Elevating your site a RankAbove

Using artificial intelligence, an Israeli start-up will analyze your blog or Web site and tell you how to optimize it to meet your goals.

By KARIN KLOOSTERMAN/ISRAEL 21C, SPECIAL TO THE JE
rankabove 311 (photo credit: Courtesy)
rankabove 311
(photo credit: Courtesy)
If you work online as an editor or content manager these days, you mayfind yourself wondering whether you’re writing for other people or forthe bots inside the Internet. The answer gets fuzzier and the linesblur as corporate assets, news items or your blog grow year by year.Some sites comprise millions of pages.
There are numerous tips and tricks that every writer and contentmanager can use to make sure that Google and other search engines “see”their content, services and products. However, at some point thecontent invariably becomes unmanageable and probably doesn’t receivethe traction that it should.
That’s where Israeli start-up RankAbove comes in. Founded in 2007, thecompany has developed a platform called Drive that helps Web sitesmanage content ranging from 1,000 to millions of pages.
Drive uses predictive modeling and artificial intelligence to adviseyou on how small changes to your site will affect your SEO (SearchEngine Optimization). It can also take a look at your competitors’sites to see how you compare.
The young crew of 12 based in Jerusalem not only created an idea butalso turned it into a product and service “to bootstrap ourselves,”says RankAbove founder and CEO Mayer Reich, 31, who moved to Israelfrom New York City in 2003.
Seeking an investment of $2 million, RankAbove is already working withmajor companies such as Target, AOL, 1-800-Flowers and Yahoo, which areall testing its software. “They contacted us,” says Reich.
“We mostly work with big companies but also work with smaller companiesfrom time to time. Large Web sites usually have a hard time, whetherit’s from an IT site, from how developed the site is or the amount ofnew pages to be managed and optimized,” says Reich, referring to astudy conducted recently by Sempo, a search engine marketing firm thatcame to a shocking conclusion: A full 100 percent of the Fortune 500companies have a failing grade in search engine optimization.
The reason for this is that people and companies are creating contentfaster than they ever had to in the past. They have to focus onmarketing initiatives, Reich explains, adding that most Web sites stillhave a hard time driving traffic back to their sites.
“They might be driving traffic to [the site] from all sorts ofmarketing methods, but they have limited scope and knowledge of SEO;and more often than not, they don’t know how to bring an ROI to the Website,” says Reich.
RankAbove, which has two main competitors in the field – New-York basedConductor and San Diego company Covario – dives deep into the site,licensing its technology with fees starting at about $1,000 per site.
“We would license the technology – technology for an SEO team or agency– that might be doing SEO for a company,” says Reich. It takes onlyabout 30 seconds for the integration to take effect.
RankAbove’s staff ensures that companies are not wasting money oncreating or promoting content. The company digs through a Web site bypage, as well as by category. It can also integrate third-partyanalytics platforms to see where revenues are coming in or leaking out.
“Our solution is the only scalable, quick to implement solution. Ittakes just a few minutes to get up and running,” claims Reich. “We havealso created the only solution in the market that can handle a 100-pageWeb site or a 30 million-page site.”
Since every hit counts, RankAbove helps companies prioritize where tospend money to make their Web site work well with search engines sotheir site will make it onto the first page of Google. It providescompanies with a very specific breakdown by examining site names andpointing out duplications. It also analyzes which keywords work bestand where more should be placed.
“It could tell you where to place the words and on what pages to findthe most appropriate place for these keywords and how to build your Website – to make sure it’s prominent,” says Reich, who points out thatthere are about 65 elements that need to be optimized on each page ofcontent, which is well beyond the scope of what any content managercould handle.
Today, RankAbove is advising companies about where problematic areaslie and how their SEO can be improved. Over the next 12 months, thecompany plans to integrate automatic uploads into its system so thattitles, keywords, tags and as many SEO details as possible can be addedautomatically. – www.israel21c.org