Lucjan Suski is the co-founder and CEO of Surfer, an all-in-one platform for key phrase analysis, content material creation, optimization and search engine marketing (Search engine optimisation) development administration.
When did you initially get concerned with search engine marketing?
Search engine optimisation has at all times fascinated me from the angle of a product particular person. Many of the instruments that had been constructed on this area had inferior UX in comparison with what I used to be used to working as a Product Engineer for a number of product startups throughout completely different fields. I additionally knew that SEOs use their instruments closely, and utilization is instantly linked to income, that’s why I began to dig deeper.
Might you share the genesis story behind the launch of Surfer?
Again in 2016, after a few years working as a Product Engineer, I began to entertain the concept of a startup as a technical co-founder. Throughout that point, my brother Michal was employed as an Search engine optimisation Specialist in KS, a advertising and marketing company based by our good friend Slawek Czajkowski. Michal rapidly climbed the ladder and have become Head of Search engine optimisation, and I began to select his mind concerning the issues he confronted day by day at work and methods to enhance the efficiency of Search engine optimisation groups. Some had been apparent. For instance, a not-very-innovative factor like a rank tracker crossed our minds, however we rapidly settled on one thing actually distinctive – an on-page optimization instrument that mechanically analyzed lots of of rating elements to see what actually makes a distinction in relation to rating. Inside just a few weeks, I put collectively a prototype that was instantly adopted by the company, and the remainder is historical past.
How does Surfer assist with key phrase analysis and turning into a topical chief in a distinct segment?
Properly, the best way Google works now could be that you would write the very best piece of content material on the planet on a subject, say “the way to shed some pounds”, however your possibilities of rating nicely would nonetheless be slim to none.
What they need to see is a sustained, steady effort to publish content material in a sure area of interest. So, when you’re protecting weight reduction, be ready to write down about all issues weight reduction – vitamin, train, well being, and so forth.
Consider your web site as a e-book on a topic. Like a e-book, you should cowl matters with examples and sources in several chapters whereas demonstrating why you’re a credible supply on the area of interest.
This idea has been extensively adopted and is named topical authority in Search engine optimisation circles.
However simply writing about completely different subtopics in a distinct segment isn’t efficient. It’s essential to additionally determine which articles to write down, the way to hyperlink them, and even which to prioritize.
That is the place key phrase analysis instruments are available in. Sadly, most key phrase analysis instruments act as key phrase database instruments – they offer you a ton of key phrase info, however you might be left to behave upon them, to interrupt down the data into steps which you can really implement in a content material technique.
That’s the place Surfer differs. We do not simply hand out a bunch of key phrases to you. As an alternative, Surfer takes a scientific strategy to key phrase analysis.
We break down which pages to write down about and in what order primarily based on which cluster they belong to. Clustering associated articles collectively helps web site homeowners know which pages to hyperlink to, and naturally, we additionally present key phrase metrics like search quantity.
Key phrase issue is a person metric. For instance, Forbes and I ought to have completely different metrics for a subject as a result of we’re not the identical. Sadly although, most Search engine optimisation instruments ignore this.
We don’t, so our key phrases are customized in your area relying on the key phrases you’re already rating for and what your natural presence appears to be like like.
Are you able to focus on Surfer’s content material technology, and the way it differs from aggressive Generative AI instruments akin to Jasper?
Our focus is on creating content material that ranks nicely in search engines like google. That is the place we’re completely different from different AI instruments.
Most AI instruments depend on creating well-written content material primarily based on their coaching knowledge and prompts. Surfer’s goal is to create articles that may enable you entice natural visitors by rating in your goal key phrases.
To be able to do that, we make use of a collection of proprietary algorithms to investigate the top-ranking articles to find out how they acquired there.
We analysis their content material, decide what heading constructions they use, NLP key phrases and phrases, and at what frequencies, amongst different issues.
So if the search outcomes present articles on “picture search engine optimization finest practices” while you seek for “picture search engine optimization”, Surfer will write an article on “picture search engine optimization finest practices” as a substitute of say, “picture search engine optimization instruments”
We additionally enable customers a number of customization options, from selecting a tone of voice, article sort and to edit headers and speaking factors they need to be included inside the articles earlier than the content material is generated.
Might you focus on how Surfer integrates with Jasper, and the advantages of this integration for the tip person?
Jasper’s Search engine optimisation mode means that you can use Surfer instantly inside Jasper to optimize Jasper-generated content material for search engines like google. As I discussed earlier than, our focus is on content material that helps customers rank in search engines like google and draw natural visitors.
Surfer affords data-driven evaluation and optimization for on-page Search engine optimisation to enhance your content material written inside Jasper.
