Surfer SEO vs RankIQ: My findings after testing both

Want the best on-page optimization tool but don’t know which to choose between Surfer SEO vs RankIQ?

No worries!

I have tested both and used them to optimize my pages.

I will share my findings with you in this comparison guide for you to choose which suits you best.

Surfer SEO vs RankIQ [Overview]

My Take 

Surfer SEO has a strong edge over RankIQ. It’s a complete content intelligence tool that has advanced features you need to plan your content, optimize it and drive massive organic traffic. It is suitable for any type of online business that involves content planning, editing, and auditing with aim of ranking pages higher on Google search results.

RankIQ has mid-range features that focus on helping bloggers to identify low competition keywords with high search which they can rank easily.

While Surfer’s competitor analysis gives insight into the backlink profile of your competitors which is key to outrank them, RankIQ doesn’t.

RankIQ doesn’t have collaboration features, unlike Surfer which allows you to share the link to your content with others and also invite up to 10 members of your team to work with you on a project.

The advantage RankIQ has over Surfer is that it does the heavy lifting of handpicking low competition keywords with high search volume which you can write and rank for easily in different niches.

The bottom line: Surfer is a complete SEO optimization tool while RankIQ is best for bloggers that want to rank for different keywords in their niches easily.

Below are some testimonials from Surfer users from its official Facebook community.

Try Surfer SEO

Try RankIQ

What is Surfer SEO?

Surfer SEO is an all-in-one content intelligence tool that helps you come up with content ideas, plan, edit, and optimize your page to rank high on Google search results and drive massive organic traffic.

Michael Suski, a renowned SEO expert founded this AI SEO tool in 2017 to stop the guesswork in on-page optimization, save you time, and recommend what to implement in your content or page to rank for your target keyword and other related keywords.

Surfer has advanced features like SERP Analyzer, Audit Tool, Content Planner, Content Editor, etc which we will explore. Currently, there are over 10,000 users who rely on Surfer to plan their content and optimize their pages. 

Features of Surfer SEO 

Let’s look at the features of Surfer

1. Content Planner 

Surfer’s content planner is meant to create topic clusters that you need to rank for competitive topics in your niche.

When you enter a topic you want to write about, the Content Planner generates sub-topics related to your main topic.

The idea is to write and publish them, and inter-link them in a natural way. Then write your pillar page and link all the clusters to it and vice-versa.

The internal linking structure signals the Google algorithm that such a page contains relevant resources that can satisfy the intent of the user. And therefore should be ranked higher in search results.

2. Keyword Tool 

Surfer has a keyword research tool that you can find when you log in to your dashboard. It also has a Chrome extension( Keyword Surfer) which is free and makes it easy to perform keyword research directly from your browser.

This saves the money you can invest in keyword search tools like Keyword Everywhere. It supports 70 different languages.

Surfer shows you search volume for a keyword-based on location, monthly organic traffic for each of the ranking pages on a location, number of times their focus keyword appeared in their content.

When you scroll down to your right, you see an option to generate an outline based on the keyword you research.

Surfer generates an outline based on what is obtainable from top-ranking pages for that keyword. That could help you get started with planning your content. 

3. Audit Tool

The audit tool helps you boost the ranking of your page on search results. It shows you the advantage your competitors have over you that has made their pages rank higher than yours. Enter your focus keyword URL and click the run audit tool.

Surfer gives insight into the performance of your page in comparison to the top 10 ranking pages. For example, you see your missing backlinks which are websites linking to your competitors’ pages and not yours.

Backlink is one of the top-ranking factors and the idea is to acquire more backlinks from the same websites to boost your page rank. You see your content score and that of your competitors. 

The audit tool also provides insight into the following:

• Internal linking structure( Your page & your competitors’ pages)
• NLPs( Key phrases and words that influence ranking) are available in 4 different languages ( English, Danish, Polish and Dutch)
• Time and meta description title length 
• First time to byte 
• Word count 
• Partial keywords
• Exact keywords
• Load time

4. Content Editor 

You can use the content editor to plan and structure your content before writing or improve an existing page.

Enter the keyword you want to write and you will get insight into top-ranking pages like the number of images used number of paragraphs, and the number of headings. You can use the customization option to exclude pages that are not your direct competitors.

The content editor recommends key phrases and words that should be in your content that influence ranking.

In addition, it shows you popular questions users ask which relate to your focus keyword. The aim is for you to answer them in your content. 

5. SERP Analyzer 

The SERP Analyzer is the heartbeat of Surfer. The aim function is to analyze your focus keyword and see if you stand a chance of ranking for such keyword. Enter the keyword you want to rank for, set your location, and click run SERP Analyzer.

