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RankNexus case study · VLSI and embedded engineering

Ranking first for the searches chip engineers actually make

PQAngels turned deep VLSI and embedded expertise into guides that rank in Google and appear in AI Overviews.

PQAngels · 6 months · Pro plan · WordPress

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About PQAngels

PQAngels is a product engineering partner for semiconductor companies, OEMs and software-led businesses. It covers VLSI design, embedded systems, software development and DevOps, from chip architecture through to cloud.

Industry	VLSI and embedded engineering
Buyers	Product and engineering leaders
Goal	Reach engineers through search and AI
Engagement	6 months, Pro plan

At position 1

of 7 priority keywords

In the top 3

of 7 priority keywords

In the top 10

of 7 priority keywords

In Google AI Overviews

of 7 priority keywords

Engineers now tell us they found our guides long before they ever spoke to us.

Vikram Rao, Engagement Lead, PQAngels

Keyword results

Seven priority keywords, six in the top ten

Each keyword below maps to a PQAngels guide written for engineers and product teams. Four of them also appear in Google AI Overviews.

Keyword	Position	SERP feature
pre silicon vs post silicon validation	1	Appears in AI Overview
ethernet protocol in vlsi	1	Appears in AI Overview
Embedded Product Development	2	Appears in AI Overview
RTL to GDSII Guide	7	Appears in AI Overview
Chiplet Architecture vs Monolithic SoCs	8	–
ASIC vs FPGA Which One Should You Choose	9	–
FreeRTOS vs Zephyr vs Embedded Linux	13	–

What this means Only one keyword sits outside the top ten, and FreeRTOS vs Zephyr vs Embedded Linux is the clearest next opportunity.

The challenge

Deep expertise, hard to find

PQAngels had real depth across VLSI and embedded systems, but few people found it through search. Engineers researching chip design were landing on forums, vendor documents and large publishers.

What we did

Week 1	Audit and topic research Priority topics mapped across VLSI and embedded.
Weeks 2–4	Technical base fixed Titles, canonicals and schema pushed straight to WordPress.
Months 2–4	Engineer-first guides 7 priority guides on silicon, protocols and embedded.
Months 4–6	AI Overviews targeted Pages restructured so answers could be quoted directly.

Organic clicks per month

Clicks grew 3.7x as the guides started to rank

Monthly organic clicks rising from 640 to 2,380

What this means Clicks picked up from month 3, as the first verification and protocol guides began to rank.

Inside RankNexus

Fixes shipped straight to WordPress

● ● ● app.ranknexus.ai / pqangels / fix-issues
Optimise for AI search /blog/pre-silicon-vs-post-silicon-verification	In AI Overview	Applied
Add FAQ schema /blog/vlsi-design-flow-complete-guide-to-the-rtl-to-gdsii-flow	9 questions	Applied
Rewrite title tag /blog/embedded-product-development-idea-to-production	+92 clicks	Applied
Add internal links 7 guides	Site-wide	Applied

What this means Every change went straight to WordPress, so fixes reached live pages without waiting on a development queue.

Before and after

Written for someone already comparing

Before

pqangelstech.com › blog › pre-silicon-vs-post-silicon-verification

Blog - PQ Angels

Read our latest thoughts on chip design and engineering.

After

pqangelstech.com › blog › pre-silicon-vs-post-silicon-verification

Pre-Silicon Verification vs Post-Silicon Verification

Compare pre-silicon verification vs post-silicon verification in ASIC/SoC design: methodologies, tools, and skills needed at each stage of chip development.

Month by month

How the results built up

Month	What happened	Organic clicks	Discovery calls
Apr	Audit and priority topics mapped	640	6
May	Titles, canonicals and schema applied	720	7
Jun	First verification and protocol guides live	980	9
Jul	Embedded and design flow guides live	1,420	12
Aug	Guides restructured for AI Overviews	1,890	15
Sep	4 of 7 keywords in AI Overviews	2,380	19

Top pages

The pages that drove the growth

Page	Clicks (Apr)	Clicks (Sep)	Growth
/blog/pre-silicon-vs-post-silicon-verification	58	446	▲ 669%
/blog/ethernet-in-vlsi-a-case-study-on-high-speed	44	381	▲ 766%
/blog/embedded-product-development-idea-to-production	31	342	▲ 1003%
/blog/vlsi-design-flow-complete-guide-to-the-rtl-to-gdsii-flow	27	214	▲ 693%
/services/vlsi-design	36	128	▲ 256%

Search performance

Six months of search growth, at a glance

Traffic came from engineers researching verification, protocols and embedded development, not from broad brand terms.

3.7x	more organic clicks a month: 640 in April, 2,380 in September

Search performance for pqangelstech.com, 1 Apr 2026 – 30 Sep 2026

Priority keywords	Clicks (Sep)	Impressions (Sep)	Position	AI Overview
pre silicon vs post silicon validation	412	9,600	1	Yes
ethernet protocol in vlsi	356	8,100	1	Yes
Embedded Product Development	318	10,700	2	Yes
RTL to GDSII Guide	196	6,900	7	Yes
Chiplet Architecture vs Monolithic SoCs	142	5,800	8	–
ASIC vs FPGA Which One Should You Choose	128	7,400	9	–
FreeRTOS vs Zephyr vs Embedded Linux	64	4,900	13	–

What this means These are specialist searches, so a smaller number of clicks can still mean the right engineers are reading.

Main keyword

First-page positions, with an AI Overview on top

For these searches, PQAngels appears twice: as a ranking result and inside the AI Overview above it.

Google results showing PQAngels in AI Overviews and first-page positions

Keywords at position 1

of 7 priority keywords

Keywords in the top 10

of 7 priority keywords

Keywords in AI Overviews

of 7 priority keywords

What comes next

Where the next gains will come from

Reach the top ten

FreeRTOS vs Zephyr vs Embedded Linux sits at position 13, the only priority keyword outside the top ten.

Win more AI Overviews

The ASIC vs FPGA, chiplet and FreeRTOS guides rank but do not yet appear in AI Overviews.

Link guides to services

Lead readers from top guides to VLSI and embedded services and discovery calls.

AI answer

Quoted in the answer, not just listed below it

Google now draws on PQAngels guides when it summarises technical topics for engineers.

4 of 7

priority keywords now appear in Google AI Overviews

AI answer naming PQAngels, with the prompt shown

Keywords in AI Overviews	Position	Page
pre silicon vs post silicon validation	1	/blog/pre-silicon-vs-post-silicon-verification
ethernet protocol in vlsi	1	/blog/ethernet-in-vlsi-a-case-study-on-high-speed
Embedded Product Development	2	/blog/embedded-product-development-idea-to-production
RTL to GDSII Guide	7	/blog/vlsi-design-flow-complete-guide-to-the-rtl-to-gdsii-flow

What this means Being quoted by Google signals technical authority before an engineer ever opens the page.

Why it worked

Three decisions that made the difference

Written for engineers

Guides explain real trade-offs, with the detail engineers expect from a technical source.

Comparisons people search

Topics like ASIC vs FPGA and FreeRTOS vs Zephyr match how engineers frame decisions.

Answers that can be quoted

Clear definitions and structure helped four guides reach AI Overviews.

Business result

Readers became discovery calls

Discovery calls booked from organic visits grew alongside clicks, as guides began linking through to services.

+217%

discovery calls a month: 6 in April, 19 in September

Discovery calls from organic search

Metric	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Growth
Organic clicks	640	720	980	1,420	1,890	2,380	▲ 272%
Discovery calls	6	7	9	12	15	19	▲ 217%

What this means For a specialist engineering partner, a small number of well-matched calls matters more than raw traffic.

Key takeaways

PQAngels now reaches engineers at the moment they research a technical decision, at the top of Google and inside its AI Overviews.

keywords at position 1

6 of 7

keywords in the top 10

4 of 7

keywords in AI Overviews