Do you want to improve your blog and get more website traffic? If so, this RankIQ review is for you. I’ll show you how RankIQ works, who it’s good for, and by the end you can decide if RankIQ is worth it for you.
Plus, make sure to scoll to the end…where I have a secret for you. (Don’t you love secrets!)
**This article contains affiliate links. I am an affiliate for RankIQ and will receive a commission if you sign up using one of the links in this article. I am an affiliate for RankIQ because I use and believe in the product. If I thought it was worthless I wouldn’t recommend it to you. And it may not be worth it for you…you’ll have to read on and make up your own mind.**
Note: I originally wrote this in May 2022, but it is now July 2023 and I’m still using RankIQ (and paying for it). So the short answer, is yes, it has been worth it for me.
What is RankIQ?
Rank IQ is a cloud-based software created by Brandon Gaille, the host of the Blogging Millionaire podcast.
It is designed for bloggers to help them get their blog posts onto the first page of Google.
I’ve been using the software for 15 months now. I’ve found it really helpful for creating new blog posts, and updating old posts.
So whether you’re a veteran blogger looking to update old posts, or a new blogger publishing brand new posts, RankIQ has something for you. It can help you achieve your goals of getting more organic search traffic to your website.
Since the software is housed on a website that you log in to, you can access it from any computer that has internet access. You aren’t limited to having the software downloaded to just one computer.
This freedom is great if you regularly use multiple computers.
What does RankIQ do?
First off, let’s look at what RankIQ does.
In a one sentence summary, RankIQ is a software that it tells you what words you should have in an article in order to have the best chance of ranking on the first page of Google for your target keyword.
You input your target keyword into RankIQ and the software uses artificial intelligence to scan the top 30 results in Google.
The basic idea is that these top 30 articles rank well in Google for a reason. They are deemed the best results for that particular keyword.
But why are they the best results?
What is the tie that binds all these top 30 together? What are the similarities shared by these top results? What are they doing right?
There are other ranking factors, but having the right keywords in your article is very important.
It’s like hitting the right notes to play a song correctly. If your article doesn’t hit the right notes (i.e. have the right words in it) then Google deems it to be unsatisfactory.
Google will think your article doesn’t have the best content to satisfy the searcher’s query, so you won’t be ranked well.
And not being ranked well, means you won’t get organic search clicks from Google or the other search engines.
So in summary, RankIQ analyzes the top 30 articles that rank for your target keyword and determines what words you’ll want to include in your article in order to rank on the first page of Google.
** Remember I share a secret with you at the end of this article. **
A Benefit of RankIQ – It Saves you Time
It would be time-consuming and a lot of hard work to manually scan through each of these top 30 search results to look for similar headers, sub-headers and bolded text.
But you can save a lot of time and have a better chance of ranking on the 1st page of Google by running a RankIQ AI-powered SEO report.
It does this content analysis in minutes instead of hours it would take you to manually slog through these articles.
These SEO reports give bloggers a real leg up on the competition.
You don’t have to guess what to include in your post, RankIQ shows you what to put in your blog post.
Incorporating these words and covering these topics about your target keyword will help you write better, more thorough content than your competitors.
And since Google’s primary job is to provide answers to people’s search queries…your higher quality content should rank higher than other websites.
It’s like putting your content creation on the fast track to success.
You’re giving the search engines what they want to see in their top results, and hence you’re giving readers the information they want to see. Win-win.
Want to give RankIQ a try?
Will RankIQ help new bloggers?
If you’re a new blogger then yes, RankIQ can help you.
It will give you a better shot of writing new articles that will actually show up on Google.
You could write spontaneous articles about whatever you want and blast them onto the internet.
But don’t be surprised if no one ever reads them.
Or if you’re writing articles for high traffic keywords that have lots of competition then your new site has a slim chance of ranking high in Google.
A better blogging strategy for newbies is to go after low competition keywords. Keywords that the bigger, more established websites haven’t gone after yet.
And unlike other keyword tools that are aimed at bigger companies with established marketing and SEO divisions, RankIQ is purpose-built for bloggers. Bloggers like you and me.