The mixing is sort of easy when you log in to Jasper and doesn’t require any nice setup on the person’s half.
The principle profit for the person is enhanced content material optimization for Search engine optimisation. The mixing ensures that the content material not solely reads nicely however can be optimized for search engines like google proper from the drafting part. This will save time and assets by lowering the necessity for in depth revisions and Search engine optimisation changes after the content material is created.
Since customers are guided by Search engine optimisation insights from Surfer whereas writing, this enables for a extra streamlined workflow.
Most writers aren’t SEOs and don’t need to spend so much of time optimizing their content material. The mixing permits non-Search engine optimisation acquainted writers to concentrate on what they do finest whereas aligning with Search engine optimisation finest practices.
Particularly for businesses and in-house content material groups, this integration permits for scaling content material manufacturing. Groups can produce extra content material in much less time, whereas sustaining excessive requirements.
After an article is printed there’s an choice to proceed to audit the articles, for post-publishing optimization. Are you able to focus on what that is, and the way it works?
Properly, Search engine optimisation is a long-term and continuous course of. Not like social media or movies, you may’t publish content material as soon as and overlook about it.
However in fact, Search engine optimisation additionally continues to herald guests lengthy after you could have written an article, not like these platforms.
The reason being that person habits modifications, as do tendencies and preferences. And so individuals search for various things and need to accomplish duties that weren’t beforehand achieved. On the planet of search, that signifies that publishers should adapt to those modifications to remain related.
In addition to customers, search engine algorithms are additionally frequently evolving. The truth is, in 2016, Google introduced that it ran 130,336 search high quality assessments.
It is a mind-boggling quantity that’s inconceivable for customers to maintain up with.
That is the place auditing or post-publishing optimization is available in. Surfer permits customers to maintain up with these modifications by frequently updating for ends in the search engine pages.
So whereas one 12 months, we might even see ecommerce web sites within the search outcomes, we might even see guides the following 12 months for a similar search time period. Surfer ensures which you can adapt your present content material in keeping with these modifications.
Typically, it takes weeks, if not months, for Google to discover a rating in your key phrase. However as a substitute of accepting what Google decides for you, it’s prudent to repeatedly optimize your articles for incremental good points that may enable you rank increased in search outcomes.
Surfer’s audit instruments have a look at different pages which might be rating and can make suggestions for lacking key phrases and their density in your content material, moreover different particulars.
Our strategy is to spotlight the low hanging alternatives which you can take to maximise your search efficiency.
I’m a private believer that human writers ought to increase themselves with AI, versus changing human writers with AI. How would Surfer match on this world view?
Surfer will assist right here in two methods. First, despite the fact that you need to write probably the most precious and distinctive content material by hand, you continue to have to help it with articles which might be much less thrilling. For these, you must take into account hiring high-quality AI writing instruments akin to Surfer or Content material at Scale. On prime of that, we goal to reinforce human content material writing with a toolset that automates all of the analysis that folks at present do manually, to allow them to concentrate on offering a singular viewpoint. That is one thing that now we have in our roadmap for the longer term.
Between 2019 and 2023 Surfer has grown its income by 15x, what do you attribute this success to?
I believe it’s all about specializing in issues that may actually make a distinction. If you end up a small startup with out many purchasers, you may’t spend time on issues like conversion charge optimization, which has the potential to spice up your development by possibly 20%. At that stage, you want 10x and even 100x enhancements. These enhancements are primarily coming from specializing in product innovation. We had been at all times pondering, “how can we blow the minds of our prospects”, and such a mindset was fairly simple to attain provided that over half of the co-founding workforce consisted of Search engine optimisation specialists. We had a really fast suggestions loop again within the day between myself and Slawek, Michal and Tomek, that led to delivering mind-blowing options quick.
What’s your imaginative and prescient for the way forward for Search engine optimisation and Surfer?
With the evolution of AI, Search engine optimisation will proceed to evolve. Engines like google will proceed to undertake the know-how, however I don’t suppose we are going to see a fast disruption occasion the place search will change in a single day. Keep in mind that we’re speaking about a few billion customers which might be used to the search working the best way it really works in the present day. ChatGPT acquired huge traction and was adopted by 100 million customers, however most of them aren’t resigning from looking within the conventional method, they fairly increase it.
At Surfer, we are going to hold evolving our AI capabilities to assist individuals perceive what makes good content material and, in impact, rank increased. It doesn’t matter what AI or non-AI method you favor to write down your content material, Surfer AI can be there to assist make it higher fitted to Search engine optimisation.
Thanks for the nice interview, readers who want to be taught extra ought to go to Surfer.
