Pro Rank Tracker CEO Eyal Aftabi: How To Compete With The Top SEO Tools

In this interview series, Website Planet is talking to executives from the best digital companies, who share their stories and unique tips to create a successful online business like they did.

Dive with us into their remarkable stories and expertise to learn unheard, practical advice that goes beyond guru fluff and will immediately help you build and grow your website to success.

My guest this time is Eyal Aftabi, Founder and CEO of Pro Rank Tracker.

Eyal has been involved in various projects and held roles such as entrepreneur, product manager, and CEO since 2002, which culminated in the founding of ProRankTracker in 2014. Today, ProRankTracker is known for having the most accurate algorithm on the market for tracking search engine rankings.

Let’s pick his brain.

To start, tell us briefly about you. What is your current role at your company, and what are the measurable achievements you are most proud of?

I am Eyal, the Founder and CEO of Pro Rank Tracker – a comprehensive and powerful SEO tool for daily rank tracking, analysis, and reporting, serving the SEO industry for over a decade. My role involves overseeing the strategic direction of the company, driving innovation, and ensuring we deliver exceptional value to our customers.

I’m coming from an SEO background and therefore understand SEOs’ needs. Since the year 2000, I have been involved in many online projects and websites, utilizing large-scale SEO in online marketing and affiliate marketing fields.

Pro Rank Tracker started as an internal tool that my partners and I developed in 2010 for our own rank tracking needs (Tracking the rankings of thousands of domains was very difficult in those days). It evolved into a free basic tool in 2012 and officially launched to the public in its new form in 2014 when we decided to make the switch from doing SEO ourselves to creating a software company offering rank tracking and reporting solutions for SEOs worldwide.

By actively listening to user feedback over the years, our tool has continuously evolved. We have implemented three major UI/UX updates since launch, with the latest in 2021, bringing our flexibility and extensive features in a more user-friendly and less overwhelming interface, addressing hundreds of issues and feedback received over the years.

The achievement I’m most proud of is that SEOs from businesses of all sizes use our tool in their daily work, loving it and sticking with us for many years as the tool evolves and grows.

We have hundreds of engaged customers who have been using our tool since its launch in 2014.

“I’ve been using ProRankTracker for a few years. It is the most ACCURATE and easy to use tracker I have used on Google and Bing organic, 3-pack and “near me” keywords. PRT is extremely versatile. The user interface is fantastic, very intuitive. Reporting can be as ‘overview’ or detailed as you wish. I can’t recommend it highly enough. A very happy customer.”

John Flynn, Digital Marketing Consultant at TruBlu Consulting

What pain point(s) do you solve for your customers? What was the “aha Moment” that led to the idea? Can you share that story with us?

Pro Rank Tracker addresses the need for accurate and reliable SEO rank tracking, visualizing and analyzing daily results in the long-term to understand the effectiveness of your SEO efforts, and providing comprehensive reporting for yourself, your colleagues, and your clients – covering any use case.

Many businesses struggle to understand their true search engine performance, especially across different devices and locations, as search results have become highly localized and difficult to check manually from distant locations. This process is also biased by many parameters and challenging to scale.
The more keywords you accurately track, the better insights you gain, and we facilitate that.

The “aha moment” for turning Pro Rank Tracker from an internal tool into a commercial product came when I realized that existing tools were either too complicated, lacked essential features for SEOs, or didn’t suit various business use cases.

We developed a tool suitable for anyone doing SEO – agencies and individuals, in-house SEO departments in global or local organizations, SMBs, website owners, other SaaS/software tools… Basically anyone doing SEO.

I saw an opportunity to create a user-friendly yet highly sophisticated tool to meet the needs of all business types. This vision led to the birth of Pro Rank Tracker.

What do you think makes your company stand out? What are you most proud of?

Over the years, most other rank trackers expanded into all-in-one SEO tools, and major players like SEMRush, Ahrefs, and Moz added rank tracking features.

I strategically decided to focus solely on rank tracking and reporting features, aiming to be the best in this field and offer unique features that no one else does, rather than expanding into an all-in-one SEO tool. In fact, most of our users also have a SEMRush or Ahrefs account, demonstrating that the added value they get from Pro Rank Tracker is invaluable and complementary.

Our company stands out due to our commitment to accuracy (rank tracking is our core business and expertise), various data organization and teamwork options to suit any use case, affordable high-volume quotas, and comprehensive analysis and reporting options.

However, what I’m most proud of is our team’s dedication to customer support and continuous improvement, which has resulted in high customer satisfaction and strong retention.

Is there any advice you’ve received that you now wish you never followed? Can you share the story with us?

Yes, the advice to focus on paid advertising.

Organic growth through content marketing and SEO proved more sustainable and cost-effective in the long run. This realization came after seeing declining returns on paid ad spend compared to the compounding benefits of organic traffic.

Content marketing and SEO have been incredibly effective in generating organic traffic. By providing valuable, informative content, we attract visitors who are genuinely interested in what we offer. Once they land on our website, offering free trials and demos has been a great way to convert them into customers.

Beyond these methods, is there one more strategy that’s been particularly effective in growing your website audience this year?

Partnering with industry influencers and participating in relevant online communities has significantly boosted our visibility and credibility. These collaborations have allowed us to reach new audiences and build stronger relationships within the industry.

If I asked you to share the key ingredient in your “secret sauce” for inbound marketing, what would it be?

Consistency – Regularly publishing high-quality content, staying active on social media, and continuously engaging with our audience has been key to our inbound marketing success.