Surfer SEO vs MarketMuse : General Overview
Key Differences Between The Two:
Surfer SEO is like a budget-friendly option. It’s straightforward to use and covers all the basics you need for researching, planning, writing, and optimizing your content.
MarketMuse, on the other hand, is pricier but offers more fancy features. It gives you personalized scores, recommendations, and more detailed topic suggestions. It also helps with managing your content and has tools for collaborating with others.
If you’re on a tight budget and just need the basics, Surfer SEO is your pick. But if you’re willing to splurge a bit for extra bells and whistles and you have a bigger team, MarketMuse might be worth the investment.
Your choice depends on what you can afford, the size of your business, and what features you really need. Let me get into the details below:-
1. Surfer SEO
Surfer SEO is a tool that helps you improve your website’s visibility on search engines like Google.
It does this by analyzing what shows up when people search for certain things and comparing it to your competitors’ results. This way, you can see what’s working well for them and use that information to make your content better.
It offers different features, like Keyword Surfer, which helps you analyze keywords directly from Google searches, a SERP Analyzer that looks at many different factors from your competitors’ websites, and a Content Editor, that helps you put all this information into practice when you’re writing.
Depending on which plan you choose, you’ll have different daily limits on how much you can use these features.
The higher-tier plans also include extra stuff like Natural Language Processing (NLP) research to better understand page sentiment, white-label reports for clients, and live chat support for help when you need it.
2. MarketMuse
MarketMuse is a tool that helps you create better content for your website by using artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze what’s already out there and suggest improvements.
It gives you detailed content briefs that include things like the number of words your article should be, what subheadings to use, and which keywords to include.
One cool thing it does is give you a “Personalized Difficulty Score” for each topic you write about. This score tells you how well you’re covering the subject compared to your competitors, so you know where to focus your efforts.
It also helps with competitive analysis, finding opportunities for high-performing pages, and creating link-building plans. After you’ve written your content, MarketMuse will even give you a score to show you how well it compares to the competition.
There are different packages you can choose from, depending on how much you want to use the tool and how many features you need.
The more you pay, the more features you get, like more monthly inquiries, more analyzed pages, and more credits for additional studies.
Overall, MarketMuse is a comprehensive tool for improving your website’s content, but it could be more pricier than some other options.
Content Optimization: Surfer SEO vs MarketMuse
You already know that content optimization is super important for making sure your website’s content is top-notch and gets noticed by search engines. Two tools that can help with this are Surfer SEO and MarketMuse.
1. Surfer SEO
Surfer SEO is all about analyzing keywords. It gives you a bunch of info about which keywords are likely to make your content rank higher in search results. So, if you want to write an article about something, Surfer SEO helps you figure out the best keywords to use.
2. MarketMuse
MarketMuse, on the other hand, takes a broader approach. It looks at what topics are popular with your audience and helps you create content around those topics. It’s like having a guide who knows what people are interested in and helps you write about it.
Imagine you want to write an article about “SEO trends for small businesses.” With Surfer SEO, you’ll figure out the best keywords to use for that topic. But with MarketMuse, you’d also find related topics that people are interested in, like “machine learning for SEO.”
Verdict
Both tools are great for improving your website’s content, but they have different focuses. Surfer SEO is more about keywords, while MarketMuse looks at the bigger picture of what topics people care about.
Before you pick a tool, think about what you need most. Are you focused on keywords, or do you want a broader view of what topics to write about? That’ll help you decide which tool is right for you.
Keyword Research and Analysis: Surfer SEO vs MarketMuse
In your SEO journey, you must have realized the golden rule of Keyword research and analysis, and both Surfer SEO and MarketMuse are the best tools for that.
But which is better is the question here. We have used both, and thus, based on our judgment, we will tell you which is better.
1. Surfer SEO
Surfer SEO looks at keywords that get a lot of traffic and checks how hard it is to rank for them.
They use something called “Surfer Power” to figure out how tough it is to rank for a keyword, considering things like how many people search for it and how many other websites link to it. Then, they give you tips on how to use these keywords in your content to improve it.
