What is WordPress Plugin?
Surfer's WordPress plugin works two ways and allows you to export your content:
– directly from Content Editor to WordPress posts – either to an existing one or a new draft
– from WordPress posts to Surfer by creating a new content editor
The plugin is free to download, but you can fully use it only with an active Surfer subscription (starting from Essential).
For now, by default, you can use the plugin only to export content to your WordPress posts. However, with more advanced programming knowledge, you can also use our Filter method to be able to update not only posts but also pages.
Your page can only be connected to one Surfer account at a time, but your Surfer account can be connected to multiple WordPress pages.
⚠️ The plugin fully supports two basic WordPress editors/builders for now: Gutenberg and Classic Editor. If you use any other editor or a WordPress plugin/theme that changes the Gutenberg or Classic editor structure (especially by adding blocks), our plugin may work, however we cannot promise full functionality.
How to install the plugin?
Go to your WordPress, and in the left bar, click on "Plugins" » "Add new."
Add “Surfer” to the search bar on the right.
Click “Install now” » “Activate.”
You will be directed to the plugins list. Now look for a Surfer tab in the left bar, and click on it.
Log in and integrate with Surfer.
Et voila! You’re connected, and now you can start exporting content!
How to export the content from a content editor to WordPress?
To export the post from a content editor to WordPress:
Click the "Export" button with the WordPress icon in the top right corner of the Content Editor.
Choose the domain to which you want to export data if you have more than one available.
Choose if you want to create a new post or update an existing one.
Check if all data is correct.
Click the "Create a new Post" or "Update selected Post" button, depending on which option you choose, and your content will be visible in WordPress.
When you create a new post in WordPress, it will be visible as a draft, so you need to go to your WordPress to publish it.
When you update an existing post, it doesn't matter if it's a draft or published in WordPress; the status stays the same, so when the post is published, we update it, and the changes will be visible as published straight away.
How to export a WordPress post to Surfer?
To export the WordPress post to a new content editor:
Open the WordPress post you want to export to Surfer.
Go to the right side of the editor, and find the option "Optimize."
You now need to choose the settings of the content editor that will be created. Type in the keyword(s) – this is the keyword(s) that you want your content to rank for in Google. Also, choose the location that you want to rank for with this keyword(s).
Click the "Create CE for 1 credit" button.
You will see a notification asking you to confirm if you agree for 1 Content Editor credit to be charged (one exported post means 1 content editor credit taken from your pool in Surfer).
That's it! Once the export is confirmed, you can go to Surfer by choosing the "Edit in Surfer" option. The editor should also be visible on the all editors' list directly in Surfer (just refresh Surfer first).
Your content in the WordPress post changed, and you want to update the created content editor? It's simple! Just go to your WordPress post, choose the option "Update the CE," and the newest version of the post will be updated in the content editor you previously created (no credit charged for the update)!
How to disconnect the plugin?
You can close the connection in WordPress or in Surfer.
in WordPress
Go to your WordPress admin.
Choose "Surfer" from the menu on the left.
Click "Disconnect."
in Surfer
Go to the plugin page in Surfer.
Find the domain that you want to disconnect.
Click "Disconnect" next to the domain name.
Keyword Research Module
The Keyword Research module allows you to get keyword suggestions. All you need to do is to put a keyword that you want to find similar keywords for, the location that you want to rank for, and click on the purple "Generate Keyword Ideas" button.
To start using it, just open your WordPress post, and it will be available in the column on the right:
🔍 – search volume per month
📁 – similarity score – tells you how similar are the SERPs of your keyword compared to the one from the list.
💲– cost per click for Google Adwords campaigns
No results – it means that we do not have data for this keyword, and the best solution would be to try with another one.
Track your performance with Google Search Integration
Now you can track your posts' performance directly in WordPress, thanks to Google Search Console integration with Surfer. You can connect Surfer with Google Search Console in the GSC integration tab in Surfer or directly in WordPress (if you haven't done it yet)
⚠️ Remember that you need to be connected to the Google Search Console account that contains the exact domain you use the Surfer plugin with in WordPress (for example: you have a Surfer plugin installed on your-webiste.com WordPress, so you need to connect Surfer to GSC that has this domain – your-webiste.com, added as a property).
After the integration is set up, you will start seeing the Google Search Console data for your posts – impressions and clicks. Just go to the "Posts" tab of your WordPress account. You should see the first results after around an hour. If you don't see them, that can mean that the post(s) is relatively fresh and not indexed by Google yet.
⚠️ Important! The data shows impressions number and clicks gained.
The data is gains week to week. If there is no traffic for some time, thus no data fetch is triggered in WP, then the gains are shown for the time between the last data available and the day of the new data fetch. You can always check the period that was used to calculate the gains using the arrows next to the results:
To disable the Surfer GSC data column, go to the "Screen Options" (upper right corner of the Posts page in WP), and unmark the "Surfer" checkbox:
Do you still need help? Don't worry! You can contact us at [email protected] or via live chat by clicking the icon in the bottom-right corner.