7 Best Surfer SEO Alternatives for Tanning Salons

Surfer SEO is a leading content optimization platform designed to help marketers create SEO-driven content that ranks. According to their website, Surfer SEO analyzes top-ranking pages for any keyword and provides real-time content recommendations, including optimal word count, heading structure, keyword density, and semantic term usage. This makes it exceptionally useful for tanning salons aiming to dominate local search results for terms like 'best spray tan near me' or 'organic tanning lotion benefits.' The platform integrates with Google Docs and WordPress, allowing users to write and optimize content in real time with a live SEO score. Surfer SEO also includes a Content Editor with a visual content structure guide, a SERP Analyzer to benchmark against competitors, and a Keyword Research tool that suggests related terms based on search volume and difficulty. While not a full content creation tool, it excels at ensuring every blog post or landing page is technically optimized for search engines. Many tanning businesses use Surfer SEO to elevate their blog content from generic advice to authoritative, high-ranking guides that attract organic traffic over time.

Hootsuite is a widely recognized social media management platform that enables businesses to schedule, analyze, and engage across multiple social networks from a single dashboard. According to their website, Hootsuite supports over 35 social platforms, including Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, LinkedIn, and X, making it ideal for tanning salons looking to maintain a consistent presence across channels. Its key strengths lie in scheduling bulk posts, monitoring brand mentions, and tracking engagement analytics. The platform offers a visual content calendar, team collaboration tools, and customizable reports to measure campaign performance. Hootsuite also integrates with third-party tools like Canva and Google Analytics, allowing users to design visuals and track website traffic from social campaigns. While it doesn’t generate content, its scheduling and analytics capabilities help tanning salons maintain posting consistency, respond to customer inquiries in real time, and identify top-performing content types—such as before-and-after photos or client testimonials—based on engagement data. For salons with a dedicated social media manager, Hootsuite streamlines workflow and ensures no post is missed.

Buffer is a user-friendly social media scheduling tool designed for simplicity and clarity, making it a popular choice among small businesses and solo entrepreneurs. According to their website, Buffer allows users to plan, schedule, and analyze posts across Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest with an intuitive drag-and-drop calendar. It offers analytics dashboards that track engagement, follower growth, and best posting times, helping tanning salons understand when their audience is most active. Buffer’s 'Optimal Send Times' feature uses historical data to recommend when to post for maximum reach. The platform also includes a content library to store and reuse past posts, ideal for repurposing seasonal promotions like 'Summer Glow Packages.' While Buffer doesn’t create content or optimize for SEO, its clean interface and reliable scheduling make it an excellent choice for salons that already have a content strategy in place and need a dependable tool to execute it without complexity. Its mobile app also allows for on-the-go posting, perfect for salon owners managing social media between clients.

Sprout Social is a comprehensive social media management platform designed for mid-sized to large brands seeking advanced analytics, customer engagement, and team collaboration. According to their website, Sprout Social offers a unified inbox for managing messages across platforms, detailed reporting with custom dashboards, and competitor benchmarking tools that help tanning salons understand how they stack up against regional competitors. Its Smart Inbox consolidates comments, DMs, and mentions into one feed, making it easier to respond to client questions about pricing, safety, or aftercare. The platform’s publishing tools include a visual calendar and bulk scheduling, while its analytics provide deep insights into audience demographics, post performance, and campaign ROI. Sprout Social also includes a CRM-like feature for tagging and tracking customer interactions over time, which can help salons nurture repeat clients. While it doesn’t generate content or optimize for search engines, its robust engagement and reporting features make it ideal for tanning businesses aiming to build long-term relationships through consistent, data-driven social interaction.

Canva is a visual design platform that empowers users to create professional-quality graphics, social media posts, and short videos without design expertise. According to their website, Canva offers thousands of customizable templates for Instagram carousels, TikTok videos, Pinterest pins, and Facebook ads—perfect for tanning salons showcasing before-and-after results, client testimonials, or promotional offers. Its drag-and-drop editor includes stock photos, fonts, animations, and audio tracks, enabling users to produce polished content quickly. Canva’s Brand Kit feature allows businesses to save brand colors, logos, and fonts for consistent visual identity across all posts. The platform also includes a 'Magic Design' AI tool that generates design suggestions based on uploaded images or text prompts. While Canva doesn’t handle content strategy, SEO, or scheduling, it’s an indispensable tool for creating the visual assets that drive engagement on image-heavy platforms like Instagram and TikTok. For tanning salons, where visuals are everything, Canva turns every salon owner into a designer, ensuring their content stands out in a crowded feed.

Lately is an AI-powered content repurposing tool designed to help marketers turn long-form content into dozens of social media posts automatically. According to their website, Lately analyzes blog posts, videos, or podcasts and generates multiple social snippets, captions, and hashtags optimized for platforms like LinkedIn, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. For tanning salons with a library of educational blog posts—such as 'How to Prepare for Your First Spray Tan'—Lately can extract key points and transform them into 20+ social media posts in minutes. It also includes a content calendar and scheduling feature, allowing users to auto-publish across platforms. The tool uses AI to identify the most engaging segments of content and suggests the best formats for each platform, such as turning a 10-minute YouTube video into 5 TikTok clips. While Lately doesn’t create original research or blog content from scratch, it’s an excellent tool for maximizing the reach of existing content, reducing the time spent on social media creation, and ensuring consistent messaging. It’s ideal for salons with a content library but limited bandwidth to repurpose it.