2. MarketMuse
MarketMuse does things a bit differently. Instead of just examining keyword difficulty, it looks at how words and phrases relate to each other. It uses fancy tech like AI and a model called LDA to figure out which topics are related to your search query.
MarketMuse’s approach might seem fancier because it focuses on how topics fit together, which is how Google’s search engine works nowadays. But Surfer SEO is still super helpful because it gives you specific advice based on real data.
Verdict
Surfer SEO is great if you want an easy way to see info about keywords. They show you charts and graphs that make it simple to understand things like how many people are searching for a keyword and what they’re looking for.
Plus, their “Content Editor” makes it easy to improve your content right there on their platform.
MarketMuse’s “Competitive Landscape” feature is cool because it shows you not just which keywords your competitors are using but also how they group them into topics. It’s like solving a puzzle where each keyword is a piece, and MarketMuse helps you see the big picture.
So, if you want to focus on keywords and get clear advice, Surfer SEO might be your pick. But if you’re into seeing how keywords fit into bigger topics, MarketMuse could be more your style.
Application and User Interface (UI): Surfer SEO vs MarketMuse
MarketMuse and Surfer SEO both have easy-to-use interfaces that help users navigate through different features and tools effortlessly.
1. MarketMuse
In MarketMuse, you’ll find a menu on the left side of the screen and another one at the top. These menus offer various options like research, compete, optimize, questions, and connect.
Each option sets the editor to focus on different tasks. For example, the research option lets you type in a topic or keyword, and MarketMuse shows related topics and keyword clusters.
The complete option gives insights into what your competitors are doing, and the optimize option suggests ways to improve your content.
2. Surfer SEO
Surfer SEO’s interface is similar, with a menu on the left where you can access main tools like the content editor, content planner, SERP analyzer, and keyword research tool.
For example, if you choose the content editor, you can input your keywords and choose a location on search engine results pages (SERPs).
Then, Surfer analyzes the top-ranking pages on Google and gives you guidelines on how to structure and write your content.
Verdict
Both interfaces are user-friendly and offer helpful features to optimize web pages for SEO. Whether you’re using MarketMuse or Surfer SEO, you’ll find it easy to navigate and use the tools to improve your content.
Natural Language Generation Techniques: Surfer SEO vs MarketMuse
Content creators and marketers are always looking for ways to work faster and smarter, and one tool that helps with this is natural language generation (NLG). NLG is a type of AI technology that analyzes data and information from different sources to create content for websites and blogs.
Both MarketMuse and Surfer SEO offer NLG, but they do it in different ways.
MarketMuse integrates NLG into its platform, especially in topic modeling. This means it’s built into the platform’s core. On the other hand, Surfer SEO uses NLG through external APIs, which means it pulls in NLG capabilities from other sources.
MarketMuse has some advantages over Surfer SEO because it can analyze entire web pages or individual pages, gather information from various sources, and use machine learning to ensure the content flows well.
However, MarketMuse only supports English and Spanish, while Surfer SEO supports more languages, such as Danish, Dutch, and Polish.
When it comes to generating content, both MarketMuse and Surfer SEO can automatically create titles, subheadings, and even paragraphs using AI.
MarketMuse pulls data from places like Google and Wikipedia to create summaries that can be used in blog posts or web pages. Surfer SEO’s AI outline generator also creates outlines for articles, including titles, subheadings, and unique paragraphs.
However, MarketMuse goes a step further by providing detailed content briefs that cover all aspects of a topic. These briefs advise on how to present information for better SEO and even generate full drafts of articles. Surfer SEO’s content outlines are simpler in comparison.
Verdict
In summary, both MarketMuse and Surfer SEO use NLG to help with content creation. Still, MarketMuse offers more detailed and structured content briefs, making it a powerful tool for content creators looking to work efficiently.
Integrations: Surfer SEO vs MarketMuse
When it comes to connecting with other helpful content marketing tools, Surfer SEO has an edge over MarketMuse because it offers more integration options.
MarketMuse has a Google Docs add-on and a WordPress plugin, which are handy but limited compared to Surfer SEO.
