Whether you're a content editor for a large company, or run your own affiliate website, results with SEO driven content marketing really come down to writing and publishing high quality content at scale. Even if your content strategy is excellent, it will need to be put into practice in the form of published content online so that your audience can find you.
As SEOs and content marketers ourselves, we know that can be hard.
So here's a better, more efficient way to write and publish articles that can rank and draw organic traffic without having to invest in a large content team.
What you will learn
- How to scale your SEO powered content marketing with tons of AI generated articles that are optimized to rank in search engine results pages, with basic instructions
What is Surfer AI?
Surfer AI is a generative text software that uses natural language processing to write complete articles that are optimized for search engine results. It is designed to receive user instructions in the form of an article outline and a primary topic that it creates an article for, based on the top ranking pages for that topic.
Think of Surfer AI as an AI assisted content writer for your website that delivers search engine optimized content in the time it takes to make and drink a coffee.
Unless you're chugging them. Which you shouldn't be.
With Surfer AI, you are able to quickly generate drafts, optimize for search engine rankings, and publish articles with ease.
Surfer's AI articles are written by analyzing pages that are ranking well for the primary keyword you select, to ensure that the AI generated article is on par with your competitors.
Who is Surfer AI for?
Well, are you trying to rank on search engines?
Surfer AI is for content marketers and SEO's who want to create high quality articles that rank well in search engine results for their target keyword.
And want to do it quickly, and at scale.
Surfer AI is designed to provide a comprehensive SEO content writing solution for businesses of all sizes. That could be you writing content for your personal website, or a larger content cartel with millions of page views.
What can I do with Surfer AI?
Surfer AI can help you write search engine optimized articles based on content outlines and a primary topic that you provide. You can instruct the tool to write your article in several ways.
Select a target market
You can select the country you want your article to be optimized for. This is especially important because ranking pages for the same keyword sometimes differ by geography, so telling Surfer AI where to optimize is a good idea.
Choose tone of voice
You can select the tone of voice you want your article to be written in, to ensure that it matches your brand's personality and guidelines for content.
Edit article outlines
Article outlines are essential to covering relevant points in your content, and can be edited inside Surfer AI to guide the writing software's direction.
Select organic competitors
Surfer's AI algorithm will research and analyze the competitors you select to write your article to ensure that it is optimized for search engine rankings.
Generate high quality drafts
And of course, write a complete article for you that you can then adjust for your website before publishing.
As an AI powered writer, Surfer AI can streamline your article writing process to make it more efficient and 10x your output.
How is Surfer AI different from other AI content tools?
The main difference between Surfer AI and other AI generative tools is that Surfer AI can create complete high quality search engine optimized articles from scratch with minimal prompts.
Here are some more ways that Surfer AI is different to other AI content tools:
GPT 4 32k
Surfer AI uses the highest tier of the GPT model to process AI content enabling a higher quality of text with lower repetitions.
Content quality
Surfer AI employs a comprehensive approach to understanding why other pages rank for a given keyword and then relies on extracted insights to write content based on its analysis.
This level of detail means content can be effectively optimized for search engine rankings while still holding value for readers.
Search intent
The articles written by Surfer AI are meant to satisfy search intent, and not just generate a wall of text that covers related keywords for search engine visibility.
Article length
Surfer AI isn't restricted by word count like say, ChatGPT so you can use it to write complete articles. A word limit would defeat its purpose as a blogging tool for content writers.
Search engine optimized
The articles generated by Surfer AI include semantically relevant keywords for your targeted topic, unlike other tools that may generate content but still require work for search engine optimization. Because Surfer AI analyzes top ranking pages for your target keyword before creating an article, you receive content that is already favored by search engines.
Minimal Prompts
Surfer AI will write your blog post based on a primary keyword and the article outline you suggest so you don't have to worry about constantly feeding it information.
Algorithmic excellence
Surfer AI leverages natural language processing models to analyze the top SERPs, extracting reliable insights for content optimization. This data driven approach gives Surfer AI an edge over other AI content tools, as it provides more accurate information to help the writing process.
Flexibility
With Surfer AI, you can edit your content outlines and the tone of voice for your generated articles, as well as select your primary competitors. Other SEO writing tools don't offer the same level of convenience to adapt your articles.
SEO suite
Since Surfer AI includes Content Editor, you will have access to CE's keyword suggestions, and can add Surfer's keyword research tool to help you streamline every stage of the SEO workflow.
How to use Surfer AI
Surfer AI resides inside Surfer Content Editor which is a comprehensive content writing tool designed to streamline the process of keyword research and optimization, and SEO content creation.
Head over to Surfer Content Editor and ensure that you select the Write with AI tab to start writing articles with Surfer AI.
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Select your target keywords
This is the step where you will enter your main topic or keywords that your article is about. You can use the keyword research tool if you're not sure which keyword to pick. Follow these steps to start writing.
- Enter between 1-5 primary keywords
- Select your country and device preferences
- Click the Create button
Here's an example.
