Skip to main content
All CollectionsWhat's New at Surfer
What's new at Surfer? August 2024
What's new at Surfer? August 2024

Quick summary of features released in August and upcoming products

Updated over a week ago

Google’s last few core updates affected A LOT of websites.

And by β€˜affected’ we mean penalizations and reduced visibility, ultimately leading to H-U-G-E drops in traffic and revenue. πŸ“‰

Now, it seems Google might be reversing some of those penalties, offering some much-needed relief! Our resident SEO expert Satya prepared a summary of everything you need to know to benefit from it πŸ‘‰ read the article.

With that out of the way, time for this month's updates πŸ‘


What's new? πŸ‘‡

Auto-Optimize covers topical gaps 🀯

Auto-Optimize was already a big hit; after all, a 1-click article optimization for both new and existing content is a reeeeeally handy trick. And it just got better: Auto-Optimize can now write new sections based on outlines and topics of your competitors!

Whenever we'll see that for a given topic your competitors wrote about something you omitted, Auto-Optimize will automatically add a section about it to your article to ensure the highest topical and keyword coverage!


We're rolling out this update gradually, so if you don't see it yet, please be patient! πŸ™

πŸ’‘ The new feature will be auto-enabled for everyone - you can turn it on and off anytime by clicking the three dots next to the Auto-Optimize button in Content Editor!

Custom pages in Content Audit

Many of you expressed a need for customizing and expanding the URL list within Content Audit and it did not go unheard - we added a page customization option to help you focus on what matters in Content Audit! You can now remove the pages you don’t care about and add the ones you are missing in a few clicks. πŸ‘Œ

Clearer keyword coverage insights in Domain Map

We redesigned the detailed cluster view in Domain Map. Here's what changed:

Keywords are grouped by URLs

All keywords are now grouped by the URL they appear on and URLs are sorted by their total search volume (meaning the URL with keywords with the biggest potential is on top).

All not covered keywords are always at the bottom of the the detailed view (regardless of their total search volume).
​

Keyword variations

Similar keywords are now grouped under a single line to limit unnecessary scrolling.
​

New labels

There are four labels in total (three are new):

  • MAIN (for the main keyword)

  • MOVED (new: for keywords that were previously primary ranking under a different URL)

  • GAINED (new: for keywords you didn't rank for before but you do now)

  • LOST (new: for keywords you used to rank for but you don't anymore)

Impressions column

An Impressions column is now added in the detailed view under each URL for faster insights on keyword performance.
​

Competitor tab

Competitor pages ranking for the same cluster have been moved to a separate tab within the detailed view for easier navigation.

Highlighted Internal Links changes

All anchors inserted by Auto Internal Links are now highlighted! No more investigating where the changes were made for any of you. 😌


What’s coming next? πŸ‘‡

Recommendations in Content Audit and Topic Explorer

We know from your feedback, that even though Surfer is a goldmine of SEO opportunities, it can be hard to choose what to focus on RIGHT. NOW. In response to that, we're developing smart recommendations that will help you make informed decisions when choosing the next best step.

You can think of it as an actionable list of things articles to write or optimize, curated by our expert algorithm based on your domain's performance and delivered to you on a weekly basis from both Topic Explorer and Content Audit.

This project will take a while (we want to ensure personalized and quality recommendations) but I it will be worth waiting for. 🀞

AI meta title and description

Soon we will auto-generate SEO-optimized AI meta titles and descriptions for all your articles to make the publishing step easier. πŸŽ‰

More realistic images in Surfer AI

We are about to update images generation model in Surfer AI articles to the latest Flux - Pro. All images will become more realistic and relevant, while still being commercially safe to use. 🎨

Tables in Content Editor

We're nearing the end of implementing tables support in all Content Editors. You can expect the good news as soon as next month! πŸŽ‰

All comments tab for better collaboration

Comments in all Content Editors are live (try it if you haven't yet, they are really handy)! And, to make comment management easier, we're working on a comment directory on the Content Editor dashboard to allow for browsing comments from all Content Editors from a single place. πŸ‘Œ

Folders for easier work management

We'll be introducing folders in Content Editor to help you organize your work better. πŸ’ͺ


Learn on YouTube πŸ‘‡

β€οΈβ€πŸ©Ή Are you pouring your heart into content, but not getting the results you want? Identifying and filling content gaps might be the solution you need. These gaps represent opportunities to provide valuable insights that your audience is searching for but isn't finding. Here's how to discover these gaps using tools like Surfer, and why filling them can improve your SEO and engagement πŸ‘‰ watch on YouTube

A study of over 260,000 search results in Search Engine Journal shows a strong correlation between high search rankings and topical authority. πŸ” Learn why strong topical authority helps your site withstand Google’s core updates and stay ahead of the competition and how to create your own topical map and leverage Surfer’s Topic Explorer to make the process seamless πŸ‘‰ watch on YouTube

Did you know that according to HubSpot’s State of Marketing report, only 3.45% of content gets organic visitors from Google? That's wild! 😲 Imagine putting in all that work and time only for nobody to read your content. But what's the secret to getting clicks and traffic? Here are 5 simple steps to leverage your data, find the right keywords, and update your content effectively to create a killer content strategy that will boost your website's performance πŸ‘‰ watch on YouTube

🚨 Avoid these 7 SEO mistakes even PROs make and keep your website ranking high! 🚨 Whether you're overlooking crucial keywords or missing the mark on search intent, these tips will help you optimize your site effectively. πŸ“ Watch now to make sure your site stays on top of the search results! πŸ‘‰ watch on YouTube


Learn on Blog πŸ‘‡

Google’s August 2024 core update is meant to treat smaller independent publishers on par with authority websites that dominate the SERPs. It is the most recent in a series of algorithmic updates aimed at increasing the relevancy and quality of search results. Here's what we know ->

We decided to poll SEOs and content marketers themselves about topical authority in their content strategy. Here are the top takeaways ->

Here's a case study of the 3-pronged SEO strategy William and his agency team followed to build the site's organic presence and increase sales by 2300%. Read more ->

What mobile SEO is and why it’s important? How to set up your website for mobile visitors? What are mobile SEO best practices? How to monitor your site’s mobile performance? Read more ->

What search engines are and what they aim to achieve? What are the mechanism behind crawling, indexing, and serving results? How Google determines what sites to serve to users? How to optimize your site to show up at the top of search results? Read more ->

What is off-page SEO and how it works? How to assess and improve your site's off-page performance? Which tools you can use to streamline the process? Read more ->


That's it for August! Don't forget to follow us on social media:

πŸ’‘ Don’t miss out on extra credits with our Credit Giveaway.

Did this answer your question?