We were listening to Brandon Gaille SEO course and The Blogging Millionaire podcast almost since he started doing it. Once he started talking about his own AI-powered SEO tool RankIQ we already knew that we’re going to try it.
Why RankIQ? Because we are full-time bloggers for the last 2 years, we spent thousands of $ on SEO courses and tools (most of them are useless) and we’ve already created our own SEO strategy -precise, easy, and result-oriented like Brandon’s approach.
Spoiler: his RankIQ keyword research tool is the same – easy to use, straightforward, generating real results faster than anyone or anything else. Mast-have for blogging. I’ll show my results on 3 blogs.
We started using RankIQ once it was released – and we are still using it for 3 different niche blogs with different domain authority and monetization situations. We will share the real experience of working with this tool, our own insights, and recommendations.
For easy navigation:
- What is SEO in 3 words?
- What is RankIQ?
- RankIQ vs SEMrush
- Who created RankIQ and why it is important?
- How does RankIQ work?
- My results with RankIQ from 3 blogs
- Summary of Pros and Cons
- How much does it cost?
- FAQs about RankIQ
TAKEAWAY: Yes, RankIQ is worth trying. If you’re struggling with launching your blog, finding good keywords, and ranking on the 1st page on Google to get more web traffic and money, sign up and use RankIQ as much as you can.
What is SEO?
In this whole article, we’re talking about how useful is RankIQ for SEO. For a new blogger the second question may be, what does SEO mean exactly, and why we need RankIQ for it?
SEO is an abbreviation for Search Engine Optimization and it is the key factor for any website to appear and rank on the first page on search engines (Google, Bing, Yahoo, Yandex, etc.).
So, imagine you have a website and you try to show Google that your website is cool by optimizing your content (images, texts, titles) and your technical background of the website (speed, server response, etc) – this is SEO.
Google is smart, his tiny spiders crawl every page on the Internet and mark it. As they crawl absolutely every single page, ranking on Google takes time. Don’t forget about Google’s ranking algorithm, so you need to keep in mind many factors that affect your ranking, some of them are:
- exact or related keywords
- quality of the content
- readers intentions
- word count of the post
- covered topics, etc.
In total, there are more than 200 factors!
RankIQ founder Brandon Gaille found out that it takes about 180 days or 6 months on average for a post without the use of RankIQ tool to rank on Google. In general, it can take up to 8 months or even 1 year. The target keywords from RankIQ will rank faster (within even a few days), but I’ll talk about it later.
What is SEO for a blogger?
A blogger’s main asset is a blog with blog posts. When we create a blog, let’s say on WordPress, you don’t have any authority, as Google doesn’t know you and you need to prove your good intentions.
Creating good content and speedy blog is one the most important factors to get Google’s attention.
And here where you need an SEO tool – to find a good keyword for a good article. If you don’t understand how SEO works, tools like SEMrush or Ahrefs will only confuse you. You need something easy to use, and it is RankIQ. You sign in, pick your niche, pick a keyword, run a content report and write. That’s it!
Of course, SEO is a very complex field of study, it is a really hard one to master. It takes time, but it is absolutely possible for a non-tech person. I can’t teach you SEO in 3 paragraphs, but feel free to read our other free posts or our 450-pages SEO & Blogging Book.
What is RankIQ?
RankIQ is an AI-powered SEO tool created for bloggers (beginners and experienced), content creators, and anybody who writes content for their website to get 1st page Google rankings.
It tells you what are the easiest to rank keywords for you, what title you should use, and what topics you should cover in your article. It also helps you create a good piece of content in real-time or optimize old posts.
RankIQ is a very simple SEO tool, it is basically a huge library of hand-picked lowest competition and high traffic keywords for every blog niche.
Well, almost every. The tool was launched in March 2021 and as you can guess, the hand-picking keyword for every niche is very time-consuming. So far it has 200+ niches and sub-niches, while some key niches, like pets, travel, food has 5-10 sub niches.
