RankIQ Review (SEO Tool For Food Bloggers 2024)
Are you the owner of a food blog wondering if RankIQ can help you “hack” the SEO game? In this honest RankIQ review, I will break down some of the pros and cons I’ve found as a food blogger and current RankIQ user.
First, I’d like to preface this review by saying I am not an SEO expert. However, I have been a food blogger since 2018, and after way too many years of doing SEO all wrong, I finally understand the basics of what is required to rank on the first page of Google search results. In January 2024, I qualified for Mediavine and have been slowly improving my reach and income, thanks to tools like RankIQ. To see how my monthly income drastically increased since joining Mediavine, check out my first Food Blog Income Report.
Disclaimer: This post may contain affiliate links, which means if you decide to purchase any of the items linked in this post, I should earn a small commission. This creates no additional cost to you and helps support the work that goes into running The Fig Jar. Thank you! -Becky
In this review, we’ll dive into RankIQ’s features, how I use it as a food blogger, some pros and cons, and some of the ways to boost your blog’s organic reach to climb search engine rankings. This is by no means an exhaustive article on all the ways you can use this great tool. As a newer user of RankIQ myself (having spent 7 months at the time of writing this article), I have written this review for new bloggers and specifically those who are food blogging. So let’s jump right in!
What is RankIQ?
In short, RankIQ is a keyword research tool that helps improve your website’s SEO (search engine optimization). In layman’s terms, it helps your website get noticed by Google and placed higher in search results.
RankIQ combines advanced keyword research, AI-powered SEO analysis, and content optimization tools in an easy-to-use interface. With a long list of optimization features, the platform claims to simplify the process of optimizing new and existing content, discovering relevant keywords, and tracking the success of bloggers’ SEO efforts.
Who Created RankIQ?
RankIQ was created by Brandon Gaille, a successful blogger and host of the Blogging Millionaire Podcast.
According to The Blogging Millionaire Podcast’s website, Brandon teaches “the latest traffic building and income-boosting growth hacks to take your blog to the next level.” He also claims to receive 5 million monthly visitors from over 100,000 first-page Google rankings.
I have actually listened to the full backstory he presents in his podcast and I found it to be very inspiring, just on a personal level. I was especially impressed by the amount of difficulty he experienced in his youth and how educating himself led to the success he has today.
But what originally drew me to use RankIQ was that it claims to make content creation easier for bloggers, giving them the best chance of appearing in search engines’ top results. A bit later, I’ll discuss how I’ve been using RankIQ in conjunction with other SEO tools to do just that.
RankIQ Pricing
RankIQ has a few different subscription tiers for a variety of needs. The Starter Plan (which is the plan I started with) is $49 per month. This includes 16 SEO Reports per month. This plan is perfect for bloggers with limited time to keep up with the pace outlined in RankIQ’s suggested monthly post scheduler: 8 new posts and 8 old posts. As a part-time blogger, this plan is perfect for me. They also offer a Pro Plan and an Agency Plan, which run $99/month and $199/month, respectively. Pro Plan users start with 36 SEO Reports at the beginning of each month, and Agency Plan users start with 80.
RankIQ’s Features
Now let’s discuss some of the features that have made RankIQ such a hit among content creators. RankIQ offers several features that make it a great tool for food bloggers looking to rank higher in search engines’ results. Here are some of those key features:
Keyword Library
One of RankIQ’s most useful features is its keyword research tool. In a constantly evolving online environment, keyword research is essential for any successful SEO strategy. With the help of RankIQ, bloggers can discover higher-volume, lower-competition keywords that are relevant to their specific niche. This helps content creators find keywords that will attract the right audience to their blog without getting lost in a hundred other blogs that are competing for the same terms.
According to RankIQ, their keyword database includes a curated list of long-tail keywords that are specifically designed to match users’ search queries. This allows bloggers to create content that is better targeted toward the exact search intent of their audience. By focusing on long-tail keywords, bloggers are more likely to rank higher on search engine results pages (SERPs) and therefore drive traffic to their sites.
Within RankIQ’s keyword library, bloggers will find suggestions for blog post topics that are optimized for their niche and target keywords. This can be super helpful when you’re struggling to come up with new content ideas or need inspiration for your next post.
AI-Powered SEO Reports
One way that search engines understand the topic of a web page is by using the LSI words (or latent semantic indexing keywords) related to a specific keyword phrase. RankIQ uses artificial intelligence to break down all of these related LSI terms and phrases to help you write as complete a post as possible. This tool gives you a list of words to include in your post to aid in content creation, giving you a better chance to rank in Google.
Dashboard
RankIQ’s dashboard gives you a holistic overview of all your SEO work. Part of the difficulty of doing SEO work is that it’s easy to lose track of which posts you’ve updated already (I’ve heard that updating posts too often can also hurt SEO). One thing I like about the dashboard is the ability to see how many new and old posts I’ve optimized each month in a handy chart.
