Does on-page SEO tools like page optimizer pro or surfer SEO work?

[Philip J. Fry]

I tested TF/IDF before and it showed no improvement in rankings. Has anyone tried an A/B test on these tools and seen positive results? Not sure if it’s hype or if it really helps.

 

[BwTruitt]

I’m not sucking the Koolaid straw on these tools. Anytime we start “optimizing“ our pages with one of these tools we’re joining a massive herd of other pages using very similar math.

Just make sure the prime key is in the URL, Title Tag, H1, one of the H2s.

Then add content in natural way. I’m finding the heavy use of synonyms of the prime key is having a strong affect lately. Also finding these reverse content silo pages seem to have more clout when there are fewer outbound links on the page.

The only outbound links on each silo page are these 6:

— 1 link to target money page in first paragraph of main content
— 1 link somewhere in main content to previous silo page
— 1 link somewhere in main content to next silo page
— 1 link to home page in top header
— 1 link ad disclosures in footer
— 1 link to privacy policy in footer

2 silos:

— 1 silo of three pages
— 1 silo of six pages

So far results have been extremely successful:

— All 9 pages on 1st page of G after three days since pub
— 3 of the pages are #2 after three days since pub
— 2 of the pages are #1 after three days since pub

No header nav menu at all. Only six outbound links per page.

Domain ia 2 years old. AHREFS DR is only 8 competing with DR 70-93 domains.

Hyper competitive YMYL and E-A-T niche (comparable niches loans, gambling)

Average word count 650 - 1000 per page.

Every page has at least one image (usually two).

Every page has least one embedded YouTube video.

Making up a block diagram for all the above. Will post here.

 

[Philip J. Fry]

I’m not sucking the Koolaid straw on these tools. Anytime we start “optimizing“ our pages with one of these tools we’re joining a massive herd of other pages using very similar math.

Just make sure the prime key is in the URL, Title Tag, H1, one of the H2s.

Then add content in natural way. I’m finding the heavy use of synonyms of the prime key is having a strong affect lately. Also finding these reverse content silo pages seem to have more clout when there are fewer outbound links on the page.

The only outbound links on each silo page are these 6:

— 1 link to target money page in first paragraph of main content
— 1 link somewhere in main content to previous silo page
— 1 link somewhere in main content to next silo page
— 1 link to home page in top header
— 1 link ad disclosures in footer
— 1 link to privacy policy in footer

2 silos:

— 1 silo of three pages
— 1 silo of six pages

So far results have been extremely successful:

— All 9 pages on 1st page of G after three days since pub
— 3 of the pages are #2 after three days since pub
— 2 of the pages are #1 after three days since pub

No header nav menu at all. Only six outbound links per page.

Domain ia 2 years old. AHREFS DR is only 8 competing with DR 70-93 domains.

Hyper competitive YMYL and E-A-T niche (comparable niches loans, gambling)

Average word count 650 - 1000 per page.

Every page has at least one image (usually two).

Every page has least one embedded YouTube video.

Making up a block diagram for all the above. Will post here.

Sounds like it's a local keyword. Asked you for the site and keyword(s). The DR70-93 domains might be Angie and Yelp, which aren't that hard, as they're spreading their PageRank across 100,000 pages.

As for being skeptical of on-page SEO tools, same here. Wikipedia uses no on-page SEO tools and it ranks just fine. The content is just good and is on topic, in depth, and covers the topic extensively. If I'm interviewing at a company and the hiring manager likes these tools, of course I'm going to say that they're awesome but I truly thing they're a waste of time