RankIQ is also a time-saving tool, as using other SEO tools for keyword research you have to spend weeks (yes, weeks) to find a keyword with low competition and high traffic volume. Especially, for new bloggers who don’t understand SEO much – it is a nightmare.
Main RankIQ Features
- AI-based SEO tool (IBM Watson’s AI).
- 100+ major niches (and constantly growing), 200+ subniches.
- Clear and easy to navigate interface.
- Hand-picked low-competition keywords for every niche.
- Some narrow niche libraries are fewer than 1000 keywords, some have more than 5000 keywords.
- SEO reports for any keyword in less than 2 min.
- Quick suggestions for a perfect title.
- Full list of suggested blog topics for each keyword that Google’s ranking algorithm will like (sorted by order of importance).
- Suggested wordcount for each keyword.
- Assistant to create optimized content.
- TOP-30 competitors analyzed for each keyword.
- You add all keywords you need to your own keyword library.
- Affordable price.
What for you can use RankIQ:
- find keywords for new blog posts (without high domain authority) in the RankIQ library of the lowest competition keywords.
- find more keywords for an established blog to rank faster and higher on Google in the RankIQ library.
- create your own keyword library (to help you plan posts).
- find out how many words you need to write for a specific keyword.
- get ideas on what title to use for your post.
- get a list of topics/words to use in your article.
- optimize an old blog post to make it rank on page One.
- check if your blog post is competitive (has enough covered topics, good word count, A+ grade).
Who should use RankIQ:
- Beginner blogger.
- Experienced blogger.
- SEO experts creating a piece of content for a website.
As the tool was launched couple of months ago, it has already some reviews on Capterra with average score 4.9:
RankIQ vs SEMrush
RankIQ is a brand new tool and many of you can be suspicious, especially, when we have about 25 other SEO tools on the market.
Let’s start with understanding what are 2 major types of an SEO tool:
- All-in-one SEO tool cover keyword research, domain check-ups, backlink explorer, position tracking, content assistant (sometimes), and on-page & technical SEO.
- they are usually expensive ($100/m +), complex, need time to get used to it and you need to learn how to use them properly before you get results.
- more for experienced bloggers (both because they are complex and expensive).
- the best all-in-one SEO tools are SEMrush (free trial) and Ahrefs.
- SEO tool that is focused on 1-2 key features and excels in them. SEO tools focused on 1-2 key features are Keysearch and RankIQ.
Back to RankIQ vs SEMrush. Now we understand that RankIQ works like a targeted missile – it excels in keyword research, while SEMrush is a massive tank able to cause a lot of “damage”. Basically, we can’t really compare them, as it is quite unfair.
| RankIQ | SEMrush | |
| Keyword research | already done for you: ready to use lists of low competition high traffic keywords sorted by niches | yes, but it contains all keywords in the world UNsorted so you do your research manually |
| Time spent on research | some minutes | 2-3 hrs for each KW – weeks – months |
| Content optimization | – Top-30 sources analyzed – Long list of topics to cover – Up-to-date word count – Ready to use ideas for a Title – Easy to create an outline – Real-time content grading | – Top-10 sources analyzed – Very short list of topics – Inaccurate word count – Ideas for title and H1 – Real-time content writing check |
| Price | Now $50 discount – standard plan is $49 | from $119.95 |
| Extra | My keyword library Updated niche keyword libraries | Backlink analysis On-page & Tech SEO Domain overview Rank tracking |
For a new blogger using SEMrush just for spending hours on KW research is way expensive and overwhelming (I know what I’m talking about, I was crying when I could find the very first keyword to write about for 2 weeks!).
RankIQ analyzes 30 top ranking articles. Why not just top 10 like it does SEMrush?
- First of all, we need to understand that on the 1st page on Google, there are usually 5-8 websites with the highest domain authority (65+) and they can write even 300 words and it will rank. We can not rely on it, we need to focus on writing comprehensive content that will organically rank and compete.