Surfer SEO provides a free Chrome extension that makes it easy to use with Jasper AI, WordPress, and Google Docs. Plus, it lets you link up with SEMRush to check out your competitors’ backlinks.
These integrations allow you to tweak, update, or improve your performance more effectively.
Pricing and Value For Money
When you’re considering using Surfer SEO, you have a few options to choose from based on your needs and budget. To make it easier for you to go through them, I will go through them.
1. Surfer SEO
- Essential Plan ($89 per month):
This is the plan I started with when I first used Surfer SEO. It’s perfect for small businesses or freelancers who are just dipping their toes into SEO.
With this plan, you get access to the Content Editor tool, which helps you write and optimize articles. You can create up to 30 articles and collaborate with two team members.
- Scale Plan ($129 per month):
As my business grew, I found that I needed more capabilities to handle larger projects. That’s when I upgraded to the Scale plan.
Priced at $129 per month, this plan is ideal for mid-sized agencies or marketing teams. It includes all the features of the Essential plan, but you can create up to 100 articles and invite up to five team members for collaboration. Plus, you get access to an audit feature.
- Scale AI Plan ($219 per month):
If you’re looking to take your content creation to the next level with AI technology, the Scale AI plan might be for you. At $219 per month, this plan builds on the features of the Scale plan by allowing you to generate up to 10 AI-driven articles ready to rank.
You also receive personalized onboarding support to help you make the most of AI in your SEO strategy.
- Enterprise Plan ($399 per month):
For larger agencies or marketing departments with advanced needs, the Enterprise plan offers the most comprehensive set of features.
Starting at $399 per month (billed annually), this plan includes everything from the previous plans, as well as custom team sizes, priority support, SERP Analyzer, White Label, and API access. It’s the ultimate package for extensive SEO campaigns.
Each plan offers different features and capabilities to suit your business needs and budget. So, depending on where you are in your SEO journey and what you’re looking to achieve, there’s a Surfer SEO plan that’s right for you.
2. MarketMuse Pricing:
- Free plan
Free Plan (Starts with a 7-day free trial, then $0/month): This is the plan I started with when I first tried out the service. It’s perfect for users who are just starting out and want to get a feel for the platform.
With the free plan, you get limited page-level insights, one user account, and 10 queries per month. The best part is that you don’t need to provide your credit card information to get started.
- Standard Plan ($149/month or $1,500/year):
After I got the hang of things and started publishing more content, I upgraded to the Standard plan. Priced at $149 per month or $1,500 per year, this plan offers full page-level insights, 1 user account, and 100 queries per month.
It’s great for individuals who publish a few pieces of content each month and want more advanced features.
- Team Plan ($399/month or $3,900/year):
As my business grew and I started working with a team, I found the Team plan to be the perfect fit. At $399 per month or $3,900 per year, this plan offers full page-level insights, 3 user accounts, and unlimited queries and briefs.
It’s ideal for agencies and teams looking to ramp up their content output and collaborate more efficiently.
- Premium Plan (Custom pricing with annual agreements):
The Premium plan is for larger teams with extensive content management needs. This plan offers page and site-level insights, inventory and topic tracking, personalized metrics, and more.
Since the pricing is custom and requires an annual agreement, it’s best suited for large teams that are serious about optimizing their content strategy.
Quick Links:-
- 7 Simple Ways To Improve Your SEO
- How to Make Use of AI to Perfect Your Writing Instantly
- Unlocking the Power of ChatGPT for SEO
Conclusion: Surfer SEO vs MarketMuse
Thus, MarketMuse offers more features and is a comprehensive software solution, but it’s pricier. On the other hand, Surfer SEO is more affordable and easier to use, with its main highlight being the SERP analyzer.
If you’re a large enterprise looking for a complete content solution, MarketMuse might be the better choice. But if you’re looking for a budget-friendly option that still packs a punch in SEO, Surfer SEO could be the way to go.
Ultimately, your decision should depend on your content strategy and budget. Do let me know which one you selected or which one you are using for your SEO needs. I would love to know about them.