You see a data graph that analyzes the top-ranking pages based on their word count.

The SERP Analyzer lists all the pages ranking for such keywords in order.

Beside each of the pages are icons that show their backlink profiles, content score, and the option to exclude a page from the analysis.

There is a shortcut to run an audit for the page, view outlines, take a screenshot, and paste HTML. You get more insights when you scroll down. You see the following for the analyzed keyword:

• Prominent keywords and phrases
• Popular phrases
• Common phrases 
• Related keywords 
• Questions 
• Common backlinks 

The goal is to factor all these when creating a new page or optimizing an already published page.

6. Integration

Surfer integrates with Jasper, a top AI writing tool. You can use it to write your long-form content like blog posts and optimize with Surfer. That saves you time and boosts your content production. 

 It also connects with WordPress and Google Docs which means that you can optimize your content within these interfaces.

7. Collaboration 

Surfer has advanced collaboration features.  You can share a link to your project, and invite up to 10 members of your team to work with you on a project without giving them access to your backend. 

8. Customer Support 

Its active Facebook community of 55K plus members is where many Surfer users get support. The Surfer team including the founder, Michael Suski is happy to assist you.

There are plenty of tutorial videos and knowledge-based articles. Also, you can send emails and get responses in hours.

Surfer SEO Pricing Plan

Surfer has 4 different pricing plans:

Essential Plan: $89/month ( Best for personal use)

Key Features 

• Content Planner 
• SERP Analyzer 
• 20 Audits/month
• Free NLP( Only for the first month)
• 10 Content Editors

Advanced Plan: $179/month ( Best for freelance SEO specialists &  content writers)

Key Features 

• SERP Analyzer 
• You can invite up to 3 team members to work with you
• Content Planner 
• 60 Audits/month 
• 30 Content Editor/month
• NLP

Max Plan: $299/month ( Best for content marketing & SEO agencies)

Key Features

• API for integration 
• White labeling to brand your services to clients 
• Invite up to 10 team members to work with you 
• SERP Analyzer 
• NLP
• Content Planner 
• 140 Audits/month 
• 70 Content Editors/month

 Custom Plan: Talk To Sales 

This plan is for large companies that want customized features to suit their needs.

What is RankIQ?

RankIQ is an AI content optimization tool meant for bloggers of various levels and companies that use blog posts for content marketing. It helps you find low competition keywords with high search volume irrespective of your niche.

Plus analyze your competitors’ pages and recommend actionable steps to outrank them. SEO expert, Keyword research specialist, and Pro Blogger, Brandon Gaille is the founder of this tool.

Gallie who derives over 5 million monthly organic traffic to his personal blog and runs the Millionaire Blogging podcast created this tool to help fellow bloggers rank for target keywords in their industry. 

Features of RankIQ

Let’s dive into what RankIQ offers and what to expect when using this tool

1. Keyword Library 

When login into your dashboard, you see the keyword library which is the engine of RankIQ. 

It shows you low competition keywords with high search volume which you can rank easily in your niche.

RankIQ has already done the heavy lifting so you need to waste your time and resources investing in keyword research tools and searching for keywords with low difficulty and high search volume.

If you don’t find your niche, you can contact Brandon Gaille via their Facebook community and he will happily do the keyword research in your niche and it to the tool. 

When you pick a niche, you see all the keywords you have in it. They are categorized into:

•  Competition, which is the same as the difficulty score. The lower the number, the easier you can rank for it and vice-versa. 
• Yearly search volume 
• Time to rank which you can sort by average, fast, and ultra-fast to rank.

You check a keyword and add it to your keyword list so you can easily access them anytime. Click on the next icon to see your keyword list. 

2. Run Report 

When you identify a keyword that you want to write about in your niche, click run a report to learn more about that keyword. 

The screenshot below is what you see depending on your keyword. 

The suggested content grade is based on the quality and relevancy of the content ( A++, B-, F).

Word count is the total number of words your content should have.

Sources analyzed which is the number of pages RankIQ analyzed.

3. Content Analysis 

Here you see words and phrases that influence ranking which Google wants to see in your content. The AI ranks them based on score and relevancy for you to know how important they are. 

4. Title Analysis 

RankIQ analyzes and shows you titles that are getting many clicks on search results and keywords Google wants to see in your title.

The idea is for you to draw inspiration from them when creating your title and save the money you can invest in headline generator tools like Seopressor and Sumo Me.

