The result means that the Gers stay five points clear of the Jambos in the race for second place in the SPL but Aberdeen now move into third after beating St. Mirren 2-0.
Smith made two changes to his starting eleven with new signing Ugo Ehiogu and Libor Sionko given the nod ahead of Karl Svensson and Chris Burke.
Former Middlesbrough star Ehiogu joined Davie Weir in the centre of defence and both played very well against the physical strike duo of Bednar and Velicka.
Hearts coach Valdas Ivanauskas stunned the visiting support by electing to leave Paul Hartley out of the squad altogether for ‘political reasons’ while keeper Craig Gordon also missed the game due to a hamstring injury.
Rangers, however, started the match positively and Weir, making his home debut in a Light Blue jersey, almost opened the scoring after four minutes when a back-post corner kick fell to the defender and his shot was palmed over the bar by Gordon’s replacement Steve Banks.
Sionko was next up to have a decent chance only five minutes later after an exquisite move. Boyd flicked the ball to Ferguson and the captain’s delightful backheal found the Czech but his effort went high into the Broomloan Stand.
After a couple of early scares Hearts sprung into life and Bruno Aguiar had a free-kick well saved by McGregor before top-scorer Velicka fired wide after turning away from Weir who had slipped on the bobbly surface.
Despite these efforts Rangers continued to push forward at every given opportunity and Adam was unlucky with a left-foot drive which sailed over before referee Charlie Richmond awarded a dubious off-side which put a halt to an impressive counter-attack from the Gers on 21 minutes.
The home side were in the ascendancy at this stage and Boyd was desperately unlucky not to open the scoring in the next attack. Ferguson’s low shot was saved by Banks but when Berra attempted to clear the ball from four yards the ball hit the on-rushing Gers’ striker and went inches over much to the relief of the Hearts bench.
Referee Richmond didn’t have many difficult decisions to make in the opening half-hour but he had to put two Hearts players names in his notebook prior to the interval.
Defender Marius Zaliukas was shown the first yellow card on 37 minutes for pulling Boyd’s shirt for a fourth time. The striker looked at his marker in disbelief and sarcastically offered to give the Hearts man his shirt at the end of the game.
Karipidas was booked not long after for a poor tackle on Ferguson and the game remained goalless at the interval.
Both managers would have been looking from more from their players in the second period and Hearts showed their intent only a minute after the re-start when Aguiar yet again tried his luck from 30 yards but his free-kick was high and wide.
Rangers, however, soon got back into their stride and the visitors found themselves camped in their own half up until the hour mark although the game, somewhat remarkably, stayed 0-0.
With time ticking away and fans getting impatient, Smith elected to make his first substitution with Filip Sebo replacing Kris Boyd on 67 minutes.
And ten minutes later Rangers looked to have taken the lead when Novo rode two challenges before finding Burke on the right-wing.
The substitute played a great ball into the box and Ferguson fired home before celebrating with the fans in the Copland Road Stand but the linesman had already raised his flag for offside.
Rangers’ domination in the second period was never in doubt and Allan McGregor’s lack of action underlined this.
But Hearts continued to defend valiantly and this, and poor finishing from Rangers, meant that Steve Banks claimed a clean sheet on his fourth appearance this season.
In the end, Charlie Adam had another left-foot effort from 20 yards which went over with a minute remaining before Davie Weir had a header cleared off the line in the third minute of injury time.
This summed up the day for Rangers although Walter Smith will have been very pleased with the defensive qualities his side showed on a bitterly cold day at Ibrox.