The Content Editor's interface will load on the next page where you will be invited to select settings for your content.
It should look like this.
A new 4 part window will walk you through the settings to choose for your article before it is written by Surfer AI. Your chosen keyword and geography will be on top.
Select your content format
Surfer AI will offer you three options to choose from.
Blog Post
Select this if you would like your content to be generated in a blog post format.
Product Roundup
Select this option if your article is a listicle on tools or products. For example, if you’re writing an article on “best books to learn about investing,” you may want to select a few and leave the rest for Surfer to pick up from analyzing the SERPs.
Single Product Review
Use this template if you want Surfer AI to write a review about something.
Select your tone of voice
Click on the dropdown to select from a bunch of voices for your content. This will tell Surfer AI how to approach your blog post and can help match your brand's personality. You also have the option of leaving it on Auto which will then tell Surfer AI to mimic the top SERP pages in voice and tonality.
Edit your outline
Surfer AI will generate an article outline in the next step by itself, but you can edit the outline to add your own talking points and guide the structure of your article. If you want to edit the outline, select the checkbox like I have.
Pick organic competitors
This setting allows you to select the top pages ranking for your keyword that you want your article to compete against. You will find that Surfer's algorithm has already selected the most relevant blog posts but you can make the final decision.
We recommend picking at least 5 organic competitors.
Avoiding AI content detection
We recommend keeping this setting off for the simple reason that Google embraces AI content as much as it does human content, as long as your articles provide value. Add to that, the questionable algorithms used by content detector tools that are often wrong, there's no real benefit to hiding AI generated content.
Leaving this setting on can sometimes force Surfer AI to use unnatural language and negatively affect your keyword optimization.
Click on the Create outline button at the bottom when you're happy with your settings.
This will then instruct Surfer AI to generate your article's outline, so you can have the chance to edit it before it is written.
Give it a couple of minutes and you will see a screen like this with an outline generated for your topic.
Review the AI generated outline and edit your article's headers until you're satisfied with the content structure.
Create your draft
When ready, click on the Let's write button. Surfer AI will then take into consideration all the your preferences and combine them with insights for your target topic to create SEO optimized content for your blog post.
And that's it. It shouldn't take more than 20 minutes for your article to be ready.
In a few minutes, you should see a fully optimized article, complete with the headers you chose, a short summary at the top and even FAQs to help you win the People Also Ask section in Google's search results.
Take a look.
Here's a snippet of what my article looks like along with the Content score.
You can see that Surfer AI wrote 1986 words for your blog post, which falls within the suggested range of 1766-2031 words, and achieved a content score of 89 inside the Content Editor. Additionally, Surfer AI added an AI-generated photo to enhance the visual appeal of your article. While your results may vary based on your settings and target keyword, this provides a solid foundation for your content.
Optimize your article for keywords
While it's entirely possible to publish the article Surfer AI generated for you, directly onto your website, we recommend spending some time editing the article to enhance on-page SEO factors and improve your chances of climbing the search rankings.
On the right panel, you will find a list of suggested keywords and phrases to insert in your article.
These are semantically relevant keywords for search engines to understand and categorize your website content correctly so you can rank better. The suggestions are arranged in order of importance, so the highest terms are more important than those below.
You can either add these keywords manually or use the Auto-Optimize feature to handle it for you.
Likewise, the Insert Internal Links feature allows you to automatically connect your content to other relevant pages on your site with a single click.
Edit your content with Surfy
Surfy is your AI powered editing assistant inside Content Editor.
It can speed up your editing process and aid subject research.
You can use Surfy for a number of tasks with simple, or detailed prompts:
- Adopt a different tone of voice
- Support your content with examples
- Elaborate on existing content, or trim it down
- Link to other articles
- Research from within the article
Just highlight a paragraph and select what you want it to do.
Rephrasing, for example.
Just select the paragraph or sentence you want to edit, and click on the Rephrase option.
Or a more detailed prompt asking for examples and internal links.
AI content on website
Here’s a snapshot of the content Surfy edited for me.
You can then accept the newly written content, or start over.
Cover relevant questions and topics
Inside the Outline tab in Content Editor, you will find a list of topics and questions for your content that have been extracted from Google's People Also Ask section, SERP competitors and our own insights.
It can be helpful to ensure that you didn't leave out anything important in your article. You can also use the displayed titles, headings and questions to help build an outline and cover talking points before you generate an article with Surfer AI
I like checking the Topics and Questions section to see if any of the suggestions make sense and could help me snag a People Also Ask question.
Fact check your content
Before you publish your article, ensure that you review it for facts, statistics and claims so you know that your content is 100% accurate. AI generated content can sometimes be inconsistent when it comes to facts and studies.
You may also want to remove any biases from your content, and make sure your claims and examples are accurate, and upto date.
There are several tools to check for AI hallucination, Google's fact checker being one of them.
