Step 3: How to fix your existing content

1. Content goes stale fast. The amount of all content on the internet doubles every month (and that includes your competitors)

2. Fresh content = better rankings and better AI visibility. Up-to-date, comprehensive content ranks best and gets included in LLMs like ChatGPT

3. Google is consistently releasing updates to it’s algorithms

4. Refreshing is easier and less time-consuming than writing from scratch—and you may already have content that you can capitalize on

All this makes continuous optimization (or re-optimization) a must, because once created content becomes outdated, it quickly loses value and can even hurt your domain in the long run.
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• You will get weekly recommendations on best articles to refresh and rank drop notifications to spot content that's falling behind live

• A 5-step workflow to fix what’s underperforming

• Your domain will have fresh content that easily will keep up with any competitor and Google algorithm changes

• By keeping your content comprehensive and up-to-date, you significantly increase your chances of being mentioned in AI overviews and LLMs

1. Google Search Console connected to Surfer

2. Content Audit in Sites

3. Content Editor

In general, content should be re-optimized every 3 to 6 months. This can vary based on the industry, as well as the topic’s trendiness.

To make things easier, check our weekly refresh recommendations to keep up with the best reoptimizing opportunities.

1. If you want to remove content from the list:
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   1. Click on the checkbox on the left side of any content you want to remove from the list. You can remove content in bulk. Select more articles by marking all desired checkboxes.

   2. When the checkbox is marked, a page is selected. You will see a additional context popup at the bottom of the screen with information on how many pages you currently selected, as well as a button “Remove selected”.

   3. You can remove content from the list by clicking Remove selected.
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2. If you want to add content to your audit:
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   1. Click + Add Pages above the table to open a context window with a list of all available pages. Here you will see only URL, traffic and impressions from Google Search Console for last 30 days. List is ordered according to the traffic, from the highest to the lowest.
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      Remember, page must be indexed an have minimal traffic within the last 30 days to appear on the list (at least one visit). Pages to choose from are limited to your top 20,000 pages.

   2. Select page(s) you want to add by marking a checkbox on the left side of the chosen URL. You can also use search bar to find specific URLs or paths, e.g., if you are looking for content with word blog in URL, simply type blog into the search bar.
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      Each Surfer organization has a page limit per its pricing plan. The limit is shared between all domains added to your organization. If you have the Essential plan, you have a limit of 100 page slots. If you have the Scale plan, you have a limit of 500 page slots. You can use all 500 in one Site or split it between multiple Sites, e.g., Site A can get 200 pages, Site B can get 50 pages, and Site C can use the remaining 250 pages. The same page distribution concept applies to both plans.

   3. When the checkbox is marked, a page is selected. You will see an additional context pop-up at the bottom of the screen with information on how many pages you currently selected, as well as a button Add selected.

   4. You can add content to your list by clicking Add selected.

   5. Adding content to the list will trigger analysis of the added content. This may take a few minutes.

1. This is your shortcut to pages that’ll move the needle fastest. You'll find two types of recommendations inside: Optimize and Content Ideas.
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   ​Optimize shows you content with relatively low Content Score and Position that can be easily improved.
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   ​Content Ideas shows you article ideas that, based on their Search Volue, Keyword Difficulty, popularity and how well it's parent cluster is already covered, are recommended to cover first.
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   To better understand the potential of each recommendation, you can check their Score (last column in the table).

   

You’ll also get these recommendations weekly via email—just whitelist [email protected] to make sure the emails reach you.

This opens the article in Content Editor, ready to be reoptimized.

Not sure which page to pick? Here are 3 easy tactics:

1. Start with Recommendations that have the highest Score.

2. When in Pages view, use Filters, to find content that is on positions 11-20 and sort content by Content Score from lowest to highest. These are usually fairly easy to re-optimize and can earn you a quick jump into top 10. If you don’t have content on positions 11-20 expand it to 11-30.

3. When in Pages view, use Filters, to find content that is on position 6-10 and sort content by Content Score from lowest to highest. If you can find content that has Content Score lower than 65-70, at the top it’s worth to consider re-optimization to jump into top 5.

