Getting a Content Score of 70 or higher is a solid, realistic goal for most articles. While it’s technically possible to reach a perfect score of 100, that shouldn’t be your main focus. Instead, aim for a score that’s 10–20 points higher than your main competitors. This gives you a strong SEO edge without spending excessive time tweaking every detail.
If your Content Score isn’t moving as expected, consider checking:
Content Structure: Make sure your content covers the recommended headings, subtopics, and paragraph lengths. The structure can greatly impact your score.
Guidelines Fit: The guidelines in Surfer are based on top-ranking pages. If you’re missing these key elements - like headings or recommended keyword usage - it can hold your score back.
Competitor Selection: Double-check that your chosen competitors are serving the same search intent as your article. Avoid big outliers (for example, if the average article length is 1,000 words but one competitor has 9,000 words, it can skew your optimization guidelines).
TIP: Don’t stress about getting a perfect score! Focus on clear, helpful content that meets your readers’ needs, because search results change constantly. Think of it like the Pareto rule: 20% of effort can get you 80% of the results!
Content Score considers more factors than the ones listed in the Audit or the Content Editor, so it's not enough to only apply Surfer's suggestions. Generally speaking, Content Score grades all the good SEO practices like putting the exact keywords in h1, using NLPs, adding partial keywords, and having keywords above the fold. Turning the boxes green is essential, but it is crucial to apply your suggestions properly according to good SEO practices; otherwise, it can cause your score to drop.
As a tip, you can look at the Outline Builder feature within Content Editor, which consists of unique headings and paragraphs based on what your competitors publish. From there, copy-paste the content and personalize your work to finish more efficiently.
Any change in the customization panel will affect the maximum possible score, including changing competitors, excluding keywords, changing structure, etc.
That is because the guidelines and the maximum score are calculated based on the original draft before adding any customizations to it. By default, we are simply selecting the most optimized pages within the top 10 pages on your SERP location for your keyword(s) that should lead you to create a piece of content similar to your competitors that already rank high in Google. If you don't have to change your Guidelines, which are accurate for you, your content will be 100% relevant to what is already in SERPs' top 10.
That does not necessarily mean that your content written based on the customized draft is irrelevant. You may sometimes need to customize, for example, if you're looking for a competitor with the same search intent as yours.
However, if you notice that the whole SERP is full of competitors that do not match the search intent, you may need to reconsider your targeted keyword.
Here's what you can do:
Could you change your competitors to match your intent better? Although your relevancy may drop slightly (you're drifting away from Surfer's accurate suggestions), it should still be of great value.
Try searching for a more relevant keyword(s) to cover in your content – maybe you're just trying to rank for the wrong keyword, and your relevance can be higher while choosing another keyword.
A high Content Score doesn’t necessarily mean your content is over-optimized. Surfer’s guidelines are designed around the real practices of top-ranking pages, so even if your score is high, it reflects what’s actually working in the SERPs.
However, it’s essential to:
Make sure your selected competitors serve the same search intent as your article. If they don’t, the keyword usage recommendations may not be relevant to your goals.
Avoid including big outlier competitors (for example, if most competitors have around 1,000 words but one has 9,000, it can lead to unrealistic suggestions).
Ultimately, if your content feels natural and user-friendly, even at a high Content Score, it’s likely in a good place. Aim for clarity and relevance rather than forcing every keyword.
Do you still need help? You can contact us at [email protected] or via live chat by clicking the icon in the bottom-right corner.