- Newcomers, new bloggers can only compete in writing good content (for the exact keyword, with good coverage of topics, with adequate word count, etc.). So we need to look for other young blogs to know who is our real competitors.
That’s why we need to look further and research more blogs. Can you imagine manually research the word count, titles, outlines, topics, post structure for 30 articles for each keyword you’re writing about? I can tell you, that it will take 4 hrs average, as I was doing it before RankIQ was created.
Who created RankIQ and Why it is important?
Brandon Gaille founded RankIQ and did most of them work literally with his hands.
The best part about it is that this time an SEO tool for bloggers is created by a full-time Top blogger with millions of monthly page views (5 million to be precise, can you imagine it?!). His blogs were featured in Fast Company, Forbes, Inc, Entrepreneur, and AdWeek.
Brandon is considered an SEO expert for a long time already. Why? Because he has his own SEO course and podcast where he goes into every single detail that can affect your ranking.
He shares free tips on how to write the best title, how to rank higher, how to get backlinks, and many other things in his Blogging Millionaire podcast that he personally researched, studied, experimented with, and found a good answer.
He also runs a private Facebook community where bloggers share their experiences and can ask Brandon SEO and content-related questions directly. Can you imagine, he answers almost everyone?
I admire people like Brandon. Yes, he is a nerd (forgive me), but it is a compliment – I love nerds! They spend hours, weeks, years to create things we all gonna use and these things will be amazingly sophisticated on the backend and so easy to use for us – end users.
Brandon knows how it feels to have a blog, to write content, to compete with other bloggers to rank higher. And this is the best way to create a startup, a new product – when you know what your audience needs.
I’m sure he analyzed the key SEO tools on the market, and using them, especially Semrush, he realized HOW a good tool should work. A blogger needs to find a great keyword as fast as it is possible.
And that’s why he created RankIQ for other bloggers like him.
Brandon Gaille Podcast "The Blogging Millionaire" (you can listen to it on Google podcasts or on Apple)
How does RankIQ work?
RankIQ works so easily that it took his creator only 29 minutes to explain it step-by-step tutorial video.
The main 2 functions of this tool is to find a good keyword and find out how to create a post.
1 – Keyword Research Library
This is the gold mine for every blogger. Brandon Gaille hand-picked tons of the right keywords for the most popular niches first, when he released the tool in March. Now he’s constantly adding more niches and more keywords.
To find a keyword, you need:
- Select your target niche.
While I’m writing the first version of this post (June 2021) the Keyword library has about 200 niches, here is some of them:
- Food
- Fitness
- Health
- Dogs/cats
- Arts/Crafts
- Blogging
- Business
- Anime
- Books
- Career
- Christianity
- DIY
- Fashion
- Gardening, etc
So far, RankIQ is the market leader in Keyword libraries, as NONE of other SEO tools can offer anything like it.
Ex., you are a food blogger and you need to find a keyword for a new recipe. When you’re using other SEO tools you will manually search through over 6 mln recipe keywords. Instead, in RankIQ, you have a special Keyword Library Food: Recipes with 5,000 low competition keywords that your blog can easily rank for.
If you have a rare niche, you can contact Brandon before signing up and ask if there is a keyword library for you. You can also ask if it will be added soon and sign up later. (I like the level of customer support we can get as early birds).
2. Pick a target keyword
Some niches have less than 1,000 keywords, but big industries like travel and food have around 5,000 keywords each.
All keywords were manually selected by SEO experts before being added to these libraries. It means they are all getting traffic and are fast to rank.
When you selected a niche, you will have an alphabetic list of keywords within this niche. Each keyword has a competition or difficulty score, a volume (how many visits it gets per year), and a ranking time score.
You can sort the list based on Time to rank to get the most easy and fast to rank keywords.
You may think, that it is great, but all users will do the same and this keyword will no longer be easy. That is absolutely right, and that’s why Brandon is monitoring how many reports are run for each keyword. Once it reaches a certain limit, the keyword is retired and its Time to rank will change.