I’ve set my goal to 8 new posts and 8 updates per month and even if I don’t hit the mark, I’m keeping my goals front and center every time I log in.
Content Analyzer
One of RankIQ’s major features is its SEO Content Analyzer. By scanning your posts for important SEO factors like keyword density and overall content quality, this tool makes it easy to optimize your existing blog posts. It also gives you a list of relevant keywords to include in your post, content targets that tell you how many words your post should contain, and, most importantly, a list of the top-ranking pages for your target keyword. This gives you the ability to see what your competitors are doing right and suggestions for how you can improve.
Content Optimizer
RankIQ makes content optimization a breeze with its content optimizer. This is where you’ll type up a draft of your post using the information you’ve gathered from the SEO Report. Below, I will discuss how I use this feature to write all of the posts on my blog. As someone who is not particularly versed in advanced SEO, this feature is a huge help in my content creation.
Does RankIQ Work for Food Blogs?
Yes, it does! RankIQ has a ton of niches for all types of content creators, including nearly 150 very specific food niches. From “Air Fryer” to “Vegan Desserts”, there are lots of existing niches to choose from. And, if your specific niche is not already on the list, you can request that your niche be added.
How I use Rank IQ as a food blogger
Creating Reports in RankIQ
The first step to optimizing a post is to run a new report. Once you have found your target keyword phrase, you will type it into the box (screenshot below) and click ‘Run report’.
While you wait, you’ll get some inspirational quotes, which I must say, I do enjoy. 🙂
Using RankIQ’s Title Grader and Title Analysis Tool
This is one of my favorite features in RankIQ. For me, trying to get a “perfect” score feels a bit like a video game. However, sometimes, a “perfect” post title does seem excessively long and I wonder if that is really necessary in order to rank. Sometimes I settle to leave the title with a rating of “Good” in order to keep the integrity of my post title so it’s accurate but also doesn’t sound gimmicky or spammy. All in all, this tool is very helpful for making sure to add all of the terms that search engines like to see in posts written about your specific keyword.
Using RankIQ’s Content Optimizer
Full disclosure: I used RankIQ‘s content optimizer to write this very post! As you can see, all of the LSI terms are listed along the right side of the content editor, listed in order of importance to search engines. Each term will be highlighted in green when you use it in your post. Also, as you use more of these terms and phrases, your post “Grade” (listed at the top of the content editor) will improve.
The same will happen to the “Words” meter at the top when your word count surpasses the recommended value (in parentheses). I use this tool for every new post and post update I write. It’s really straightforward and provides an easy way to gauge my progress and when to know how much content is “enough” to satisfy Google’s requirements.
Ultimately, posts and websites that are focused on the user, and not a fixed list of words are going to perform best in search engines (yes, they are extremely smart now!). So, you’re not going to want to “stuff” these words in your post to make it rank higher. That will actually decrease your likelihood of Google ranking your post and may even result in some “flags” or manual actions against your site which hurts your standing with Google.
Using RankIQ’s Rankings Audit Tool to Track Performance
By connecting your Google Search Console account, RankIQ can pull data from all of your posts to give you easy-to-read reports about which posts need to be improved in order to rank higher on search engines. I find this tool extremely useful in helping me find which posts to update next. I usually compare the data I find here with Search Console’s data, going back to the past year to see if a post is ranking higher or lower over time.
As recommended by RankIQ, I only update posts that have a 28-day rank of 2.99 or higher (meaning ranking lower on the search results page) for the highest volume term. Using the search bar at the top of the page, I simply copy and paste in one of the URLs I want to examine and see how it’s ranking. Of course, you could simply “google” the keyword that the post is ranking for and count which position it’s in. But this tool conveniently shows you all of the terms for which you’re ranking for a specific post, which is super helpful!
This tool also gives you a great snapshot of the posts that have grown (and contracted) in the same time period of the previous year. It shows you where you have “leaky buckets”, or where other bloggers are “stealing” traffic that used to be going to your site. Many of the posts listed in the following screenshot were updated using RankIQ. As you can see, most of them grew exponentially since last year!
My Honest RankIQ Review: Pros and Cons
Since I started to use RankIQ in April of 2023 (7 months ago), I’ve found a number of pro’s and cons to using it. Let’s go through them:
RankIQ Review: Pros
RankIQ offers a number of benefits that can make it a valuable tool for bloggers and content creators. Here are some of the pros I’ve found:
Pro #1: It Gets Results Quickly!
According to RankIQ’s website, updating old posts “is one of the easiest ways to increase your traffic and income.” And I can say honestly that after updating a number of old blog posts using RankIQ, I have seen huge gains in organic traffic to certain posts.
Pro #2: Easy To See Which Posts Need Reworking
By using the Rankings Audit Tool, bloggers can take the hard work out of doing research on which posts are gaining traffic and which are losing traffic over time, allowing you to monitor your keyword rankings in real-time. This is crucial for understanding the specific keywords that are driving traffic to your blog and identifying opportunities for optimization.
