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.
Hi Olivias
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.
Frank
Hey Olivia
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.
@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 😉
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.
@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!
So that might be part of it.
Leave a reply