It means you’ll always have an up to date keyword database.
2 – My Keyword Library
Once you found a good keyword you pick it and Add it to your own library, which you can easily access from the menu.
In your keyword library, you have access to all keywords you selected and added with the same information: competition, number of visits per year, and time to rank.
You can also run reports directly from your keyword library and once a keyword has a report and you wrote a post, you will see the sign next to it. If you are used to working with files on your computer, you can download the list.
3 – AI SEO Report
Once you found your keywords, added them to your KW Library, and set up some sort of a post planner, you can get ready for writing.
Usually, without RankIQ, I will manually look through top30 competitors, make notes, find out their word count and outlines. It takes a lot of time.
Now, you have a green button next to each keyword “Run Report”. It takes 30 sec to 2 min to create a report for each keyword – an AI is pulling all the data and organizing it together.
You have access to all created reports from the main page:
An AI SEO report has 4 sections:
- Quick summary:
- grade = quality of the content you should write. It means how well you covered topics and anticipated users’ intent. How competitive your content should be.
- recommended word count, based on the AI research of 30 sources
- number of sources analyzed.
- Content Analysis – the list of topics Google wants you to cover. It means, AI analyzed that your competitors ranking on the 1st page included these topics and you should too. It is a perfect tool to create an outline. All topics are sorted by importance. You can always download the list.
- Title Analysis. We all know that our titles are crucial to the blog post’s success. So, RankIQ artificial intelligence gives you keywords that Google likes and ranks higher, also sorted by importance. Plus, you will see all the examples from Google search results.
- Competition Analysis. In order to get ideas, how the perfect article for this keyword should be like, you have AI selected TOP 3 performing blog posts.
When your preliminary research is done, you’re ready to write.
4 – Content Optimizer
Some people love writing, some people struggle. I’m both, in fact. Sometimes I feel so demotivated, that I can’t write a word, but some days nothing can stop me.
Writing for a blog is a bit different writing, as you not just create a text, you create it with specifications. Sometimes they are not clear at all. What to write about and how to make this post long enough? What else my readers want to know, how I can save their time surfing on the Internet and include as much as I can in my post?
Well, we have the preliminary research now, we crafted a top-notch Title, a target word count, and a long list of topics to cover. We analyzed competitors and created an outline – a structure for our post.
How to use best the list of topics? Brandon’s recommended way to use the report is:
Step 1 – Organise the top 40 topics from the list into one theme.
Step 2 – Identify the variations of the core theme.
Step 3 – Identify the keywords that may be semantically related (“LSI keyword”).
If you do so, Google will understand better what is your post about and will rank it higher and for more secondary keywords.
On the other hand, make sure you stick to the main theme, as keyword stuffing can hurt your SEO in the long run.
You can write the whole post in Google docs, in WordPress, in Word, or Pages on your computer and then paste it in the Content Optimizer, or you can write directly in RankIQ (which I don’t recommend to not lose your content if something happens).
The content grade score and word count will be updated in real-time, as well as the list of topics to include.
How I do it: I write a post considering all the recommendations, then I paste it in RankIQ, click Sow Unused topics, and double-check if my grade and covered topics are fine.
The same way you can Update old under performing content:
- run the research for the keyword your old post was aimed for. In this case, type your keyword in the Run report section on the main page:
- check the title, word count, topic recommendations.
- go to Content Optimizer, paste your old post and see how you can improve it.
- write more paragraphs to enrich your post with more topics covered.
- check again the grade and word count.
- republish
My results with RankIQ in 2022
I started use RankIQ with my partner (we are both bloggers) among one of the first – in March 2021.
When this search engine optimization software was released I didn’t believe it and the first week I was double-checking everything in SEMrush and Keysearch. Since April we don’t pay for SEMrush at all. I only use RankIQ for content writing.
