Hey everyone! I've been a bit quiet this week. So busy all the time!
I’m probably late to the party on this, but… has anyone else noticed how Reddit shows up for almost every Google search now?
I’ll Google something super specific - like “best AI tools for writing” or “how to grow a lifestyle blog naturally” and half the top results are just Reddit threads. Sometimes they’re helpful, but other times it’s just random people chatting nonsense (or arguing 😂).
I thought Google was supposed to show “trustworthy” results, but Reddit doesn’t always feel that way. Do people really trust it that much?
I’m just curious what’s actually going on here and how it could be used when we’re trying to grow our own sites.
Yeah, user generated content like Reddit and Quora are ranked high by Google, usually just under sponsored content and Google's AI generated content. By then, the majority of users searching for a short answer have found what they need.
These days, it's seems easier to rank in the Google SERPS with YouTube Videos, unless your website has a pretty high domain authority, like 60 or above.
The other thing that still works well is getting traffic to your website from social channels, like Facebook and Pinterest.
Haha you’re only a bit late to the party, you’re just noticing what lots of SEOs have been grumbling about for many months. Reddit is everywhere right now.
So here’s the scoop. Google actually signed a big $60 million deal with Reddit a couple of years ago to get access to its content for training AI models. Around the same time, Reddit’s visibility in search suddenly skyrocketed. Total coincidence, I’m sure 😉
That said, it’s not just the deal. People have been adding “Reddit” to the end of their searches for ages because they want real opinions, not just the same copy-pasted “Top 10 tools” lists. Google picked up on that and started showing Reddit threads higher up. Basically, it’s a mix of the data deal + user behaviour + Google trying to look more human again.
Do people trust Reddit? Probably not completely, but they do trust conversation. Even when it’s messy nonsense, it feels real.
From a blogger’s point of view, it’s kind of a sign that people are craving authenticity. If your content sounds like something you’d actually say to a mate over coffee, you’re already ahead of most.
And hey, if all else fails, maybe we should just start answering our own blog questions on Reddit and see what happens ... otherwise known as parasite SEO!
@rohanm Yeah, that’s so true. Most of the Gen Zs in my family type “Here’s what I want to know Reddit” into the Google search bar or go directly through an AI app like ChatGPT.
@frank ChatGPT + Reddit is a match made in heaven as a ‘content creation’ tool. Content endlessly recycled! Although I have been getting a ‘too many requests’ error lately when asking GPT to understand a Reddit thread. Presumably everyone’s at it … lol
Plus, the reality is Google is still 90%+ of global search across all platforms I believe. They are losing market share but remain the money printing machine they never set out to be … ehem!
Still where the money’s at but a new AI gold rush is here … or just about to burst. One or the other
I actually use Reddit a lot to reuse topics and their answers on my dollhouse FORUM. and they rank, according to google search console. I'm usually ranking for keywords between or under or above Reddit, Youtube (sometimes my own vids), Ai overview (ugh, while they use MY pictures). Hence the less clicks from Google these days, and Pinterest. But this can be different for another niche.
I found this on X, I think it is certainly telling us something! Three years ago, Wikipedia had 2 billion more monthly visits than Reddit. Today, Reddit has surpassed Wikipedia for four consecutive months.
@ohnoo_not_her yep, most questions you can think of have already been asked before, multiple times on multiple platforms, even though Google reports 15% of all daily searches are unique queries, never searched before. I believe that is exact match though.
So it’s only when brand new products/services/methods/terminologies appear do we have genuinely unique questions to ask.
But yeah … Reddit is great for finding those real questions people are asking
@diane wow that is quite an eye-opener. There is a bit of a backlash going on against Wikipedia with quite a few niche communities worried about Wikipedia editing cabals gate-keeping the narrative!
@frank Thanks Frank ... yea the AI summaries in Google have really taken over hey. I haven't dipped my toes into Youtube yet. Focused on IG and Pinterest mainly with a side order of TikTok (when I can face it).
@rohanm ok so I didn’t know this. That certainly explains why Reddit is all over the place. So if you cut a deal with Google, you get priority treatment on the results. Not exactly organic is it!
I've been seeing this term floating around a lot recently too. So parasite SEO is basically just piggybacking off Reddit and siphoning traffic away to your own links?
@olivias you can't get into trouble. It's not illegal but most white hat SEOs consider it the darker side of grey hat. It's certainly not a new thing either. Ever since authority was a thing in Google, there have been SEOs leveraging that fact. Back in the day it was a site called Ezine Articles (among others). Things have moved on since then.
And it's not just Reddit. There are tons of parasite websites you can use. Here's just a small selection that I've saved down during my time parasiting off Reddit:
@rohanm thanks Rohan. I do see Beehiiv quite a bit on page one of Google when I do my keyword research! And Medium too. Parasite SEO seems like a great way to supplement traffic to my site! I’m going to dive into it a bit more I think.
It's great that you are embracing social media for your business! YouTube creators with a robust numbers of subs often get ranked above the fold on page one of the Goggle SERPS.
It will be interesting to see what happens as AI-generated videos get more and more prominent. I'm already getting quite a few YouTube-recommended AI-generated videos in my personal feed, which is based on music and guitars.
Yup, it's becoming more and more about AI; driven by cost-effectiveness in the corporate world and a general substitute for human-acquired expertise, which empowers people to do things that would normally be outside their wheelhouse.
@frank so true Frank. Anyone can be an expert at (almost) anything now. AI has absorbed 99% of human knowledge already and we have YouTube channels celebrating how stupid ‘GenZ’ has become! Lol.
