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Welcome to my Surfer Seo Vs Page Optimizer Pro comparison!
You and I all know that writing content without an on-page SEO optimization tool is kind of like getting lost in the vast Amazon rainforest without a map.
It's like being stuck in a maze of talking trees, hoping a parrot will fly by and give you directions, but all it does is squawk about its favorite snacks!
Using an on-page SEO tool is like having a magical compass that leads you straight to the treasure of top search rankings.
When it comes to these amazing content optimization tools, imagine having two superheroes on your side—Surfer SEO and Page Optimizer Pro!
I had the chance to try both of them and let me tell you about each tool and the good and not-so-good things about them.
If you're still looking for a great SEO tool, this comparison will help you choose the right one.
Throughout this review of Surfer SEO vs. Page Optimizer Pro, I will cover the following:
- A breakdown of each tool and its features
- Which type of individuals needs Surfer SEO and which would be better off with Page Optimizer Pro
- A detailed comparison of the two tools, including their pros and cons
- How does Surfer SEO's pricing compare with that of Page Optimizer Pro
Let's GO!
Surfer SEO Vs Page Optimizer Pro Overview
Surfer SEO
Who should use Surfer SEO
Beginner with little to no experience in SEO
Content Editor
Yes
Content Audit
Yes
Chrome Extension
Yes
Keyword Research
Yes
Serp Analyzer
Yes
Built-in AI Writer
Yes (Surfer AI)
Unlimited Page Optimization
No
Pricing
Starts at $89/month (annually)
PageOptimizer Pro (POP)
Who should use POP
Experienced SEO professional
Content Editor
Yes
Content Audit
Yes
Chrome Extension
Yes
Keyword Research
No
Serp Analyzer
No
Built-in AI Writer
Yes (POP AI Writer)
Unlimited Page Optimization
Team Plan
Pricing
Starts at $27/month
Here’s a Breakdown of My Surfer SEO Vs Page Optimizer Pro Comparison:
- Who Needs Which Tool?
- Pros and Cons
- A Breakdown of Surfer Seo Vs Page Optimizer Pro
- Pricing
Page Optimizer Pro Vs Surfer SEO? Which Tool Do I Need?
Well, tough question!
Both Surfer SEO and Page Optimizer Pro can significantly improve your content's quality and visibility on the SERP.
The right choice depends on your specific needs and preferences.
Ask yourself:
Do you need a tool with an easy-to-use interface that focuses on optimizing your content? If so, Surfer SEO might be the one for you.
Or, do you want a tool that offers more control in the content creation process, taking into account various factors like word count, headings, and keyword placement? In that case, Page Optimizer Pro could be the better option.
Get Surfer SEO if...
- You prefer a polished and visually appealing interface.
- You need a Content Planner tool for keyword clustering and SERP Analysis
- You are willing to pay more
- You just want an easy-to-use tool to optimize your content for on-page SEO
Get POP if...
- You want a tool that aligns with closer personal optimization preferences.
- you want more detailed keyword placement suggestions.
- You need recommendations for advanced SEO terms such as LSI terms, co-occurring phrases, Schema analysis, EAT factors and entity words.
- You are on a budget
Surfer SEO Pros and Cons
Pros:
Cons:
Page Optimizer Pro Pros and Cons
Provides a closer match to the user's personal optimization preferences.
Takes into account factors like word count, headings (H1, H2, H3), and keyword placement.
Offers recommendations for LSI (latent semantic indexing) terms, co-occurring phrases, and entity words.
Includes schema analysis and suggests mirroring top competitors' schemas.
Considers expertise, authority, and trust (EAT) factors.
Provides an itemized to-do list for optimization.
Allows the user to select variations for H1 and includes guidance for LSI implementation.
Pros:
Cons:
What is Surfer SEO?
Surfer SEO is an on-page optimization tool that helps you improve your website's ranking on search engines like Google.
With its artificial intelligence, Surfer SEO acts like a GPS, suggesting keywords for you to create content from scratch and update your existing content.
It also helps you research keywords, write and optimize content, and even check for plagiarism, just like a map guide helps you plan your route, find the best landmarks and avoid pitfalls.