If you’re writing new content, do yourself a favor and read on….read about how RankIQ’s features can help you.
Will RankIQ help experienced bloggers with older websites?
RankIQ can absolutely help experienced bloggers with older websites. If you’ve been blogging for over a year you likely have dozens of articles that could – and should – be updated. But what do you change about them?
These old underperforming posts could turn into real traffic drivers for your site if you add the words and blog topics that RankIQ’s advanced AI says that article should have.
Just imagine how your blog, your income and your life could change if those old, deficient posts were transformed into winners!
I personally find that RankIQ is a really fun and satisfying way to update old posts. Sounds nerdy, but its true.
It makes it almost like a game.
I’ll get into more details later, but once you paste your existing content into the Content Optimizer it’ll grade it.
Just like you’re back in school again.
But this time, instead of comparing your work to the brainiac Jenny who sat in the front row, your article is basically compared to the top 30 results in Google for that keyword.
How does your existing post compare to the best of the best?
Well, RankIQ will give your old post a Letter Grade.
And then it is fun modifying and tweaking the old post, adding the appropriate words and watching your score improve!
No need to wait a week for a teacher to grade your paper…it does it instantly.
It is so satisfying.
(What I love about the interent is it isn’t written in stone. So your old post sucks and has a bad Letter Grade, that’s okay, you can change it.)
Once you’ve made the changes to the content of your article within the “Content Optimizer” section of RankIQ, you can copy it, paste it back into WordPress or other blogging platform and then click the update button.
The next time Google indexes your website it’ll hopefully see these new updates and start pushing your article higher up the rankings.
It’s not guaranteed you’ll get a 1st page Google ranking, but the changes should help make your article a better, more comprehensive piece of content.
What is the RankIQ Keyword Library?
The RankIQ keyword library is a curated collection of low competition keywords grouped into hundreds of different niches.
So instead of having to pay lots more money for a separate keyword research tool and then having to spend lots of time searching for low-competition keywords, RankIQ has a massive list of keywords you can use.
The software creator Brandon Gaille has combed the internet for keywords that even new blogs will have a chance of ranking for.
Each keyword listed in the keyword library has:
- a competition score (estimate of how hard it’ll be to rank for this keyword…lower number is less competitive therefore easier to rank for)
- estimated yearly traffic for ranking on page 1 of Google with an article targeting that keyword (Visits/Yr)
- Time to Rank (an estimate of how long it’ll take your article about this keyword to rank on Page 1 of Google)
Why is this Keyword Library a great tool?
One of the most tedious parts about SEO is finding the right keywords.
You can write a great article, but if you’re a new blogger writing new blog posts on a highly competitive topic, you aren’t going to show up on page 1 of Google.
Your new little website isn’t going to displace Page 1 heavyweights of the web such as CNN, New York Times, or Forbes. (These websites have what is called a high domain authority. And your new site will have a low domain authority.)
And if you aren’t on page 1, you basically won’t be seen.
So what can you do about this? You can keep writing articles without forethought and then complain that blogging doesn’t work. Or you can start picking low competition keywords.
These are keyword phrases that you actually have a chance of ranking for. If you search for one of these low competition keywords in Google you’ll notice the Page 1 results contain several smaller websites.
Now you have a chance.
Step into the content ring with these little sites and you’ll win by writing better content. And by “win” I mean ranking higher in Google and getting more traffic to your website. (And qualified traffic can lead to more money for you.)
RankIQ’s keyword library gives you a jumpstart on creating great content by providing you great keywords to start with. (Keywords vetted by the RankIQ founder.)
Like what you’ve read so far? Click the button below to try RankIQ
How to Use RankIQ – the included Keyword Research Library
Once you click on the Keyword Library tab at the top of the page you’ll see a dropdown box that says “Select your Niche“. You’ll see hundreds of different niches already included in here.
I suggest you slowly scroll through the list and see if your blog niche is already there.
If it includes your niche, select it and lots of keywords will show up on the page.
