My friend Donnivin of Southern Comfort Heating and Air, paid $3,500 per month for 6 months for SEO. He eventually fired the agency for lack of performance. Two months after that, we audited the SEO stats and caught the agency red-handed– fitting, since Red Palm is their name and they avoided the facts when we shared the data with them.
I was wondering how the Red Palm guy could be so smug and confident about the SEO performance when the major tools like Ahrefs and SEMrush show a massive decline in rankings, which was also reflected in the Google Analytics data, Google Business Profile data, citation data, and so forth.
Short answer: it’s an agency-friendly rank tracker that’s cheap, flexible, and easy to spin into “progress” — but it’s also easy to abuse.
Longer, more precise breakdown below.
Why an agency would use Pro Rank Tracker instead of the big-name tools
1. It’s built for reporting, not discovery
PRT is not trying to be Ahrefs/Semrush/Moz.
- No serious backlink analysis
- No competitive gap intelligence
- No real content strategy insights
What it is good at:
- Daily keyword positions
- White-label reports
- Scheduled “set it and forget it” PDFs
That makes it perfect for monthly canned reports where the client doesn’t know what they’re looking at.
2. Local + geo tracking is flexible (and exploitable)
PRT lets you:
- Pick very specific locations
- Track map pack / local pack
- Choose mobile vs desktop
- Choose language + country combos
That’s useful when done honestly.
But it also means:
- You can track a keyword from a hyper-favorable location
- Ignore volatility elsewhere
- Show a client “#3 in Google” while they’re #17 in reality two zip codes away
Nothing illegal.
Just… selective truth.
3. Cheap at scale
For agencies:
- Tracks lots of keywords for less money
- Unlimited sub-accounts on agency plans
- No expensive per-feature upsells
This is attractive when:
- You’re managing 20–100+ local clients
- You want margin
- You don’t want to pay Ahrefs/Semrush pricing for every account
So yes — cost is a big reason.
4. White-labeling + automation = low effort
PRT excels at:
- Auto-sending monthly reports
- Slapping a logo on it
- No human explanation required
That’s great for:
- Legit agencies with tight ops
- Terrible agencies hiding behind dashboards
If your HVAC friend got:
- A PDF every month
- Lots of arrows and charts
- Little explanation of what actually changed
…that’s classic “tool as a shield.”
Does it “skew data” on purpose?
Important nuance:
PRT itself isn’t fake.
The rankings it shows can be accurate.
The problem is:
- What keywords were chosen
- Which locations
- Which SERP features were ignored
- What wasn’t tracked at all
Scammy agencies do things like:
- Track only branded or low-competition terms
- Avoid money keywords (“AC repair near me”)
- Exclude Google Business Profile performance
- Never tie rankings to calls, forms, or revenue
So the skew comes from configuration + omission, not the software lying.
Why not just use Ahrefs / Semrush?
Because those tools:
- Expose too much reality
- Show competitors clearly
- Make it obvious when nothing is happening
- Require interpretation
They’re harder to weaponize for smoke-and-mirrors retainers.
PRT is quieter. Narrower. Easier to control the narrative.
The telltale red flags your friend likely saw
If this was a scammy setup, I’d bet at least a few of these were true:
- Rankings improved but phone didn’t ring
- No call tracking or attribution
- Same report every month, different date
- No discussion of:
- Pages
- Content
- GBP optimization
- Reviews
- Citations
- When asked “what did you do this month?” → vague answers
That’s not SEO. That’s report theater.
Bottom line
Pro Rank Tracker is:
- ✅ Fine as a supporting tool
- ❌ Dangerous as the only proof of value
Used honestly → helpful.
Used lazily or dishonestly → perfect cover.
If you want, you can tell me:
- What keywords they were reporting on
- Whether GBP rankings were included
- If calls/leads were ever tied to reports
I can tell you in about 30 seconds whether this was incompetence… or a deliberate con.
Dennis Yu
Dennis Yu is the CEO of Local Service Spotlight, a platform that amplifies the reputations of contractors and local service businesses using the Content Factory process. He is a former search engine engineer who has spent a billion dollars on Google and Facebook ads for Nike, Quiznos, Ashley Furniture, Red Bull, State Farm, and other brands.
Dennis has achieved 25% of his goal of creating a million digital marketing jobs by partnering with universities, professional organizations, and agencies. Through Local Service Spotlight, he teaches the Dollar a Day strategy and Content Factory training to help local service businesses enhance their existing local reputation and make the phone ring.
Dennis coaches young adult agency owners serving plumbers, AC technicians, landscapers, roofers, electricians, and believes there should be a standard in measuring local marketing efforts, much like doctors and plumbers must be certified.