With Surfer SEO's built-in outline builder, you can improve your page structure in minutes.
Surfer SEO Key Features Break Down
Content Editor
One of the coolest things about Surfer SEO is its content editor.
It analyzes the top-ranking pages for a given keyword and provides recommendations on:
- page structure
- word count
- what headings to use
- number of images,
- keyword variations to include
This is SUPER HELPFUL when you want to create well-optimized content that aligns with the search intent and ranking factors.
It analyzes your content and gives you a content score, so you can easily see if it's optimized or needs some improvements
Besides the user-friendly interface that is easy for beginners to use, one thing I love about Surfer's content editor feature is that as soon as you add the suggested keyword, the score indicating how well your content is optimized updates INSTANTLY.
Unlike POP, you don't have to reload the page to see the updated score
It also shows the highest and lowest scores on the search results page for your competitors. This helps you understand how tough or easy it is to compete with them.
Competitor Analysis
With the SERP analyzer feature, whenever you type in a specific keyword, Surfer SEO allows you to evaluate the competition by analyzing the top-ranking pages.
You can gain insights into the competitiveness of the niche, including word count, domain authority, content optimizing score of your competitors and more.
This helps you understand the playing field and make informed decisions.
Content Planner
One of the cool things about Surfer SEO that POP doesn't have is the free keyword research tool. You know when you want to write a supporting article to support your pillar page, but you're not sure what words to use?
Well, you can easily create your topic clusters with the help of Surfer's content planner feature
Imagine you're writing an article about "keyword cluster". You can type that keyword into Surfer SEO, and it will act like a content planner and show you lots of other related words and ideas.
For example, you'll see words like "keyword grouping," "topic cluster," and even "how to do keyword research."
These keywords give you more ideas for your SEO campaigns and help you become an expert on the topic.
And you can sort the keywords too!
You can see the most relevant ones or even sort them based on how many people search for them.
If you want some quick and easy wins, you can start with the keywords that are less popular or less difficult to use.
So, with Surfer SEO's keyword research feature, you can quickly find lots of great words and ideas for your articles.
Content Audit
According to Google's Search Quality Rater Guidelines, unmaintained/abandoned “old” websites or unmaintained and inaccurate/misleading content is a reason for a low Page Quality rating.
While updating old content may not be a lot of fun, it's super vital in improving your website's SEO performance.
And this is where the Content Audit feature comes into play.
The audit tool in Surfer SEO let analyze your published pages and compare them against the top-ranking pages.
It provides insights into areas that need improvement, such as keyword usage, page speed, headings, meta tags, and more. This helps you identify and address any on-page SEO issues.
AI-Powered Writer - Surfer AI
Following the rise of AI content creation, Surfer SEO also offers an AI-powered writing feature called "Surfer AI".
Surfer AI helps you outline your articles, fact-check the information, and optimize your content for search engines.
But, since it's a new tool, there might be a few bugs here and there. The good news is that Surfer, the company behind it, is well-known and will probably make it even better over time.
One thing to keep in mind is the price. It might be a bit on the expensive side ($29/article), especially if you're writing a lot of articles.
If you write a lot of content in a month, I would suggest considering alternatives like Koala Writer or Zimmwriter. Both of them are good and offer similar functionality at a much more affordable price.
Surfer SEO Chrome Extension And Integrations
With the Chrome Extension, you can seamlessly work with your preferred tools (Google Docs and WordPress) without having to log into your Surfer SEO account every time you work on your content.
Surfer SEO also integrates with Jasper (an AI writing software) and SemRush (a keyword research tool) for even more awesome SEO power!
It's like having a super team of three SEO superheroes working together to make your website the best it can be.
What Is Page Optimizer Pro?
Page Optimizer Pro (POP) is a powerful page optimization tool that helps improve the performance of website content for Google.
It offers a suite of tools designed to assist SEOs and content teams in creating, optimizing, and maintaining high-performing content with speed and accuracy.
POP is trusted by over 6,000 users and is suitable for a wide range of users, including writers and content teams, in-house SEOs, marketing agencies, affiliate SEOs, and freelance SEOs.