Once you’ve selected your niche and the keywords are visible, you can sort them by various attributes such as highest traffic potential. (Click the arrows next to “Visits/Yr” to organize them by estimated yearly traffic.)
If you find a keyword that looks great for your blog, you can either run the SEO report right from the Keyword Library by pressing the green “Run Report” button, or you can save it to “My Keyword Library” and then run the report in the future.
To save a keyword to the “My KW Library” feature there is a little checkbox to the left of the keyword. Check that box and then press the blue “Add Selected To Your Keyword List” button. This is great for saving keywords to come back to later.
Note: I originally wrote this in early 2022 and since then RankIQ has added a lot more niches, and more features to improve their Keyword Library.
You can click here to read my updated, thorough tutorial on how to use RankIQ for keyword research.
Don’t click the “Run Report” button until you’re ready to write your post.
This is advice from the RankIQ founder Brandon Gaille.
And this is because when you click the run report button the AI-powered software scans the top search results at that very moment. So the results are up to date as of the time you run the report.
If you run the report now but don’t plan on writing the article for a couple days, weeks or months, then the whole search result landscape could have changed by then. New articles could appear in the results that your SEO report doesn’t account for.
So wait until you’re ready to write your great article.
RELATED ARTICLE: How to use RankIQ to get more traffic to your blog
What if my Blog Niche isn’t in this list? – will RankIQ still be worth it for me?
I have three main points concerning this.
1) If your blog niche isn’t included in this list of niches, there may still be keywords in the keyword library that pertain to your niche.
For instance, if your blog is about getting fit for boxing, and there isn’t a dedicated and separate niche for this in the Keyword Library, there may still be keywords listed under the other niches that could pertain to your topic.
You could find other keywords related to exercise, nutrition and motivation that may work for your niche and target audience.
The Keyword Library features a search bar where you could type in keywords and it’ll scan the entire Keyword Library and return pertinent results.
2) You can run SEO Reports for any keyword you want.
I go into more detail on this in the section below, but it’s important to remember that you can run a RankIQ AI-powered SEO report on any keyword you want.
It doesn’t have to be in the included Keyword library.
3) The founder Brandon Gaille will do the keyword research for you.
If your niche isn’t already included in the keyword library you can contact customer service. They’ll send you a form to fill out so that Brandon has all the info he’ll need to find great keywords for your niche.
Can I run SEO reports on keywords that are NOT in the Keyword Libraries?
Yes, you absolutely can.
If you discover a new keyword that you really want to write about – but it’s not in the included RankIQ keyword library – you can still get an AI-powered SEO report for that keyword.
It will produce a quality SEO report for you that has the words you should include to improve your chances of ranking high for that keyword.
You can easily run these reports right from the home page of RankIQ.
Below is a screenshot of the RankIQ home page. They make it easy to run reports for keywords not in the library.
It will also suggest how good the content should be (based on a letter grade), and the recommended word count.
But it doesn’t give you an estimate of yearly traffic for a well-ranking article based on that keyword.
I believe that yearly traffic estimate that you’ll see with keywords listed in the included Keyword Library has been determined by the software creator. So it is not a factor that is determined by the AI-powered software at the time of creating your new report.
So if you come across a great keyword using another SEO tool, like AHREF’s or UberSuggest, RankIQ can still benefit you.
If you think you can rank for the keyword, but you want to improve your chances of doing so, you can get the help of RankIQ.
Give the people – and the search engines – what they want. Use the recommended words from the SEO report and write high-quality content that Google will reward you for and your readers will thank you for.
What is the RankIQ AI SEO Report?
When it comes down to it, what we’re paying for are these SEO reports. That’s what I’ll discuss in this section.
Once you’ve found a great keyword that you want to write about it’s time for the AI to do its magic. And the result of the magic is a comprehensive SEO report.
At the top of the report there are some recommendations you’ll need to consider to rank well. (As shown below.)
Suggested Content Grade
The AI software determines a letter grade on how good your article will have to be in order to rank on the first page of Google.
To be honest, I don’t know exactly how they evaluate this.
But I don’t need to know how electricity works to turn on a light switch.
