Reddit is Google's SERP Winner, What Shall We Do About That?

As the web is drowning in AI-generated content, Reddit is going to be one of the few sources of first-hand experiences with any entity. What should we do?

Oct 17, 2023

For years we have been successfully using Reddit to put our visual assets in front of reporters and influencers. Reddit has been a great platform for understanding & engaging with your target audience as well as connecting to content amplifiers.

But it is also much more than that.

Reddit is where the first-hand experience is shared, and Google clearly understands that too. No wonder, Google has been surfacing Reddit content more and more with each update:

Reddit’s organic search visibility: Notice the position growth in September and October (Source: Semrush)

There are clear signals that search users want to see Reddit discussions in search. Just about any brand triggers [PRODUCT NAME REDDIT] suggestion in Google’s Autocomplete results:

[Reddit] is included into many product-driven suggestions: Searchers want to find first-hand experiences with the product

There’s also a newer SERP feature for Reddit (and sometimes for Quora and other discussion boards):

As if we needed even less SERP real estate…

So despite the recent API-related controversaries (and problems caused by ChatGPT), looks like Reddit is going to grow, with help of Google.

Here are the two takeaways so far:

As the web is drowning in AI-generated content, Reddit is going to be one of the few sources of first-hand experiences with any entity (places, products, tools, etc.) largely thanks to its manual volunteer-based moderation model which is its biggest asset. No other giant on the web has such a strong dedicated community of moderators (not even Wikipedia). That is probably the reason why Google is surfacing it more and more in search.
As we are losing clicks to Google’s AI-generated answers, Reddit is gaining clicks from the same SERPs (stealing clicks, again, from publishers). Are you following so far?

How are WE supposed to rank and get clicked???

While these are two seemingly unrelated takeaways, there’s only one answer here:

Build your organic Reddit presence

Getting found on Reddit is tricky. Start by creating your official brand subreddit, link it from your site and use it to announce new product features, post reviews and videos, answer customers’ questions etc. etc. If your customers are going to discuss you on Reddit, it is better that they do it in the space you can control.

Here comes the SERP management benefit of that: This should help you control [your product name+Reddit] results better. Some brands are doing that very well, e.g.:

Comcast search triggers “Reddit” suggestion at #2

And they totally own those search results thanks to their official subreddits:

As well as Bard’s answer:

That’s your goal.

Look for more Reddit opportunities. “Ask Reddit”, niche "Reddit AMAs”, etc. etc. - all of these could give your lots of brand visibility.

Develop your Reddit accounts by participating in discussions in a helpful way (yes, it is “helpful” again!)

Helpful content here, helpful content there, helpful content everywhere

Join and participate in Reddit threads discussing your products or related problems.

Use Reddit analysis in product reviews and conparisons.

Am I missing anything?

Tools to play this week (Reddit edition):

Giga is an online tool scanning Reddit and various discussion boards on your provided keyword. It then uses AI to summarize what it finds. The summary references discussions it is pulling information from.

You can filter the summary by subreddits.

AI summary of your keyword being discussed on Reddit with the sources to the left

The summary includes both the original post and takeaways from the comments.

AI summary of an individual thread including the comments

Buzzsumo Alerts is the most effective and affordable way to monitor Reddit discussions for your (and your competitors’) brand and product name mentions. I am using the following filters to set up the alert:

Brand name I am monitoring: [brand name] OR [product name] - This will include both
Domain filter: reddit.com - This will force the tool to only monitor Reddit

Set up the same alert for your competitors as well: