A South African agency that refuses to ship a slow website.
RankSmith is a small, senior team based in Johannesburg, operated by Tapnet Solutions (Pty) Ltd. We build premium Next.js websites and run ranking programmes across Google and every major AI answer engine. No interns, no outsourced dev shops, no page builders. Every line of code on every RankSmith site is written by someone you can get on a call.
How we got here
Four years of removing excuses.
RankSmith is not a spin off of a WordPress shop. We started as a Next.js studio in 2022 and every decision since has been about removing excuses from the client brief: no more slow themes, no more plugin roulette, no more hand waving at Core Web Vitals, no more pretending AI answer engines do not matter.
2022
Walked away from WordPress
After one too many sub 30 Lighthouse launches, RankSmith committed to Next.js as the only foundation we would ship on.
2023
Built the performance budget
The four numbers that every RankSmith site is held to (LCP 1.5 s, INP 100 ms, CLS 0.05, 150 kB JS) were codified into the RankSmith playbook.
2024
Added AEO and GEO
As ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity became serious traffic sources, RankSmith added answer first writing, FAQ schema, and citation tracking to every engagement.
2025
Shipped the first llms.txt builds
RankSmith was among the first South African agencies to ship a valid llms.txt file on every production site and to allow list the full set of AI crawlers in robots.txt.
2026
Five disciplines, one service line
SEO, AEO, GEO, SXO, and AIO are now run as a single joined up programme on top of every RankSmith Next.js build.
What RankSmith believes
Five opinions we will not negotiate on.
These are the beliefs that shape every RankSmith engagement. They are not borrowed quotes from clients we do not have. They are the lines we hold when pressure tests arrive.
Principle 01
WordPress is a tax on your traffic.
Every plugin, every theme, every TTFB hit is a tax. We stopped paying it in 2022 and we have never looked back.
Principle 02
If it is not in Schema.org, it does not exist to AI.
Organization, Service, FAQPage, BreadcrumbList, Article. Schema is not a nice to have. It is the API AI engines read.
Principle 03
Every H2 is a question a human might ask.
AI engines cite paragraphs, not pages. Write answer first, lead with the fact, expand with specifics. Get quoted.
Principle 04
Performance budgets are commitments, not wishes.
LCP under 1.5 seconds. INP under 100 milliseconds. CLS under 0.05. If we cannot hold the budget, we do not ship.
Principle 05
Rank in Google, and in every AI that comes after it.
There is no Google only strategy anymore. Six engines matter. Either your content is citable in all of them, or you are losing share.
Ready when you are
Want to work with a team that actually ships?
Book a call with RankSmith. We will talk through your current site, your current rankings, and what a four to six week build and a twelve month ranking programme would look like for your brand.