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]
| Surfer SEO | RankIQ | |
| Keyword Research tool | Yes, (Keyword Surfer) and It’s free and also has a Chrome extension. | No keyword research tool. It has handpicked low competition and high search volume keywords you can write and rank for in any niche |
| Competitor analysis | Surfer’s SERP Analyzer is more advanced and its competitor analysis gives detailed insight into key factors that influence ranking including NLPs and the backlink profile of your competitors | Competitor analysis doesn’t give insight into the backlink profile of your competitors |
| Content planner | Yes and you can use it to create topic clusters which you need to create a pillar page and rank for competitive topics | No |
| Content editor | Yes and you can use it to structure your content before writing and also use it to improve the ranking of an existing page | Has Title Analysis tool, Content Optimizer, and Content Grade Analysis which you can use to structure your blog post |
| Integration | Integrates with WordPress, Google Docs, and Jasper AI, a top AI writing assistant | Doesn’t integrate with any third-party tool |
| Collaboration | Share the link to your content with others without giving them access to your backend. Invite up to 10 members of your team to collaborate with you on a project | No collaboration features |
| Course | Has a free SEO course that teaches you how to create SEO content and optimize it like a pro using Surfer. You get certified at the end if you pass the assessment test | No |
| Best for | Bloggers, SEO experts, freelance SEO content writers, Content & SEO marketing agencies, businesses that rely on organic traffic from Google | Bloggers only |
| Supported languages | 70 different languages for Keyword Research, 4 languages for NLPs | English only |
| Ease of use | Easy to use | Easy to use |
| Pricing plans | Plans start at $89/month | $99/month and you can get it for $49/month during promo offers |
| Customer support | Offers support on its active Facebook community of 11K plus members. Co-founder Michael Suski and other Surfer team members are happy to assist you. There are plenty of tutorial videos and knowledge-based articles. You can email them and get a response within 24 hours | Haa a Facebook community where Brandon Gaille, the founder of this tool can assist you. There are a few tutorial videos. You can also open a ticket and send them a message |
| Website | Surferseo.com | RankIQ.com |
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.
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.