Search used to be the age-old game of “get ranked on Google or get left behind.” It was simple: someone typed a query into Google, clicked a result, and you either ranked for it or you didn’t. That was the beauty of it, or so it seemed for the past two decades.
But the game has changed, and most brands are still stuck playing the old version.
People search everywhere now – it’s just not all on Google
A recent study from SparkToro and Datos crunched the numbers on 40+ different search platforms, from search engines to ecommerce sites to social networks to AI tools. And let me tell you, the results paint a pretty clear picture of where search activity is actually happening these days.
Google still takes the lion’s share, a nice round 73.7% of all search activity. That’s no surprise. But what’s more interesting is where the rest goes. Commerce platforms like Amazon, Walmart and eBay get around 10%, social networks take up 5.5% and AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude sit at a respectable 3.2%.
Now, here’s the thing most SEO conversations miss: social search at 5.5% already outpaces AI search at 3.2%. But the industry’s still putting way more time into figuring out how to rank in ChatGPT while pretty much ignoring TikTok, You Tube and Reddit as search platforms.
Don’t get me wrong, AI search will be important, and it definitely will get more so over time. But while we’re chasing the shiny new thing, we’re also ignoring channels where millions of searches are happening every single day.
Social platforms have evolved into search engines
People aren’t going to TikTok to just scroll mindlessly through their feeds. They’re going for restaurant reviews, product recommendations, and to check out what their friends are saying. They search YouTube for tutorials and in-depth explanations. And they head to Reddit for genuine opinions and community discussions.
Each platform is geared towards a different purpose – TikTok’s about discovery and recommendations, YouTube’s for learning and reviews, and Reddit’s the place to go for unfiltered opinions from real users, not brands. Pinterest’s all about planning and visual research.
These aren’t just platforms where people occasionally get a little bit of info from. For a growing number of users, they’re the first place to go when they want an answer – especially among younger demographics who never really developed a “Google first” habit.
Your social content is now turning up in Google results
Google’s been getting a lot more aggressive about surfacing social content in their own search results over the past year. TikTok videos, YouTube Shorts, Reddit threads, Instagram posts and forum discussions now pop up in SERPs all the time.
Google even did a deal with Reddit to bring community discussions more front and centre in search results. So if you create content on Reddit or YouTube, it’s not just visible on those platforms – you’re also showing up in Google search results too.
That creates a really interesting compounding effect that’s hard to ignore. A well-made YouTube tutorial could rank on YouTube search, show up in Google results, get referenced in AI-generated answers, get shared on social platforms and spread through private messaging. One piece of content on five or six different discovery paths. That kind of reach is almost impossible to get from a blog post on your website sitting by itself.
Your social content is feeding AI search too
AI-generated answers pull from content that reflects real-world experience and discussion. Reddit threads, YouTube videos, Quora answers, and creator content on Instagram and TikTok are often cited in AI responses.
Google’s AI Overviews are regularly referencing Reddit discussions and YouTube content. Other AI tools do the same with community forums and creator platforms. So investing in social search visibility doesn’t just help you on the social platform itself – it can improve your visibility in AI-generated results, and that in turn boosts your discoverability across the board.
A single piece of social content can now travel across multiple layers of search – that’s a very different value proposition from the traditional “publish a blog post and hope it ranks” approach.
Most brands are still stuck on the old playbook
Despite all this, most search strategies are still all about Google SEO, paid search, and website content. Very few brands have put together a structured strategy for TikTok search optimisation, YouTube search visibility or Reddit community engagement.
But that’s actually an opportunity – while Google SEO is brutally competitive, social search is relatively under-optimised. There’s less competition, more room to stand out, and the compound reach effect means your content can travel further than a traditional blog post ever would.
The brands that figure this out early won’t just capture the 5.5% of searches happening on social platforms – they’ll also influence traditional search results, AI-generated answers, and broader discovery patterns across the web.
What to do about it
You don’t need to be on every single platform. That’s a pretty common, but misguided, interpretation of the idea of ‘searching everywhere’. What you do need to do is show up on the sites your specific audience is actually searching on.
If you’re selling business-to-business software, for example, then Reddit and YouTube are probably more valuable to you than TikTok. On the other hand, if you’re a consumer brand targeting Gen Z, then TikTok and Instagram should be right at the top of your list. The thing to keep in mind is matching your platforms to your target audience’s search intent.
Start by figuring out where it is your audience is actually searching for information. Then create content that is specifically tailored to those platforms – not just grabbing some old blog posts and slapping them into a different format. A YouTube tutorial should feel like a proper tutorial, not just some person reading a blog post out loud. A Reddit contribution should feel like a regular member of the community is sharing their expertise, not a brand trying to sell something.
The smart move is to pick two or three platforms that actually match your target audience, and to create content that is specifically suited to the way those platforms work. Then, just measure the effect over time. When your social content starts ranking on the platform, showing up in Google, and then gets referenced in answer to someones question, then you’re doing a lot more with the same amount of effort.
Search isn’t a one platform game anymore. The sooner your strategy picks up on that, the better off you’ll be.