Pro #3: Run By Bloggers, Recommended by Bloggers
Unlike other SEO research tools that can be a bit complex for beginners, I’ve found that RankIQ is really simple to use since it’s made by bloggers specifically with bloggers in mind. And I’m not the only one who has benefitted from using RankIQ. The list of bloggers at all levels of success who have used RankIQ to optimize their content has been growing. Furthermore, typically bloggers with higher incomes and traffic are the ones recommending it, which suggests that once you commit to a schedule of creating and updating content with RankIQ, it’s not long before you find success.
Pro #4: Affordable by Comparison
This is a point that I almost put in the “Cons” section, as I can’t afford to take any extra cost lightly. As a relatively smaller blog, I need to keep costs low in order to turn a profit. However, due to some of the gains I’ve seen after updating old posts and writing new content using RankIQ, this is a cost I’m willing to pay. After comparing similar tools (such as Ahrefs and SEMRush), which cost upwards of $129 per month, $49 seems very reasonable. It appears that the $49/month rate (half off of the standard $99/month) is a standard discount for all new subscribers that doesn’t expire.
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RankIQ Review: Cons
While RankIQ offers many advantages, it’s not without its drawbacks. Here are a few cons to consider:
Con #1: Updating Old Posts Takes Longer Than 30 Minutes
According to RankIQ’s website, food bloggers can “optimize old underperforming posts in less than 30 minutes.” After using the Content Optimizer dozens of times to update old posts, this process can take significantly longer than 30 minutes. While this process is a bit more laborious than advertised on their website, I don’t have a problem investing an hour into an old post if it means it can rank higher in search results. On the positive site of this con, the time RankIQ saves you in having to go check out every post in the top 10 ranked pages in search results is enormous. So this con is really me being picky!
Con #2: Requires Use of Other Keyword Tools
As I mentioned above, in my experience, I find that I still need to use Keysearch to find the right keywords to focus on. Some of the keywords and phrases that are suggested by RankIQ seem too good to be true, showing an extremely high volume. This is when I go to Keysearch to compare volume and competition. In reality, this may not be as much of a “con” as it is being smart. As with anything, a second opinion is never a bad idea. Especially when you are potentially going to be spending hours writing a quality post (not to mention, developing recipes, cooking, and photography, in my case)!
Con #3: Debate Over Quality of Low Competition Keywords
Before using RankIQ, the only SEO tools I used were KeySearch and the free Yoast plugin on my WordPress site. Since I started using RankIQ in April of 2024, I have noticed a bit of a difference between the estimated volume of keywords in Keysearch and that of the keywords in RankIQ. RankIQ claims that its keywords are constantly being updated and curated by their team.
However, some criticism I’ve heard about this process by experts like Casey Markee (on the Food Blogger Pro podcast) is that there is no way for anyone to predict Google’s search volumes this accurately. Casey also says that by providing all RankIQ users with the same set of low-competition keywords, it automatically creates competition for those terms. Basically, many bloggers can attempt to optimize for the same keywords at the same time. For this reason, I have continued to cross-reference the keywords I find in RankIQ with those I find in Keysearch, so I’m getting a “second opinion” from a different source. It should also be noted that Casey Markee runs his own SEO marketing business, so he may have an interest in questioning RankIQ’s process.
My Conclusion: Is RankIQ Worth it?
In this RankIQ Review, we’ve discussed its features, pricing, pros and cons and how I use it as a food blogger. As a smaller blogger, my honest conclusion is that it is worth it! The amount of time that RankIQ saves me in terms of researching top-ranking blog posts on Google is definitely a no-brainer.
Even more experienced bloggers would benefit from the optimization features that RankIQ offers. It’s easy enough for non-SEO-experts to get the hang of quickly but powerful enough to keep the expert bloggers at the top of their ranking game.
With algorithms constantly changing, it’s more important than ever to make your posts “algorithm-update-proof”. And being able to keep an eye on how your posts are doing over time in one concise location is a God-send in this uncertain world. I love the ability to see all of the keywords I’m ranking for show up all in one place without having to do major research in Keysearch or Google Search Console.
The founder of the tool, Brandon, has also created lots of videos explaining how to use each tool in the program, so you can hit the ground running. And as I just discovered, Natalie Gaille (Brandon’s wife?) just made a “Help” feature available from almost any page on the platform, so you can quickly get answers to questions quickly.
I’d strongly recommend giving this awesome tool a try!
Examples of Posts I’ve Written/Updated Using RankIQ
My post “How to Make Herb Salt” has gone bananas since updating it using RankIQ. It was posted in 2021 and got minimal traffic since then. However, after being updated using RankIQ, it went from getting just 67 views last year to 2473 views this year. Not bad! Here are some more posts that have seen an increase in traffic since using RankIQ.
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