I’m a full-time blogger. Learning to use Surfer SEO and Jasper AI has been a game changer for me. While I’ve been optimizing blog posts for search since AOL said, “You’ve got mail”, I’ve never had access to data like this before.
If you’re unfamiliar with Surfer SEO and Jasper AI, they are both tools that use machine learning to help you optimize your content for search. I will show you how I use them both to ensure my blog posts are as search engine friendly as possible.
Jasper AI and Surfer SEO Overview
Surfer’s content editor analyzes the top 10 results for any keyword and provides suggestions for headings, word count, images, and NLP keywords to include in your article.
Jasper AI: Jasper is an AI writing assistant that can help you write better headlines, improve your word choice, and move you past writer’s block by suggesting topics and questions related to your article.
Jasper is the writing editor, and Surfer is the SEO content editor. I use both of them to help me make sure my blog posts are as search engine friendly as possible.
How to Use the Surfer SEO Keyword Research Tool
First, enter the keyword phrase and the country you want to research into the research bar. Then, find the section that says “KEYWORD RESEARCH HISTORY,” and click the keyword you entered. You’ll see your target and similar keywords with search volume information.
You can also select questions and get the search volume for each. Better than the keyword research tool, however, is Surfer SEO’s Content Planner.
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How to Use Surfer SEO Content Planner
The Surfer SEO content planner is where you’ll find the real magic of Surfer SEO. The content planner takes all of the guesswork out of creating search-engine-optimized content. Simply enter your target keyword, and Surfer will show you keyword clusters that you can use to create a page.
The idea of clusters is to group similar keywords that you can target with a single piece of content.
For example, let’s say I want to write a blog post about “how to blog.” Surfer SEO provided the following clusters that would each be their page on my blog.
- How to Start a Blog Tips
- How to Write a Blog
- How to Blog with WordPress
Each Surfer SEO cluster includes a difficulty score, based on the number of words in the cluster, the number of backlinks to pages targeting that cluster, and the number of referring domains. The difficulty score is a good way to gauge how hard it will be to rank for a given keyword.
Clicking on the pencil icon on any cluster will open a slider that allows me to move through each cluster, review competition scores, and select my topic.
Clicking on the content editor will take me to a page where I can start writing my blog post.
If I want to use Jasper, I log into Jasper, click on the Surfer icon at the top of the editor, and open the editor I just created.
How to Use Surfer SEO and Jasper AI
First, you’ll need to create an account with both Surfer SEO and Jasper AI. While they integrate, they are different tools created by different developers. My Jasper link will get you 10,000 words to start with for free.
Once you have determined your topic, you can let Jasper create a title and intro paragraph for you. Or, you can start typing and use the compose button to let Jasper write for you. Entering a title and content description in the brief, along with a tone of voice and target keyword will help Jasper stay on track as you write.
If you run into writer’s block or need help with ideas for your article, you can use Jasper’s brainstorm feature to get some ideas.
Jasper’s template library is robust and can be used for various content types. Simply select the template you want to use, and fill in the blanks with your information.
Commands are where Jasper shines. You can tell Jasper to create an outline, make a bullet-pointed list, or summarize a section.
As you type, you’ll notice your score changing in Surfer SEO. You don’t need to leave Jasper to see your score; just click on the Surfer icon at the top of the editor. Your score will increase as you begin to meet the goals of word count, headings, paragraphs, and images. The Natural Language Processing keywords (or NLP) will also appear, letting you know what topics you’ve covered and which ones you still need to target.
There’s much more to love about the Surfer SEO and Jasper AI integration, but we’ll save more for another post.