RankIQ Review: The Best SEO Toolkit for Bloggers?

There are many SEO tools out there, so the struggle to keep track of which are worth subscribing to is real. Today, we're looking at RankIQ: a keyword research tool. Does it stack up against Ahrefs and Moz?

John Angelo Yap

Updated March 27, 2024

A blogger doing keyword research, generated with Midjourney

A blogger doing keyword research, generated with Midjourney

Reading Time: 6 minutes

I’ve always wanted to write for a living. However, the question at the back of my mind has always been, “Will anybody actually read this?” And I imagine that it’s the question quietly looming over new bloggers as well. After all, why write if it will never be read?

Are you struggling to get your blog posts seen by the right audience? Ranking high in search engine results pages (SERPs) can feel like a never-ending battle, but with the right tools, it can be much easier.

In this review, we'll examine RankIQ, a comprehensive SEO toolkit designed specifically for bloggers.

We'll explore what RankIQ is, who it's for, its key features, and how it works. We'll even take you through a real-world use case to show you how RankIQ can help you optimize your content and improve your blog's visibility.

What is RankIQ?

So you have a website. What now? You increase its visibility to drive more traffic. You do your due diligence in keyword research. You write SEO-friendly articles. That’s what RankIQ does — it’s essentially a toolkit for content writers and bloggers everywhere by offering a variety of features to improve your search engine rankings.

RankIQ Landing Page

Who is RankIQ For?

Bloggers & Content Creators: Since bloggers are the primary source of written content for websites, they’re the ones who stand to benefit the most from RankIQ. It addresses the following pain points for bloggers:

  • Better understanding of the competition.
  • An effective way of looking for low-traffic, high-volume keywords.
  • Optimization of old content to catch up with current standards.

The Features of RankIQ

RankIQ has three main features, namely:

  • Keyword Library: One unique feature of RankIQ is its Keyword Library, a catalog of ready-to-use, low-competition keywords grouped by niche. It includes the following sections per keyword, which you can use to filter them: phrase, competition level, visits per year, category, and time to rank.
  • Content Optimizer: You can also use their writing assistant to optimize your new and old content to ensure it hits high-ranking keywords and performs well. Your articles will also receive a report that includes a content grade, competition analysis, title analysis, and more. 
  • SEO Audit: Get reports on the keywords that increase your traffic, an organic traffic summary, and details on pages that experience the most traffic growth.

Don’t worry. We’ll go through them in depth in a later section. But first, let’s address the elephant in the room …

How Much Does It Cost?

RankIQ has different pricing plans that are perfect for every need. After signing up for their service, you’ll be prompted to choose between these three options:

  • Standard: $49 for 15 SEO reports monthly.
  • Pro: $99 for 35 SEO reports monthly.
  • Agency: $199 for 80 SEO reports.

How RankIQ Works: Real Use Case

After subscribing to a RankIQ plan, the first thing you want to do is put your keyword at the top then press the “Run Report” button. For instance, I want to write articles about Midjourney so here’s what I’ll do:

Alternatively, if you’re unsure on what to write yet, you can click the “Keyword Library” option at the top. Once you’re inside the library, the first thing you’ll see is a dropdown menu containing literally thousands of niches inside.

You can also optimize your keyword research by tweaking the parameters of their analysis. Under the keyword dropdown, you can change the following options:

  • Competition.
  • Time to Rank.
  • Visits Per Year.
  • Keyword Type. (Choose between questions, comparisons, reviews, or listicles)

Once you’ve narrowed down the search, RankIQ provides you with a long list of high-potential keywords for your blog. Choose one that you like to write for, then press the “Run Report” button.

So, let’s return to the Midjourney keyword analysis. Once you’ve entered a keyword for reporting, you’ll be greeted by a dashboard containing the following information:

  • Content Target: How many people are likely to look for this keyword.
  • Optimal Word Count: How long should your blog posts be?
  • Competition: How many other blogs are writing about this topic.
  • Time to Rank: How long before your blog post hits the Google frontpage.

Scroll down a little and you’ll also see a list of topics that people like in Google. Let’s skip over this part first, but keep this list in mind.

Scroll down even further and you’ll see a list of keywords you should target for your title.

And at the very bottom, you should be able to view a list of the highest ranking competitions in your keyword and niche.

Okay, so now you have an idea of what to look for in a keyword. The question becomes, how can you actually apply this to your article? 

To start, scroll back up to the very top and select “Content Optimizer.” You should be redirected to a blank word editor. This is where you’ll write your article. At the top, you’ll see your targets, including a content score (which will climb when you hit the keywords at the right side of the screen) and target word count.

For the purposes of this exercise, I’ll use our old article titled “Is Midjourney Legit” as input.

Oh, that’s not good. You don’t want to see an “F” grade no matter the context. How can we improve this? Let’s start by hitting most of the keywords at the right.

As you can see, just by adding the keywords into your article, the grade climbed from an abysmal F to a respectable A-. And that’s without applying all into your article. In fact, out of the top 100 suggestions, I’ve only implemented 25 of them. This ensures that the article performs well in search rankings. That’s what you get with RankIQ.

The Bottom Line

As a blogger, it’s hard to ignore the features that other tools like Ahrefs and Semrush provide. However, what RankIQ does, it does well. It’s a great bang-for-your-buck subscription-based tool for every beginner blogger. Once you feel that you’ve outgrown RankIQ, you can always revisit other tools.

One thing I particularly like about this tool is its efficiency. No frills, but it gets the job in a fraction of a second that it takes other keyword research tools. One thing I do miss is AI-powered content optimizer, which lets you input your article and an AI tweaks it so you won’t go through the hassle of hitting keywords yourself.

We recommend trying out RankIQ to see if it fits your workflow and meets your expectations. Remember, SEO is a long-term game, and consistent effort is a must to achieve sustainable success in search rankings.

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Written by John Angelo Yap

Hi, I'm Angelo. I'm currently an undergraduate student studying Software Engineering. Now, you might be wondering, what is a computer science student doing writing for Gold Penguin? I took up studying computer science because it was practical and because I was good at it. But, if I had the chance, I'd be writing for a career. Building worlds and adjectivizing nouns for no other reason other than they sound good. And that's why I'm here.

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