wiki/clients/current/cordwainer/2026-02-24-content-strategy-surfer-seo.md · 539 words · 2026-02-24
Content Strategy — Surfer SEO Optimization — 2026-02-24
Overview
During the 2026-02-24 weekly call, Mark walked Sebastian through a Surfer SEO workflow for improving Cordwainer's existing blog content ("Expert Corner") rather than writing new articles from scratch. The live demo on the "Sundowning" article showed the content score jumping from 24 to 76, surpassing the top-ranked competitor's score of 66. This approach is the primary content lever for improving organic rankings and driving leads.
See also: [1] and [2]
Key Decision
Improve existing articles before writing new ones. Cordwainer's Expert Corner articles are significantly underscored relative to competitors. Optimizing them with Surfer SEO's Auto-optimize feature is faster and higher-impact than producing net-new content.
Workflow: Surfer SEO Article Optimization
- Set up Cordwainer as a site in Surfer SEO (not yet done as of this call — Mark noted it needs to be created).
- Take an existing article URL from the Expert Corner (e.g., the Sundowning article).
- Open a Content Editor in Surfer — paste the URL and target keyword (e.g., "sundowning").
- Note the baseline content score — the Sundowning article started at 24; the top competitor sits at 66, average is 56.
- Run Auto-optimize — Surfer's AI rewrites and expands the article to hit keyword targets. Score climbed from 24 → 37 (halfway through) → 76 by completion.
- Add a Q&A section — generate a concise Q&A via AI (keep answers short; avoid novel-length responses) and paste it at the bottom of the article. This further boosts the score and targets featured snippet / People Also Ask placements.
- Add internal links — use Surfer's internal link suggestions (insert ~3 links per article).
- Run through Grammarly for cleanup.
- Send to Raphael with the updated content for him to cut, paste, and publish in WordPress.
"You went from 21 to 76. And the top article is 66. So we should kick ass with this." — Mark Hope
Live Demo Results
| Article |
Keyword |
Before |
After |
Top Competitor |
| Sundowning |
sundowning |
24 |
76 |
66 |
Additional Website Fixes (Expert Corner / Blog)
These were flagged during the same content review:
- CTA button text: Change "RSVP" to "Learn More" on all blog/Expert Corner posts. (Users cannot RSVP to a blog article — this is a template error.)
- Incorrect images: Remove the trophy image appearing on at least one article page. Source is unknown; likely a template or placeholder that was never replaced.
Action Items
- [ ] Create Cordwainer site in Surfer SEO (@Sebastian Gant)
- [ ] Run Surfer Auto-optimize on all Expert Corner articles, starting with "Sundowning" (@Sebastian Gant) — time blocked Thursday
- [ ] Add AI-generated Q&A section to the bottom of each optimized article (@Sebastian Gant)
- [ ] Send optimized article content to Raphael for publishing (@Sebastian Gant)
- [ ] Change blog CTA button text from "RSVP" to "Learn More" — assign to Eshock (@Sebastian Gant)
- [ ] Remove trophy image from blog article page — assign to Eshock (@Sebastian Gant)