When it comes to the recommended grade I just know that the more of the suggested words I use in my article, the more my letter grade improves.
Suggested Word Count
This analysis shows that to compare with the other top 30 results, this is the number of words your article should have.
If the other articles have 2,000 words, but you only have 500, it is doubtful you’ll contend with them.
Sources Analyzed
Usually the AI software scans through the top 30 results of Google, but if there aren’t 30 quality results for your keyword, it sometimes analyzes a couple less. I’ve seen 28 sources a couple times, but usually it is 30.
Content Analysis Report
If you continue to scroll down on the AI SEO Report page you’ll come to a section called Content Analysis.
This is where the really good stuff is.
It’s this content report section where the AI displays the words that your article should have in order to rank well in Google. It usually lists about 40 words. Below is one of the reports I’ve ran with most of the words blurred out.
Each of these words is given a score and the higher the score means you should put a higher priority on including these terms in your article. This is a proprietary score and they don’t share how they come up with it, but basically the more important words are at the top and have a higher score. So try to include them.
What should you do with the RankIQ Content Analysis Report?
Brandon Gaille suggests you print out the report and look it over.
What you’re ultimately trying to do is incorporate those 40 words into one cohesive article about the keyword. In the RankIQ tutorial video Brandon describes it as using the 40 words to come up with “one theme.”
How do the words all tie together?
1) First look through the words and see if there are nouns or verbs pertaining to your keyword topic that should be in the article. Circle or highlight these words.
For instance, if you’re writing a recipe post, many of the words in this list may be ingredients. Circle these ingredients and make sure your recipe article touches on these ingredients. (Even if it’s to say, “I don’t use _____ as an ingredient because….”
2) Then look through the remaining list of words in the Content Analysis Report. Are some of these words variations on things you’ve already highlighted?
An example Brandon gave in his tutorial video is about the keyword “French Toast Recipe.” The list of words included several variations pertaining to bread. This lets the blogger know they should dedicate a section to selecting the right bread for this French toast recipe article.
3) Now most of the remaining words are what are sometimes called LSI keywords. (LSI stands for Latent Semantic Index.) These are basically words that are synonyms or contextually-related to your keyword. Using these keywords in your article may help Google to understand what your article is about. (For more information on LSI keywords click here to see an article on Backlinko.)
Title Analysis section
A great article with a crappy title is like wrapping an amazing gift inside a dumpy cardboard box: no one wants to open that up.
So give your well-written article a chance of being clicked on by giving it a top-notch title.
RankIQ has a title analysis section where it looks at the top 10 titles for your keyword (on the right side in the picture above) and it gives you suggestions on the words you should have in your title (the “Top Keywords” section on the left in the picture above).
Using these RankIQ recommendations should help you create a great title that gets clicked on.
What is the RankIQ Content Optimizer?
When you run an SEO report for your target keyword phrase, RankIQ gives you a list of words that you should include in your article to write a high-quality comprehensive article on this keyword.
This is super cool and worth its weight in gold, but RankIQ actually goes a step further.
It has a tool called the Content Optimizer that is like an easy to use word processor.
You type in the left hand text box, and the right side of the screen has a list of keyword phrases that RankIQ says you should try to have in your article.
If you haven’t incorporated these phrases into your article yet, they’ll appear bolded
Then when you do type one of these phrases into the text box, the phrase becomes un-bolded and has a green, circular check-mark icon next to it. It allows you to see that you’ve already used that phrase in your article.
Below is a screenshot of the RankIQ content optimizer.
The Content Optimizer is for writing new posts, and for improving old posts.
It’s this content optimizer feature that I really love.
Writing New Posts with the Content Optimizer
You can write new articles directly into the Content Optimizer and be assured you’ve written a comprehensive article.
You’ve covered the basics on what Google is looking for in a high-ranking article for that particular keyword.
Improving Old Posts using the Content Optimizer
Get your old articles on the right track by using the Content Optimizer.
You can paste your old articles in here and it’ll give you a grade.
Then you can start incorporating the words from the “Topics to Include” list into your article.
