Moz is different, though, because it likes to focus on education and training. Members gain access to videos, case studies, and independent research that can make them more effective content marketers.

The Standard plan at Moz Pro costs $99 per month. It will work well for SMBs. If you need to manage more campaigns and keywords, upgrade to Moz Pro Medium, which costs $149 per month. Enterprise clients should sign up for the Premium Plan. For $599 per month, you get all the SEO tools you need.

Summary: The Pros and Cons of Keyword Surfer

Pros:

Free option for basic keyword research
Easy to use
Gives you information about search volume
Recommends related keywords for your content
Focuses on local keyword optimization

Cons:

Only has local keyword information for a handful of countries
It doesn't offer a dashboard that lets you track keyword performance over time
Only comes as a Chrome extension
You get what you pay for

Keyword Research for You

SEO research tools can make your content marketing campaigns much more successful. Research, however, doesn't increase your website's traffic or convert more visitors. Before you can reach goals that matter, you need content written by professionals who know how to combine keyword research with compelling information.

Cruise Control gives you the easiest, most effective way to reach your KPIs. When you become a Scripted Cruise Control client, you get:

A dedicated manager who monitors your campaign and works with top writers with experience in your industry.
Blog ideas from our Platinum-level writers.
A team of dedicated writers that can follow your style guide, mimic your brand voice, and take your content to the next level.
Analytics tracking that keeps your campaign heading in the right direction.
Regular reviews that show you how Cruise Control has benefited your website and business.

You don't have to spend a lot of money hiring a marketing agency or putting together your own content marketing department. Cruise Control provides all the services you could need to reach your audience with compelling content.

Learn More About Writing Services With Scripted

Keyword Surfer is a decent tool, but it only gives you shallow information and forces you to do a lot of work. Do you want to spend your time researching keywords and writing blog posts? Or do you want to focus your energy on managing your business, developing relationships with clients, and finding new sources of revenue?

Schedule a consultation with a Cruise Control representative so you can learn more about how Scripted's managed services program has helped other companies meet their content marketing goals.

Published by Ciara Antolini on Monday, February 14, 2022 in Marketing Agencies, Tool Review, Tools, Tools Reviews.