A Guide to the Free Surfer SEO Chrome Extension (Keyword Surfer)

Modern keyword research can be a complex process. It often involves switching between various tools, spreadsheets, and search engines to gather comprehensive data. What if you could access initial information directly within your search results?

That’s the concept behind the Surfer SEO Chrome Extension, also known as Keyword Surfer. It’s a popular free tool with over 700,000+ daily users designed to streamline this process.

In this guide, we'll cover the key features of this extension, how it works with ChatGPT, and its role in an efficient content workflow.

What is the Surfer SEO Chrome Extension?

Keyword Surfer is a free extension for Chrome and similar browsers, though it is optimized for Chrome.

Its main purpose is to display a layer of SEO data directly on Google's search results. This helps streamline a key part of keyword research. Instead of copying a keyword and pasting it into another tool, you get insights instantly on the page.

The extension is made by Surfer, a company known for its SEO software. Its primary function is to provide immediate access to search volumes and new keyword ideas without leaving your Google search.

I wouldn't trust the search volume estimate from any tool, but what you can do it use it to compare to other keywords, with the same tool. So if digital branding is 590 and product branding is 400, then neither number is right, but most likely there is a larger volume for digital branding, and maybe 'branding' is 1500 or something. But it's important to only compare within the same tool, since different tools will have wildly different numbers for the same keywords.

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Key features of the Surfer SEO Chrome Extension

This extension offers a lot of functionality for a free tool. Here are the core features that make it useful for content creators and SEOs.

Keyword research in Google SERPs

Once you install Keyword Surfer, every Google search provides additional data on the results page, helping you evaluate if a keyword is worth pursuing.

Here’s what it shows you:

• Monthly search volume: You'll see the estimated monthly search volume for your keyword right in the search bar.

• Cost-per-click (CPC): It also gives you an estimate of what advertisers are paying for that keyword, which can signal commercial intent.

• On-page data: Underneath each top-ranking result, Keyword Surfer provides a snapshot of their stats, including estimated monthly traffic, the article's word count, and how many times they've used the exact keyword.

This feature is useful for getting a quick sense of the competition without clicking through and analyzing each page manually.

Content ideas and keyword suggestions

On the right-hand side of the search results, the extension adds a panel with content ideas. It automatically generates a list of related keywords and similar terms based on your search.

For each suggestion, you get the search volume and a "keyword overlap" score. This score is a feature that tells you how many of the top-ranking pages for your original keyword also rank for the suggested one. A high overlap score suggests the topics are closely related and could likely be covered in the same article.

You can also use the "Collections" feature to save and group keywords you're interested in. Just click the star next to a keyword to add it to a collection, which you can then export as a .csv file. It’s a simple way to gather ideas for your content plan.

ChatGPT integration

More recently, Keyword Surfer added an integration with ChatGPT that provides insight into how AI models operate. It has two main functions.

First, it uncovers what Surfer calls "fan-out queries." When you ask ChatGPT a question, it often runs 2-5 hidden sub-queries to gather information for a complete answer. The extension shows you what those hidden queries are. This is useful for content creators as it reveals different angles and subtopics that AI deems important for a prompt, giving you more ideas to flesh out your content briefs.

The second feature is a "Humanizer" that rewrites AI-generated text to sound more natural. This is a "freemium" feature; you get a small free limit, but a paid Surfer plan is needed for higher usage.

International data and browser compatibility

If you create content for a global audience, you’ll appreciate that the extension provides localized data for 70 different countries. You can easily switch the location to see search volumes and data for your target market.

As noted, it’s officially built for Google Chrome. While it might work on other Chromium-based browsers like Brave or Arc, compatibility isn't guaranteed, so it's best to use Chrome for a smooth experience.

How to get started with the Surfer SEO Chrome Extension

Getting set up with Keyword Surfer is straightforward and takes less than a minute.

1. Go to the Chrome Web Store and search for "Keyword Surfer."

2. Click the "Add to Chrome" button.

3. That's it. Go to Google and search for something. The data will appear on the results page automatically.

A key benefit is that a Surfer account is not required to use the main keyword research features. It’s completely free to get started.

Is the Surfer SEO Chrome Extension really free?

For the most part, yes. The core features that make Keyword Surfer popular, like the search volume data, keyword ideas, and on-page stats in the SERPs, are 100% free. Surfer has stated these features will remain free forever.

Keyword Surfer is free and will remain free forever. That means that businesses that cannot afford to invest in yet another tool, especially now, will be able to perform effective keyword research and evaluate keyword difficulty without leaving Google.

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The tool operates on a freemium model. While the core keyword research tools are free, some of the newer, advanced features integrated into the extension require a paid Surfer subscription.

The "Humanizer" feature in the ChatGPT integration is a good example. Without a Surfer account, you can rewrite up to 500 words per month. For higher limits (like 50,000 words a month), you'll need a paid plan.

But for its primary job of doing quick, on-the-fly keyword research, the tool is free and provides significant value without needing a credit card.

For a hands-on look at how the extension works in real-time, this video tutorial provides a helpful walkthrough of its main features and benefits.

This tutorial provides a hands-on review of Keyword Surfer, demonstrating how to use the tool to analyze your competition.

From data to content: The next steps

Keyword Surfer is effective for its designed purpose: initial keyword research and brainstorming. It excels at this first step of the content process. The extension provides data and ideas, which then need to be developed into a full article.

Once a keyword is identified, the content creation process involves several steps:

• Building a complete article outline that covers the topic well.

• Conducting research to find facts, stats, and relevant examples.

• Writing the full blog post in a way that’s engaging.

• Creating or finding visuals, like images, tables, and charts.

• Ensuring the final piece is properly optimized for search engines (SEO) and the new AI answer engines (AEO).

This part of the workflow, from research to a finished article, can be time-intensive. To bridge this gap, some teams use AI writing tools. For example, the eesel AI blog writer is designed to take a keyword and generate an article. It can create a full draft with AI-generated assets, embed Reddit quotes, add internal links, and write in a natural-sounding tone, turning a keyword into a publish-ready article.

Streamlining your workflow

The Surfer SEO Chrome Extension is a useful and free tool that can assist content creators. It makes the initial phase of keyword research more efficient by integrating data directly into the search results page.

Research is the first step in the content lifecycle. To scale content production, it's necessary to have a process that moves from keyword discovery to a published article.

An efficient workflow might combine a research tool like Keyword Surfer for ideas with a content creation tool to handle the writing and production. This approach can allow teams to focus more on strategy while streamlining the content creation process.