So, we will look at how posts that I wrote with RankIQ performed in 3 blogs with different domain authority:
- blog A – new blog, started Jan 2021, DA 0-1
- blog B – old blog, high competition niche, DA 35
- blog C – old blog, high competition & high monetization niche, DA 35
I also want to say, that I had an idea for a 4th blog in YMYL niche, but from January till March I could not find low competition keywords with traffic potential – none. With RankIQ I had 40 keywords in 30 minutes.
So far, I was creating posts based on my old post planner and I decided to keep doing it along with testing RankIQ. I created 19 posts with RankIQ for 3 different niches: arts/crafts, marketing, and food.
Blog A
I started this blog only in January 2021.
My boyfriend recommended me once a great podcast to listen, as this podcast was clear, structured, with very specific actions to go. I enjoyed it. Ayou can guess, it xas The Blogging Millionaire podcast.
I did an online course about starting a blog in 60 steps, but the only result from it was frustration. The way I choose to go was to follow Brandon’s recommendations about blogging and combine it with our vision.
For baby blog A I created only 1 post, it was an update for a post I’ve already created. So far, it is still ranking around 81st. In this case, I will wait 4-6 months to evaluate the results, as the DA is non-existent right now.
Update Jan 2022: In less than one year, this blog gained a DA of 12 and joined Mediavine. The post written with RankIQ is among TOP-3 posts driving all the traffic to the blog!
Blog B
For the blog B I created 3 posts. It is a very competitive niche, so I had one ultra fast ranking keyword, and one Fast ranking.
| Posts | Time to rank | Date of publishing | First Organic hits from Google |
|---|---|---|---|
| Post #1 | Ultra fast | 21st June, 2021 | 22nd June, 2021 (YES, the next day) |
| Post #2 | Fast | 2nd April, 2021 | 24th May, 2021 24th June, 2021 average position is 9.5 |
Blog C
For the blog C I’ve created 15 posts with RankIQ. This part of experience was the best, as articles are ranking fast not only for the core keyword, but for some secondary keywords as well.
Average positions are based on Search console Performance report.
| Posts | Time to rank | Date of publishing | Ranking on Google in 2 months June 2021 (24th June) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Post #1 | Ultra fast | 26th April, 2021 | Avg. position: 7.6 2 months to rank on 1st page |
| Post #2 | Ultra fast | 27th April, 2021 | Avg. position: 16.2 |
| Post #3 | Ultra fast | 16th June, 2021 | Avg. position: 9.9 1 week to rank on 1st page |
| Post #4 | Ultra fast | 6th May, 2021 | Avg. position: 16.3 |
| Post #5 | Very fast | 12th April, 2021 | Avg. position: 34.7 |
| Post #6 | Very fast | 14th April, 2021 | Avg. position: 36.9 |
| Post #7 | Ultra fast | 2nd June, 2021 | Avg. position: 24 |
| Post #8 | Ultra fast | 10th May, 2021 | Avg. position: 33.2 |
| Post #9 | Ultra fast | 16th June, 2021 | Avg. position: 9 1 week to rank on 1st page |
| Post #10 | Ultra fast | 2nd June, 2021 | Avg. position: 19.1 |
| Post #11 | Very fast | 30th April, 2021 | Avg. position: 35.1 |
| Post #12 | Ultra fast | 3rd June, 2021 | Avg. position: – |
| Post #13 | Ultra fast | 3rd June, 2021 | Avg. position: – |
| Post #14 | Fast | 29th April, 2021 | Avg. position: 18.4 |
| Post #15 | Ultra fast | 6th May, 2021 | Avg. position: 30 |
As you can see some keywords take less than a WEEK to get to the first page of Google. I think it is the best proof that RankIQ is working, as these keywords I would never try without it.
I remind you that recommended actual time to rank for fast ranking keywords is 6-8 months. The keywords and posts I made with RankIQ outperforming 70% of my blog posts.
Since I was using RankIQ, I was no longer paying for Semrush. Still, I’m using Semrush sometimes for domain and keyword ranking monitoring, Moz for backlink check and spam score, and Keysearch to see the top 10 ranking websites for each keyword and sometimes double-check the volume in the US, precisely.