Include a content brief
You can use the Notes section under the Brief tab to include your content brief for your content editor so that they can refer to it while editing the Surfer AI generated article rather than having to continually check for instructions.
To do so, click on the Customize gear icon with the blinking blue dot in the top right.
Scroll down to the Notes item in the left menu and paste your brief here for your writers.
You can also help you writers with references by including competitors that Surfer has identified for your target keyword. Just click on the Insert Competitors option.
This way, your writers understand the minimum quality of content you expect to compete against websites aiming to rank for the same search query. You can also add additional instructions in the Brief window like timelines and feedback.
Collaborate with content editors
Surfer Content Editor enables you to share your editing window with other users to streamline your content workflow.
This can be handy in a couple of scenarios.
- You can use Surfer AI to write your article and then hand it over to an editor or content writer to bring it up to your preferences by sharing the link with them
- You can cross collaborate across content teams while simultaneously editing and fact checking your content
To do so, click on the Share button on the top right.
Copy the link and send it to your writer. The Reset link is a good feature to have if you need to change writers and don't want your previous writer to still have access to your content.
You can also use Google Docs with Surfer's Content Editor as well as integrate with our Wordpress plugin.
Check for Plagiarism
When you're done editing your article, Surfer Content Editor offers you the option of checking your content for plagiarism. Surfer leverages advanced algorithms and natural language processing to examine content for originality, quality, and accuracy.
You can run a plagiarism check by clicking on the Mark as done check icon in the top right.
Click Scan content on the dialog box that appears.
Surfer will take a couple of seconds to scan your article for plagiarism and notify you of any issues.
If you're in the clear, you should see a notification like this in the right panel.
Once you're satisfied with how your article is looking, you can go ahead and publish it on your website.
Depending on how much additional information you want to add to your blog post, writing articles with Surfer AI can save you 20-80% of time you would normally spend in SEO content writing, from article outlines to fully completed drafts.
But what about search engine policies around AI generated articles?
What does Google say about Surfer AI?
Well, here's Google stance about using artificial intelligence in content for the web.
And here's a longer explanation from Google on AI content if you want one. Google doesn't care how you're creating content as long as it's not meant to manipulate search engines.
What does that mean?
Well, it's the same thing to hire a 100 writers or employ AI content tools, to churn out hundreds of low quality pages just to rank sites in search engines.
Instead, Google wants you to provide value with your content for the web. High quality content has long been crucial to search engine rankings and the inclusion of AI powered writing tools won't change this.
Focus on publishing helpful content that puts your reader first and demonstrates E-EAT principles - experience, expertise, authoritativeness and trust.
Cost of using Surfer AI versus hiring writers
In our study of content marketers, we found that on average, content writers charge 9 cents per word with the average article being 2253 words.
That's $208 per article.
In comparison, at $19 per article, Surfer AI is 10 times cheaper than hiring a human writer for the same content.
Possibly even more cheaper because you're not paying per word with Surfer AI.
While Surfer AI is not mean to be a replacement for your content team, being able to generate first drafts of your article at $19 per blog post means you will no longer need large content teams or budgets to continually create content at scale.
Especially when most content on the web doesn't reach enough eyeballs either due to competing websites, or low search volume.
Instead, you could write several drafts in a day with Surfer AI and spend the rest of the week editing and publishing them.
The potential content ROI with Surfer AI can help you allocate resources to other areas of your business.
Does Surfer Ai pass AI content detection tools?
Well, let's first address AI content detection.
Even though there are several tools that claim to accurately detect AI content, they've been proven to not always correctly assess AI vs human content. We've experienced this fairly often ourselves, even with 100% human content.
Since Google and Bing's embrace of AI generated content, AI detection may not even be a real thing anymore.
Since search engines only want us to focus on creating valuable content that helps readers, it doesn't matter how you write content.
You could write it yourself or use an SEO tool, and it will be treated equally as long as your content is informative and delivers value to readers.
The only reason you may want to detect AI content, is if you're paying a human writer per word and have a very specific need for human expertise. Even then, you can't wholly rely on AI detection tools.
In our opinion, you shouldn't worry too much about human versus AI generated text.
Key takeaways
- Surfer AI can help you write high quality articles that are optimized for search engine rankings in the time it takes to make and drink a coffee
- You can select the tone of voice, edit content outlines and select competitors to help Surfer AI write an article for your website
- Google only cares about high quality content that is meant to help readers, and does not consider whether a human or AI tool wrote the content
- On average, Surfer AI is 7 times cheaper than hiring human writers. It's definitely over 10x faster too
Conclusion
Having Surfer AI in your content arsenal can help you scale tremendously, without the associated challenges and expenses. An entire AI assisted content writing team that's only limited by the scope of your content strategy.
Surfer SEO also has a comprehensive suite of other SEO tools that can sync with your Google Search Console account, meaning you can can potentially go from content planning and keyword research to a fully optimized article in a matter of hours, instead of days or weeks.