And it’s not only adding certain words or phrases to “fluff” up the article.
You can actually make your article more thorough and helpful by adding topics that you may have forgot the first time around.
It feels good watching the letter grade improve as you enhance your article.
RankIQ Pricing
RankIQ pricing is based on a monthly subscription.
No need to commit long term, and you can cancel when you want to.
For the rate of $49 US per month you get to run 16 of the AI-powered SEO reports.
(They claim this price is only for a limited time: that they’ll increase the price to $100. I got in at $49 per month.)
At first I thought, that doesn’t sound like many reports, “only 16 reports per month.”
But whether this is too little or too many reports really depends on how often you publish to your website. (And how many old posts you have on your site.)
16 reports per month would give you the groundwork to write 16 high-quality blog posts per month or 4 per week.
That exceeds the needs of most individual bloggers.
But keep in mind that RankIQ isn’t just about writing new articles. You can also update and improve old articles with RankIQ.
And from my experience, that takes me less time than writing a new post.
What if I need more than 16 reports per month?
If you’re a prolific blogger or have several content creators on your team then 16 reports per month may not be enough.
Fear not, RankIQ offers upgraded plans that allow more than 16 SEO reports per month.
And there is even a lighter plan that offers 8 searches per month for the current price of $29
The RankIQ tool has value beyond just the SEO Reports
One of the benefits of RankIQ besides the SEO reports is the keyword list that is included in their Keyword Library.
Once you’re subscribed there is no limit to looking at these keywords. You can scroll through these keyword libraries all you want.
Keep in mind these keywords have been curated by the software creator – Brandon Gaille – a top blogger who uses his keyword research process to compile this massive – and growing – list of low competition keywords.
You can use these keywords as blog post ideas.
With only 16 reports per month you may not be able to run a RankIQ SEO report for every great keyword you find, but you could still write an article aimed at that keyword.
And then in the future, after the post has aged a bit, you could always optimize it using RankIQ.
PROS about RankIQ – what i like about it
Ease of Use
RankIQ is easy to use. They have a tutorial video that is about 20 minutes long, which they suggest you watch. I suggest it too. Because after this short video I was able to jump right in and start using RankIQ.
Quick to Learn
It doesn’t have much of a learning curve and it’s quick to learn and use.
I bet you’ll be able to write your first article within hours of getting RankIQ because it doesn’t take much time to learn.
RankIQ makes it fun to update old posts
Watching your content’s letter grade improve is like playing a game. This gamification of content optimization makes it a pleasure to use.
Great Customer Support
To prepare this RankIQ review I had some questions about the software. I emailed customer support and they got back to me quickly: within a couple hours.
If you need quicker support they have a chat feature right on their website.
The Results
So far I’ve been happy with the results I’ve achieved using RankIQ. (I elaborate on my results further below.) My updated old posts are crawling up the rankings and my new posts are ranking in the top 30.
CONS about RankIQ
I don’t have any serious gripes about RankIQ, but it wouldn’t be an honest review if I didn’t mention some of the negative things and irritants about the software.
The main one for me is that there are some glitches when it comes to using the “Content Optimizer”.
This is the word processor-style editor where you type up your article and try to incorporate the words they suggest.
Maybe they’ll fix this by the time you read this, but right now, when you type in the Content Optimizer and use one of the words they suggest from the right-side of the screen (“Topics to Include” section), the cursor will jump down to another line or add extra spaces in your document.
Not a big deal, but it does break the flow of my writing a little bit.
The other glitch with the Content Optimizer happens when you paste things into the document.
When you want to rearrange your sentences, and cut a sentence from one spot in the document and paste it in another spot, the website frame shifts to the top of the page. Then you have to scroll back down again to find where you were.
Once again, not a deal-breaker but it does interrupt the writing flow.
Not for use on Mobile
Just so you know, RankIQ is only for laptops or desktops. I don’t know if this is even a CON because all bloggers I know use a computer, but hey, I needed to add it somewhere in this review.
You’ll Lose your Reports if you Cancel your Subscription
If you cancel your RankIQ subscription you’ll lose access to the SEO reports you ran while being a subscriber.