I also was curious about SERP results and if they are still valuable, as both Keysearch and RankIQ don’t have them. I messaged Brandon and he responded that this factor is no longer as important as it was before.
However, my experience and results show that if you’re still aiming for the SERP under 500,000 you’ll rank much faster. Especially, if you have some authority in the domain.
This article was created with RankIQ too. If you’re reading it, I guess you have the answer if this SEO tool is working 🙂
RankIQ Pricing 2022
RankIQ Standard Plan costs now $49,00. I joined RankIQ in March 2021 when it was in its beta phase and priced at $49/month, as I heard now $49 is with a $50 discount and I don’t know how long this promo will last.
At $49/month, you can run 16 reports (about $3 per report) and have unlimited access to Keyword libraries. Yes, it is that simple. RankIQ is one of the cheapest SEO tools on the market.
The regular price will be $99. For now it is still $49.
If 16 reports are not enough for you, you can update your account.
Comparison prices with main competitrots:
| SEO Tool | Price |
|---|---|
| RankIQ | from $49 |
| SEMRush | from $119 |
| Ahrefs | from $199 |
| Keysearch | from $17 |
Note, that none of the tools above, except for RankIQ will do AI-based keyword research for you. So you’re not only paying monthly with money, but you will invest a lot of your time, which you can spend on writing.
Pros and Cons Summary
Pros
- Hand-picked keywords libraries – unique on the market
- low competition good traffic keywords that will rank on the page in weeks or a couple of months
- 200+ niches and subniches
- AI-powered analysis
- Top 30 sources are analyzed instead of only the top 10
- ready to use a LONG list of topics to cover, sorted by importance
- ready to use Keywords for titles, sorted by importance
- easy to use for even a non-tech person, knowing nothing in SEO
- way to optimize old content
- option to run reports for your own keywords
- accurate and up-to-date suggested word count
- real-time content optimization
- save draft option
- great customer service so far
- chance to get responses from the Top blogger and SEO expert Brandon Gaille
- community – private FB group with full-time bloggers and Brandon.
- fast working (results in 30 sec – 2 min)
- constantly updating
- Good affiliate program
The price is one the biggest YES.
Cons
- It is not a bad thing, but just to remind – it is not an All-in-one SEO tool
- Not all keywords or topics may fit your style and approach.
- For some keywords word count can be extreme, but it is something they are working on right now (I asked via support).
- 16 keyword reports per month can be too much for a part-time blogger or not enough for a full-time blogger.
RankIQ finally made my blogging life easier.
WIth RankIQ, I need 10-30 minutes to find about 10-40 new keywords for MY specific niche new posts, to run a report for every keyword, to have ideas for Title, secondary keywords to use and, you have access to a Content Optimizer tool that will tell you exactly what is wrong with your article in real-time.
I admire Brandon and his team hard work, expertise in SEO and content creation, that make me a successful blogger.
RankIQ is not an All-in-one SEO tool, it doesn’t have an audit, backlinks, tracking, and many other features, and it is not supposed to be here. Personally, I think a beginner doesn’t need all of it. The main focus of a new blogger is creating excellent quality content.
We were waiting for something like Rank IQ. We are the first who tried it and I liked how easy and straightforward it is. It is a UNIQUE ranking tool on the market, and it is definitely a must-have for bloggers of ANY level.
FAQs
Is there a RankIQ discount or promo?
Introductory discount of $50, so the monthly subscription is $49.
Is there a RankIQ demo?
No.
Is there a free alternative to RankIQ?
No.
Does RankIQ have an Affiliate Program?
At the beginning there was no affiliate programs, but in June 2021 Brandon opened applications for RankIQ affiliate program.
Each new customer who will use your link will bring you $50.
Is RankIQ only for WordPress?
No. To use RankIQ you can have any hosting and blogging platform you like.
Is there a RankIQ Chrome extension?
No, so far.
Will RankIQ integrate with Google Search Console?
So far, there is no such information.