{"id":117411,"date":"2024-06-06T18:00:00","date_gmt":"2024-06-06T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/reddits-serp-dominance-and-what-it-means-for-your-brand\/"},"modified":"2025-01-09T16:52:12","modified_gmt":"2025-01-09T21:52:12","slug":"reddits-serp-dominance-and-what-it-means-for-your-brand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dacgroup.com\/en-ca\/insights\/blog\/search-optimization\/reddits-serp-dominance-and-what-it-means-for-your-brand\/","title":{"rendered":"Reddit\u2019s SERP dominance and what it means for your brand"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reddit\u2019s presence in search engine results pages (SERPs) is nothing new. Although the social platform\u2019s content has recently gained more prominence via Google\u2019s shiny new \u201cPerspectives\u201d tab\u2014which focuses on people-generated discussions\u2014Reddit has appeared in the \u201cIn the News\u201d box (now \u201cDiscussions and Forums\u201d) for almost a decade.<\/p>\n

What is eye-catching these days is how often Reddit threads are showing up and the breadth of keywords Reddit content can facilitate high on the SERP. Reddit results on the SERP are encompassing both branded and non-branded search queries, covering all levels of the customer funnel\u2014Knowing, Thinking, Planning, Doing, Feeling<\/strong>\u2014and spanning across industry verticals, including YMYL categories (Google\u2019s \u201cYour Money or Your Life\u201d criteria; topics that can potentially impact a person\u2019s future happiness, health, financial stability, or safety).<\/p>\n

Using SEMrush, our analysis of the reddit.com domain on the US keyword database shows a +207% increase in total ranking keywords. To put that in perspective, that\u2019s +110 million additional keywords the Reddit domain is ranking for now compared to the spring of 2023. If you look at only Page 1 queries, it is a +322% increase, or an additional +29 million keywords. For the top three positions, it\u2019s a +266% increase, or an additional +7.2 million keywords.<\/p>\n

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A year ago, Google announced that it would \u201csoon\u201d start showing more \u201chidden gems\u201d content<\/a> as part of an update to its helpful content system<\/a>. We didn\u2019t hear anything else about \u201chidden gems\u201d until Danny Sullivan posted on the Google Search Liaison X account that it had been \u201clive for months\u201d and was not part of the helpful content system.<\/p>\n

As the above chart shows, the prominence of Reddit threads on Page 1 started increasing in the late summer and early fall of 2023. This coincided with Google launching an unprecedented seven confirmed algorithm updates<\/a>, including three Core Algorithm System Updates, a reviews update, spam update, and a helpful content system update. Then, in March 2024, Google announced another spam update and another core update, with the latter incorporating the helpful content system. The longest core update rollout ever\u2014taking 45 days\u2014targeted spammy content, AI-generated content at scale, and parasite SEO. This came on the heels of Google announcing an expanded partnership with Reddit in which Google would use Reddit to train its AI systems<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reddit\u2019s SERP prominence in numbers<\/h2>\n

SEO specialists often play the role of a CSI, looking back in time and trying to piece together what has transpired. It doesn\u2019t take much of a reach to see that last year\u2019s algorithm updates started to reward Reddit posts and threads. As of today, the combination of Google\u2019s helpful content update, reviews update, \u201chidden gems\u201d signal, and expanded partnership with Reddit means that Reddit content will continue to appear prominently on SERPs for the foreseeable future. The search giant itself has said that it will continue to surface Reddit threads because users seem to find this content helpful.<\/p>\n

But it hasn\u2019t all been plain sailing. Google\u2019s decision to display \u201cDiscussions and Forums\u201d content so high on the SERP seems to be at odds with its own guidance on YMYL topics, and SEO professionals have called Google out for surfacing Reddit threads for queries relating to medical, financial, and other sensitive topics. DAC\u2019s own analysis of Reddit\u2019s domain shows that topics<\/a> like blood pressure, insurance, medication, and diet are showing up for hundreds if not thousands of keywords on Page 1\u2014sometimes within the \u201cDiscussions and Forums\u201d box, sometimes as one of the traditional \u201c10 blue links\u201d, and even within AI-generated overviews. The \u201cDiscussions and Forums\u201d module particularly prominent, often appearing above the fold ahead of the \u201cPeople Also Ask\u201d section, which is also now accommodating Reddit content.<\/p>\n

To dig a little deeper, we analyzed a few major brands and their closest competitors. Using the SEMrush keyword gap analysis tool, all domains were shown to be overlapping for tens of thousands of keywords\u2014and Reddit captured 50% or more of ranked demand.<\/p>\n

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Non-branded keywords are not exempt from this trend, and most of the keywords we analyzed increased by triple-digit percentages year over year. As the chart below shows, reddit.com has experienced a huge growth in Page 1 keyword appearances between April 2023 and April 2024. These non-branded keywords cover all stages of the customer journey, from buy, sell, and purchase to deals and offers, reviews, \u201cbest\u201d, and even localized searches like \u201cnear me\u201d.<\/p>\n

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