If you are stopping blogging all together this won’t be a problem for you.
But if you are just planning on taking a break from the software you’ll need to make sure you download all the lists of words for the reports you ran. (Which is easy to do.)
OR…you could downgrade your plan to the “Lite Plan” which is currently only $29 per month and still have access to your old reports.
My Results from using RankIQ
This is what you want to know: results.
I’ve been using RankIQ for over 15 months now. (And I still pay for it monthly and use it daily.)
During that time I’ve updated dozens of my old articles.
I’ll use two articles as mini case studies below.
I copied my existing article and then pasted it into the Content Optimizer pane of RankIQ. The initial letter grades I got were pretty bad. Basically I was missing the mark with these articles.
I wasn’t hitting on the topics and using the words required to rank higher.
So I had some fun adding the suggested words and improving my content’s letter grade.
Once I got my old articles up to par with the RankIQ suggestions, I copied them and pasted them back into WordPress and then updated the article. (I check to make sure the article is formatted like I want before I update.)
Here are the results of my old articles I updated using RankIQ
Article #1
This article was initially ranked #67 in Google on March 08 2022.
After updating it using RankIQ it is now ranked #10.6 in less than 2 months. So it’s right on the cusp of being a “first-pager”.
You can see that so far the clicks haven’t exactly been streaming in, but I’ve significantly improved my blog post’s ranking by using RankIQ. I’m confident with some more time this article will start getting more page views.
Article #2
For this old article I ranked at #41.2 before RankIQ as of March 16 2022.
After I updated the post using RankIQ’s suggestions, it improved to position #29.6 in about 2 months.
This one hasn’t jumped up as much as Article 1 has, but I think it still has some legs and will creep up higher in the rankings.
(You’ll notice the impressions have gone down despite my ranking position improving. I believe this is because of the seasonality of the keyword. People aren’t searching for it as much in May versus March.)
My Results from Writing New Articles using RankIQ
I’ve also written three new articles using RankIQ‘s SEO reports.
Within 2 months of getting the software I already had two of the articles ranking on page 1 of Google for their target keyword.
The third article is currently ranking on page 3 of Google. And I have a feeling it’ll move up even higher.
To be fair, I chose low competition keywords so I may have ranked well for these keywords even if I hadn’t used RankIQ.
But I feel like using RankIQ was a good SEO strategy for the long run because I feel confident I’ve written a thorough piece of content that will be able to ward off competitors.
These articles should continue to hold their high ranking for years to come.
Do you think RankIQ will be worth it for you?
So, after everything we’ve gone over, do you think RankIQ will be worth it for you?
If yes, click here to sign up for RankIQ and start improving your blog today.
I’ve been very happy with RankIQ over the 15 months I’ve used it. It’s like an SEO tool and a research assistant in one. (It tells me what topics to include in my article.)
I feel comforted knowing I can downgrade my subscription to an 8 report per month plan, or even cancel my plan if I needed to.
The RankIQ price is an expense for my online business and I only like to pay for things that help make me money or save me time.
And RankIQ can do both. So for me, it’s worth it.
If you’re a new blogger or a blogger with years of blog posts behind you, I believe RankIQ has something for you.
If you want to get started writing great new articles and updating old ones, check out RankIQ today.
Secret to share with you…
I promised I had a secret for you.
And the secret is that I used RankIQ to help me write this article!
It gave me a helping hand by providing the words I needed to have to rank an article about the software itself.
Talk about meta!
I entered the keyword “RankIQ review” into the ‘Run New Report’ box and then I used the SEO report to plan this article.
So if you’re reading this article and you found it from Google, it shows that RankIQ works.
If that convinces you to give it a try, you can CLICK HERE to get started on RankIQ.
You May Also Like:
How to use RankIQ to boost traffic to your blog
Tutorial on how to use RankIQ for keyword research
100+ of the best Side Hustle Ideas to make extra money on the side
Want to easily make graphics for your blog or business?
If so, check out my review of Canva Pro (so you can see if it’s worth it to get the Pro version)