1. Adjust competitors in Customize Settings (ditch big, unmovable sites like Wikipedia or YouTube, keep relevant ones).
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   Our algorithm always picks (by the quality of their content) top 10 ranking URLs for your article’s primary keyword but these may sometimes include pages you do not want to compete with (like Wikipedia). In that case, uncheck them.
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   You can add different competitors by reversing this process and manually checking any empty checkbox on the competitor list.
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   ​Remember: While we allow for manual competitor choice, we do not recommend it. If you still decide to do it, focus on pages that have high Content Score (ideally, 67 or higher). Your guidelines will be bechmarked off of the competitor list; if you pick poor content, you will receive poor recommendations.
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   ​If you’re optimizing content different than a blog article (e.g. a landing page or product category), try choosing competitors with the same content format and a high Content Score (ideally, 67 or higher)—this way, the guidelines will be more relevant to the format you picked.
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2. Adjust Terms in Settings (add/remove if needed).

1. Here are some general tips:

   • Don’t obsess over hitting 100. Aim to score 10–20 points higher than your top competitors.

   • Focus on the most important terms first—they will always be at the top of the list.

   • Use Auto-Optimize to instantly insert missing terms. You'll find it in the Write and Optimize step of the Workflow tab.

   • Use Boost Coverage button in the Explore missing Facts section to automatically add missing facts to your content.

Need help writing?

Use Surfy in the Editor—type /ask or hit the button to rewrite, expand, format, or add a table. You can also ask Surfy research questions, like “What do my competitors say about this issue?” and then ask him to add the most interesting parts into your article. Here’s a list of the most useful Surfy prompts →

• Start with the Write and Optimize step in Workflow tab. Use Auto-Optimize to automatically insert missing terms from the Guidelines (you can also do it manually or through Surfy, but Auto-Optimize is the fastest and most effective).
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• Next, click on Explore missing Facts. Our research shows that this is the factor that correlates the most with SERP positions and AI citations, aside from entities. In simple words: the more comprehensive content is, the more entities you can naturally cover and the more value Google and AI tools like ChatGPT see in it.
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  You can add missing facts manually, through Surfy, or by clicking the Boost Coverage button to add them automatically in bulk.

• (Optional) To add extra value, add one or two paragraphs with your unique point of view or experience related to the article’s topic.
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  As a general rule, the more trustworthy, expert, novel, and personalized your articles will be, the better they will do in SERPs, and sharing your personal experience is always the quickest way to achieve that.

Use Surfer’s built-in Auto-Internal Links feature to automatically insert up to 10 most relevant and semantically related URLs into your article (GSC integration is required). You can also follow the manual workflow below:

• Make a list of related articles - pay attention to the topics they are covering and if they are from the same content pillars and clusters.

• Find words and phrases in the article that are related to the article you want to link to. Usually, it’s related to the main keyword other article is targeting, but you don’t need to use exact mach keywords.

Diversify anchor texts using synonyms, sentences, and keyword variations. Or automate it with Internal Linking feature ;)

• Check surroundings of this words and phrases. Paragraph should be closely related to the article you are linking to.

• Make adjustments in the paragraph if needed.

• Add the links. Remember to add the most important internal link in the first paragraph of your article.
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  There’s no exact number of internal links you should add. The longer the article, the more links you can place but remember: too many URLs in unnatural placements can harm User Experience (UX) and readability. Try to make all links as relevant, natural, and contextual as possible.

Note: You can mix both approaches or use just one.

Add a few images (+3 per article) to your article and make sure to include targeted keywords in alt texts. (hint: our AI image generation will do it for you ;) )

• Use custom, unique visuals if you have them, or generate via Surfy. You can also use our Pixabay integration but keep in mind, that Google prefers unique, original images over stock images.

• Give images descriptive file names. Make sure to include the keyword in the file name.

• Write and add descriptive alt text to each image. Make sure to include the targeted keyword in the alt text.

Note: you can generate up to 3 high-quality images in manual Content Editors and up to 5 in Surfer AI. 3. Give images descriptive file names. Make sure to include keyword in file name.