POP can do all of these things for you:
- Optimize important site pages
- Create SEO content briefs
- Monitor the performance of their work.
- Give you an update whenever your competitors update their content
POP uses data science to analyze and reverse engineer winning competitor pages to identify the most important on-page factors for ranking.
This scientific approach helps users create an optimized plan for their content, whether it's new content, content briefs, existing content optimization, or monitoring published content to maintain its ranking.
It analyzes factors such as search engine title, page title, subheadings, content, and more, and provides recommendations for improvement.
The tool also offers advanced features like analyzing Google NLPs, entity signals, and schema to help users enhance their content further.
Page Optimizer Pro Key Features Break Down
Full Control Setup
Unlike Surfer SEO, which will automatically choose the competitors for you right soon as you insert your keywords.
Page Optimizer Pro gives users two options to choose from.
The first option is called Pro Setup.
This is good for people who want Page Optimizer Pro to pick their competitors and important words for them. All you have to do is give POP your website and the keyword you want to target. Then, tell POP which location you want to target. POP will do the rest and pick the best competitors and important words for you.
The other option is called Custom Setup.
This is for people who want to control everything themselves. With this option, you can pick your own competitors and related keywords. Then, you can choose your own competitors from a list. You can also tell POP which location to target and add or remove important words for your page.
Keyword Optimization and On-Page Analysis
The On-page analysis feature provides recommendations and suggestions for optimizing your content.
It analyzes factors like:
- Keyword usage
- Keyword density
- Headings
- Subheadings
- Content length
...to ensure that the content is well-optimized for search engines and matches closer to the user's personal optimization preferences.
What makes Page Optimizer Pro different from the content editor of Surfer SEO is that it not only suggests keywords but also shows you where to put them in your writing (H1, H2, H3).
Page Optimizer Pro also goes one level further than Surfer SEO by analyzing things like schema, which is a way of organizing information so that search engines can understand it better.
It also considers factors like EEAT.
EEAT stands for Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness.
By considering EEAT, Page Optimizer Pro helps you create content that not only ranks well in search results but also builds trust with your readers. This can help you establish yourself as an authority in your field and attract more visitors to your website.
POP Watchdog
POP Watchdog helps protect the hard work you put into optimizing your website. It works by keeping an eye on your pages and letting you know if anything changes.
This could happen because your competitors made some changes or because Google updated their rules.
When Watchdog detects a change, it automatically compares your page with your competitors and sends you an alert so you can take action to keep your website optimized and performing well.
It's a great way to make sure all your hard work pays off and your website stays in top shape!
POP AI Writer
Like Surfer SEO, POP has released POP AI Writer, which is an AI writing tool that integrates the GPT-4 32k AI writing engine with a data-driven on-page optimization tool.
It can generate and optimize existing content, refresh, rewrite, and optimize content, and regenerate outputs section by section.
You can enter their main keyword and initiate the process, and POP AI Writer will generate titles, headings, and paragraphs.
You also have the option to either let POP AI generate the content or provide their own input.
In my experience, the generated headings have been accurate and effective, giving a solid structure to articles.
However, there is no option to download all the content, including titles, headings, and paragraphs, in one go.
I have a more detailed review of POP AI Writer, you can read it here!
Overall, POP AI Writer is a powerful tool that complements the content creation process, providing valuable assistance and speeding up the writing process.
Compared to Surfer AI, with POP AI Writer, you will have more control in the process, and it costs less to produce an article.
Chrome Extension
With the POP Chrome extension and secret key, you can use POP with WordPress and Google Docs and share it with your writers.
POP Let You Optimize Unlimited Webpages
With Page Optimizer Pro, you can optimize as many pages as you want (as long as you are on the team plan)!
Surfer SEO might limit the number of pages you can work on, but with POP, this is not the case.
This is great news whether you have a small website with only a few pages or a big website with lots of pages.
So you don't need to worry about running out of credits or not being able to optimize all your pages.
You can work on as many pages as you need to get your website looking and performing its best!
