Once your query is created, you can start preparing your chart for the analysis! If you need help with the process of creating your query first, check out this article instead.

By default, the chart is set to include all competitors, which are combined into groups of 10, and we are calculating averages. The default factor demonstrated on the chart is characters in the body of the page.

We give you the power to decide how you want the chart to look - it's up to you which ranking factors you want to include if you prefer the analysis per averages or not, and which competitors you want to analyze.

Competitors: We can't stress enough how crucial it is to select the right competitors. When you create a new SERP Analyzer query, all competitors are selected by default, so the first thing you’ll need to do is exclude them all and start to select your competitors one by one. Look for the "Exclude all pages" option under the graph and use the eye icon next to the competitors of your choice.

Averages: Analyzing averages (per 2, 3, 5, or 10 results) will help you spot useful trends. Analyzing every page separately will help you notice deviations.

Outside links: This option allows you to decide whether you want the analysis to include hyperlinked content. By default, it's set to no - because, in general, at Surfer, that is also the rule behind the hyperlinked content.

Adding a custom URL: You can add any URL for comparison, even if it is not ranked in this specific SERP. Copy and paste your URL into the “Compare your website to competitors” field, then click “Compare”. Once it's done, you can choose to show this URL on the chart.

Selecting ranking factors: That's when the most fun part begins so that we will get into more detail in the next paragraph.

Analyzing different ranking factors can help to discover trends or correlations for analyzed keywords. Trends will tell you what kind of on-page optimization is noticeable for the top 50 search results, and the data is presented in a chart.

Surfer provides over 500 ranking factors separated into 6 main categories.

NLP - This factor will only be available if you enable the "NLP Sentiment on chart" option while creating your query. The sentiment is scored on a scale from -1 to 1, which means there is nuance to just how positive or negative a page can be. The general rule is it would be more challenging to rank a page with a negative sentiment if the other top-ranking pages all have a positive sentiment. This is most likely how Google understands user intent for the search query.

Structure - A complete breakdown of the HTML. Separated into more precise categories helps you see the difference the number of characters, the amount of hidden text, or exact keywords can make. It includes analysis of query words, titles, strong/b usage, paragraphs, IMG alt tags, links, etc.

Quality - Is the quality of top SERPs a critical factor in ranking in this particular niche? Surfer gives you a summary of page speed determinants and an overview of their structured data.

Media - Look at this factor and see whether Google prefers to rank the best pages that are more about images and less about the text.

Browse the menu on the left to find the factors you want to display on the chart.

The correlation indicator can be found under the little 📶 icon next to each available ranking factor.

The correlation tells you how strongly a specific ranking factor is connected to the rankings. Focusing on optimizing the factors with the higher correlation may bring you faster results than focusing on factors with little to no correlation.

Under the chart, you will also find a list of additional tabs that can help you in keyword research, semantic analysis, and link building.

This tab is a real goldmine and is often missed. It allows you to grow your keyword list, and it’s all based on competitor data.
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It shows you common ranked keywords of your competitors' pages with their search volume and relevance. You can reveal the list of the top 10 similar keywords connected to the suggestion.

If your rivals created content for a keyword that they find relevant to their audience, chances are you should aim for it as well. 

For keywords with the most overlapping pages, consider targeting them with one page.

Surfer is analyzing similar keywords and looking for questions there. Researching them is especially helpful if your website offers guides, definitions, and other roundup-style pages. These questions are sorted by the number of overlapping pages; the more overlapping pages (20 is the max), the higher the chance to rank these keywords together.

Tip: Very often, questions are also great keywords to target or include on your page. Consider adding them as headings or a part of your paragraph to get additional traffic.

This data shows you the frequently used words and phrases based on the data from the top-ranking SERPs with their exact count and density.

If you wish to see which words and phrases are the most common within the top 10 of SERPs, This tab presents you with this, including the exact number of pages that have used those words and phrases.

Combined results of popular words, popular phrases, common words and common phrases.

Unfortunately, with SERP Analyzer, you cannot share your analysis using a link (unlike Audits or Content Editors). However, Surfer allows you to download the results in a .csv file. Both the pages and factors to include are up to you.

Depending on your needs, there are three ways of downloading the results.

Before exporting, you may need to reconsider if you want to see the results for averages or separately for each position in SERP, as this will affect your CSV file.