71. Let's Pay Less: Do I Need to Pay for RankIQ?

Stephanie: [: 00:00:00

and that is not using up my Rank IQ credits by the end of the month. Because I don't know about you, but one of my biggest fears is not making the most of a resource that I'm paying for because if I value it enough to pay a fee for it each month, I need to value it enough to actually use it. And this episode is actually inspired by a listener question.

If you're new to the podcast [: 00:01:00

We talk more about it, we weigh out the pros and cons, and help you decide if it deserves a spot in your business budget. Now I never give a recommendation one way or the other because only you know your business best. Instead, these episodes are meant to give you some food for thought as you decide how you'll spend your dollar bills.

tool. It came on the scene in: 2022

And so just to kind of give you an idea of how this tool does all of that, first it has a keyword library [00:02:00] of low competition keywords that have been curated by these blogging experts. And you can use that library to explore different keywords that you might wanna use, and it has a lot of different niches.

So in the library, it gives you information about the keyword, like an estimate of how long it will take a post to rank, it gives you an estimated amount of traffic that you could get from that post per year, and then it also gives a competition ranking, and then an estimated amount of time needed to rank.

his report includes a letter [: 00:03:00

So just as an example, um, if you really needed to write a really strong post in order to be competitive, because that's what's ranking, it will tell you you need to write an a plus plus blog post. And then in addition to that, it gives you a suggestion for how long the post should be to make it competitive, and then the report gives you a list of up to 100 phrases

that pop up in the top ranking content for that keyword because one of the great things that AI can do is look for patterns. And so these are phrases that Google would likely expect to see in a post written on this keyword. But we're not done there. Also included in the report is a title analysis of the top ranking blog posts, and it shows you the words that are most commonly used in the titles of the ranking posts.

he page one rankings, and it [: 00:04:00

So all of those suggestions that it gives you in the report, it's loaded into this optimizer. And from there you can draft your post just like you would in Google Docs or in the back end of WordPress. You can write your post and as you write, rank IQ will give you a letter grade for your content. And that letter grade that I mentioned earlier, that is what becomes your target in the optimizer.

And then over time, rank IQ [: 00:05:00

So, you know, you're drafting your post in there. They have other ways to keep track of your content creation process, like which reports you've used, what part of the publishing process that you are in for that post. Like it has dropdowns and things that you can use to track. But anyway, the keyword library isn't the only way to get these reports that I've talked about.

You can actually bring your own keyword to rank IQ and run a report. I actually never spend time in the keyword library anymore. I prefer to do my own keyword research directly in Google, and then I run the keywords I find through Rank IQ to get that additional optimization information. Now, I know that that's not all of the features of Rank IQ, but we need to dive into the pros and cons of this platform.

about Rank IQ is that it's a [: 00:06:00

I loved that I was stretching my keyword research muscles with just that little bit of backup. Um, the reports take a minute or two to run, and so I loved that anticipation of plugging in my keyword, and then waiting for those stats to pop up. And I loved when it would say very fast time to rank because that meant I had picked a good keyword.

I that I get in my business. [: 00:07:00

it helps me plan my content without directly telling me what to write about. I can choose the phrases that best support the goal that I have for the post. And then finally, I think Rank IQ is a great time saving tool for keyword research. And it allows you to take care of some of the SEO tasks that can honestly just feel a little bit icky in the teacher business space because I know we're all about community over competition, so it can feel weird to visit the top ranking posts written by other teacher sellers and then analyze their content for common threads and the titles and all the things.

make it feel more like true [: 00:08:00

on someone else's blog and you're subconsciously just rewriting these posts. And so to sum up the pro section, rank IQ is a great tool for giving you confidence as you learn to write optimized content. I think it's more intuitive to use than some of the more expensive SEO tools because it was created by bloggers for bloggers.

e other SEO tools out there, [: 00:09:00

The second drawback of Rank IQ that I mentioned at the very beginning of this episode, is that they use a credit system. You can run 16 reports per month with your $49, but if you don't use those credits, you lose them. They do not roll over. I have heard that if you contact Rank IQ, you can ask them to purchase an unadvertised half package of eight credits for a lower price. I personally haven't looked into it and they might not do it anymore, but that is something I've heard and you could maybe give that a try if the cost, and honestly the amount of credits is holding you back there.

hat whole keyword library to [: 00:10:00

But then going back to the drawbacks, the third con is that you need to use it cautiously, in the current Google climate. We have been warned by Google not to write for robots. There are signals that Google uses to determine if a post has been over optimized. And so you might not want to get too caught up in the post optimizer part of Rank IQ.

oints just from that report, [: 00:11:00

So to sum it up, rank IQ can be a really helpful tool for bloggers, especially those who are just starting to focus on SEO. But it can also be helpful for seasoned bloggers who have a good handle on SEO, but just wanna save time on keyword research. Overall, it's a really user-friendly tool that's been designed with bloggers in mind.

You'll just really wanna make sure you're using it strategically, considering the current Google Climate, and you'll want to make sure that the price tag fits within your business budget. The other thing I wanted to mention is that Rank IQ is very easy to pause. You don't have to sign up for an annual subscription or anything.

til you need it again. So if [: 00:12:00

And just for full disclosure, I do receive a commission when I refer people to Rank IQ, but honestly, I would never refer you to anything that I don't use and love myself. Now, before we go, I have some news for you as we end this week's podcast. Pay less for traffic will soon be available on video in addition to the regular audio.

It's something that I've wanted to do for a while since many of our episodes would benefit from a visual for some of the things that I share on the podcast. Honestly, this week's episode would be a great example of that. I could have walked you through the back end of Rank IQ. Um, I do already have the audio version

cast episodes, but those are [: 00:13:00

My YouTube channel will also become a hub for other traffic related tips for teacher sellers. So if video content is your jam, be sure to subscribe to the Stephanie Royer Solutions channel on YouTube. But if you prefer the good old audio podcast, don't worry. Once everything is set up, you'll still have a fresh episode to look forward to every Saturday on your favorite podcasting platform.

But for my new YouTube friends, I'll see you soon, literally.

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