5. Competition Analysis Based On Content Grade 

This is about top-ranking pages. RankIQ believes that for Google to rank these pages top on search results, it means their content quality is of high quality.

The competition analysis shows the top pages that rank for a target keyword, their word counts, and content grade.

6. Content Optimizer 

If you want to boost the ranking of your page, copy it from your CMS and paste it onto the content optimizer. RankIQ will recommend steps to improve your ranking after comparing your content grade( From F – A++)  and word count against the top-ranking pages.

It recommends topics that should or shouldn’t be in your content to rank in the top 10 for your focus keyword.

On the top right-hand side, enable show unused topics and you see a list of topics you should discuss in your content but aren’t there. Once you add them, the green icon makes them checked. 

 Pay attention to your content grade after implementing all the recommendations from RankIQ and you will notice your content grade has improved. 

7. Customer Support

You can send a message and get a response within hours. There are a few tutorial videos and knowledge-based articles.

RankIQ Pricing Plan

It had only one pricing plan which goes for $99 per month. However, they often offer discounts which may see you subscribe to it at $49/month.

No free trial and refund policy.

Surfer SEO vs RankIQ: Differences 

Although Surfer and RankIQ are AI on-page optimization tools, there are also clear differences between them that you should know.

1. Competitor analysis 

RankIQ doesn’t factor in the backlink profile of competitors in its analysis. This is a con since backlink is one of the ranking factors of Google and it’s important you know the backlink profile of your competitors to know how to measure up.

Also, it analyzes the top 30 pages ranking for a particular keyword. This is not so with Surfer which analyzes the top 50 pages thereby providing more detailed insight into the on-page optimization strategy of your competitors.

Also Surfer competitor analysis factors in backlink profiles. The SERP Analyzer shows you the backlink profile of each of the pages ranking for a keyword. When you run an audit, you also see missing backlinks which simply means websites linking to your competitors but you.

2. Keyword research 

RankIQ already has the keyword research for you. In any niche you choose, a list of low competition and high volume keywords is there for you to choose.

You also see how fast you can rank. It is like doing the heavy lifting for bloggers who don’t know how to conduct keyword research.

Although Surfer has a free keyword tool with Chrome extension, you have to do the keyword research yourself. In some cases, you end up writing about keywords that are hard to rank. 

3. Support for third-party tools

Surfer integrates with third-party tools that make it easy to write and optimize your content. It connects with WordPress, Google Docs, and Jasper AI writing assistant that can generate high-quality content for you in minutes. RankIQ doesn’t integrate with any third-party tool.

4. Working with your team

RankIQ lacks collaboration features which makes it difficult to work with your team. Surfer has advanced collaboration features that allow you to share the link of your content with others and invite up to 10 members of your team to work with you on a project. 

5. Planning your content 

Surfer has the content planner feature that creates topic clusters which you need to rank for competitive topics. RankIQ doesn’t support this feature despite that bloggers who want to build pillar pages will need it. 

How To Use RankIQ

To use RankIQ as a blogger, take the following steps:

• Sign up for RankIQ 
• Login to your dashboard 
• Navigate to the keyword library 
• Select your blogging niche
• Choose keywords you want to write about and also add them to your keyword list
• Run a report for the keyword you want to write 
• Do content analysis 
• Analyze titles of pages ranking on top results to get inspiration on how to create your title 
• Check the content grade of the topic to what to aim at
• Write your blog post yourself or use one of the best AI copywriting tools
• Optimize your blog post
• Copy and paste into your content management platform 
• Publish

How To Use Surfer SEO 

Take the following steps to use Surfer SEO:

• Use the keyword research tool to identify the keyword you want to write about 
• Analyze it in the SERP Analyzer to get insights
• If it’s a keyword with high competition, use the content planner to create topic clusters 
• Plan the content you want to write using the content editor or optimize  an existing page using the same tool
• Write your content  from the content editor or use Jasper AI writing tool to generate your content 
• When your content begins to rank, use the content audit tool to boost its ranking to drive more traffic

Final Thought on Surfer vs RankIQ 

Surfer SEO and RankIQ are AI on-page optimization tools that are good in their different ways. We have explored their features and looked at their differences and their pricing plan.

It’s up to you to place each of them side by side against what you need in a page optimization tool.

If I’m to suggest, Surfer SEO is an all-around content intelligence tool that has all the advanced features you need to plan your SEO content and optimize it to outdo your competitors. Anyone who wants to drive massive organic traffic from Google needs.

RankIQ is suitable if you’re a blogger who only cares about identifying low competition and high search volume keywords you can write and rank for fast.