Page Optimizer Pro and Surfer SEO Pricing
Surfer SEO Pricing
Surfer SEO has updated their pricing plans since May 2023. Some people like it, some people don't.
Personally, I found the previous pricing plan better as it allowed me to use the content editor and content audit all in one go, without having to buy an add-on.
There are four pricing plans Essential, Advanced, Max, and Enterprise like the followings:
- The Essential plan: $69 per month (annually). You'll get 180 Content Editor credits per year and 2 organization seats.
- The Advanced plan: $149 per month (annually). You'll get 540 Content Editor credits per year and 5 organization seats.
- The Max plan: $249 per month (annually). You get 1080 Content Editor credits per year and 10 organization seats. All add-ons are included.
- The Enterprise plan is for large agencies and enterprises. You can contact sales to get a plan that fits your needs. You get a custom number of articles, unlimited organization seats, and a dedicated Customer Success Manager. All add-ons are included.
You can also pay as you go with Surfer AI credits. There are also add-ons you can buy to customize your Surfer experience. These include
- Grow Flow: $9 per month for each domain
- Audit: $49 per month for 100 per month
- Serp Analyzer: $29 per month for 100 per day
- White Label: $49 per month
- API: $29 per month
And rest assured that you can get your money back within 7 days if you're not happy with Surfer SEO.
Page Optimizer Pro Pricing
Compared to Surfer SEO, Page Optimizer Pro (POP) offers more affordable pricing plans.
There are three POP plans to choose from. Here are some things to know about the POP pricing plans:
- Basic plan costs $27 per month and is good for people who are just getting started. You get 20 POP Reports credits per month and access to POP AI Writer.
- Premium plan costs $38 per month and is good for people with a simple website. You get 40 POP Reports credits per month and access to POP AI Writer.
- Unlimited plan costs $490 per year and is best for high-traffic sites. You get unlimited POP Reports credits per month and access to POP AI Writer, POP EEAT, AI Writer, NLP, and Watchdog credits.
Page Optimizer Pro (POP) also offers a team plan that costs $1200 per year, which s 5 sub-account for your team members. This plan includes:
- 120 POP EEAT
- AI Writer
- NLP
- Watchdog credits per month
- Unlimited POP Reports credits per month
- Unlimited domains.
You can add an additional sub-account to this plan for $10 per month or $100 per year.
Alternatives To Surfer SEO And Page Optimizer Pro
While Surfer SEO And POP are indeed among the top on-page SEO optimization tools available, they are not the only options. There are several other alternatives to consider, such as:
- NeuronWriter
- Frase
- Scalenut
- Content Harmony
Final Thoughts: Are Surfer SEO And Page Optimizer Pro Worth The Money?
Yes, both Surfer SEO and Page Optimizer Pro are worth the money. I personally prefer Surfer SEO for its simplicity and beginner-friendly interface, but the winner really depends on what you need!
Surfer SEO is like a cool map guide that helps you find the best keywords and optimize your content easily. It's great if you want a tool with a polished look and suggestions for your writing.
Page Optimizer Pro, on the other hand, is like a friendly helper that listens to what you want and gives you personalized advice. It's perfect if you want more control and detailed optimization suggestions for your content.
So, if you need a tool with a user-friendly interface and suggestions for your writing, Surfer SEO is worth the money. And if you want more control and personalized advice, Page Optimizer Pro is worth it.
Both tools can make your website better, so choose the one that suits your needs the best!
Surfer SEO
Who should use Surfer SEO
Beginner with little to no experience in SEO
Content Editor
Yes
Content Audit
Yes
Chrome Extension
Yes
Keyword Research
Yes
Serp Analyzer
Yes
Built-in AI Writer
Yes (Surfer AI)
Unlimited Page Optimization
No
Pricing
Starts at $89/month (annually)
PageOptimizer Pro (POP)
Who should use POP
Experienced SEO professional
Content Editor
Yes
Content Audit
Yes
Chrome Extension
Yes
Keyword Research
No
Serp Analyzer
No
Built-in AI Writer
Yes (POP AI Writer)
Unlimited Page Optimization
Team Plan
Pricing
Starts at $27/month