What Reddit’s Search Engine Ambition Means for Modern SEO

“Reddit as a search engine? The heck are you talking about?”

This news surprised me when a colleague shared this TechCrunch article, published at the start of August. It reported that, at the company’s recent quarterly conference call, Reddit CEO Steve Huffman presented plans to combine its built-in search and AI-assisted answer features into a full-fledged search engine.

Huffman is bullish on the brand’s “breadth of conversations and knowledge” that no other place on the Web can offer. Being a social media platform with the air of an Internet forum, Reddit is poised to deliver human content amid the rise of AI-generated content. With over 100,000 active subreddits, each with thousands of threads and replies, it’s no surprise. (1)

Although far from being able to take on Google’s dominance of the search engine market for now, Reddit is already making an impact in other ways. SEO is one such area, but first, it’s essential to understand what Reddit really is.

Front Page (Later ‘Heart’) of the Internet

Straight out of college, Huffman and Alexis Ohanian began developing what would become Reddit in 2005. For funding, they pitched their idea to Paul Graham, a co-founder of startup accelerator Y Combinator, who would later describe it as “the front page of the Internet.”

Reddit is the product of two websites, more specifically, certain respective features. One was a social bookmarking website that allowed users to bookmark content, and the other was a “news for nerds” website that had a bustling community. Originally known as Snoo, they opted for Reddit instead due to their limited startup budget. (2)

Through the highs and lows, Reddit grew into one of the most visited websites on the Web. According to Datareportal, its average monthly total visit count ranged from 3.51 to 5.84 billion in 3Q 2024. Meanwhile, the average monthly unique user count ranged from more than 600 million to shy of 1 billion in the same period. (3)

Soon, Reddit’s tagline was changed to the “heart of the Internet.” Billions of pieces of user-generated content (UGC)—subreddits, post replies, and everything in between—that talk just about anything, all in one place. The addition of its own search engine will help make access to desired content more convenient and precise.

A Whole New Ball Game

Reddit’s pursuit of a search engine to rival, if not surpass, Google comes amid the latter’s shift toward AI-generated summaries from traditional search. Businesses and publishers have expressed concern about this move, saying that its AI Overview and AI Mode features are killing clicks and, by extension, traffic to their websites.

A recent Pew study seems to support their claims. Of the 900 U.S. adults surveyed, clicks on search engine results pages (SERPs) with AI summaries accounted for just 8%. Clicks on SERPs without, on the other hand, were almost twice as many. (4)

Naturally, Google was quick to criticize Pew for the results. In a statement to The Register, the company called the study’s methodology flawed and added that the AI experiences are prompting users to ask more questions. That said, this is a topic for another time.

For now, it’s essential to know that Reddit is a vastly different environment from Google. Instead of links to websites, its SERPs may return subreddits or threads. This isn’t out of character, as this is how Google currently indexes Reddit content.

Search results would also be fewer, as Reddit UGC is only a drop in the bucket compared to the number of active websites. They may be arranged similarly to the screenshot above, providing details like the number of thread replies, an excerpt from the most upvoted reply, and links to other relevant threads.

Its AI-assisted feature is Reddit Answers, which Huffman stated is in the process of being made available worldwide. It works similarly to Google’s AI Mode, but its search scope is limited to Reddit content.

But what really gets going is the popularity of Reddit content for training AI. In a study of three widely used AI platforms, AI analytics firm Profound discovered that AI Overviews and Perplexity cited Reddit content the most. In fact, the latter relies on it.

Source: Profound

This is the same Perplexity that Huffman called out last year for using Reddit content to train its model without paying. So far, there’s no mention of a deal with the San Francisco-based AI firm (at least not made public). However, the conference mentions the Profound study and highlights the significance of UGC in training future AI models.

New Game, New Rules

Let’s get one thing out of the way first: a new competitor won’t dethrone Google anytime soon. It had decades to set itself as the gold standard of search engines through quality results. Even if Reddit Search (or whatever it’ll be called) enters the market now, Google will remain the preferred choice for many users for years to come.

As such, many parts of the SEO playbook will remain unchanged for a long while. E-E-A-T remains the main criterion for content quality, relevance will still be a factor, and showing author credentials is still encouraged.

Regardless, Reddit’s formal entry into the search engine market will likely shake things up. The website’s nature may introduce new means of performing SEO here, such as:

Compliance with Subreddit Rules

While the website as a whole maintains a set of rules, it also leaves subreddits to create and enforce any additional rules. Most of these maintain a team of moderators, typically taken from the community’s members.

Businesses can create and manage their own subreddits with their own rules (more on this in a bit). However, they may prefer posting content on existing subreddits, especially those with a huge user base. Below are the largest subreddits as of this writing. (5)

• r/Funny – 67 million members
• r/AskReddit –57 million members
• r/gaming – 47 million members
• r/worldnews –47 million members
• r/todayilearned –41 million members
• r/Music –38 million members
• r/aww –38 million members
• r/movies –37 million members
• r/memes –35 million members
• r/science –34 million members

Does this mean these are the best places to promote your brand? As long as the content is relevant and doesn’t go against their rules, marketing to the community won’t be an issue. Otherwise, violating the rules is tantamount to disrespecting its members. How can people build trust in a brand that doesn’t consider their sentiments?

Engagement via Comments

As a social media platform with the soul of an online forum, the Reddit community thrives on comments or post replies. A thread that has dozens or hundreds of comments signifies that it’s a hot topic in the community. A comment with a high number of upvotes indicates that other users (and visitors) see sense in the author’s take on the matter.

A popular means of engaging people on Reddit is by hosting an Ask Me Anything (AMA). As the term suggests, an AMA involves an authority on a certain subject answering questions that participating users have. This format is so widespread that Reddit introduced an ad format for it last January, known as AMA Ads.

Source: Reddit for Business

AMAs can also be held on dedicated (e.g., r/IAmA) or niche subreddits, and it’s as simple as creating a thread and replying to comments as they come. Satisfying people’s curiosity is a great way to build a brand image that exudes professionalism and trust, provided their answers show their subject-matter expertise instead of engaging in blatant advertising.

More Time to Formulate Content

When creating content for Google or other search engines, time is usually of the essence. You’d want to get content out as soon as possible to keep up with rapidly changing trends. Posting when the trend has long passed screams “corporate,” which can be a major turn-off among the younger generation of consumers.

This isn’t necessarily the case with Reddit. Users appreciate a slow-cooked comment, as in one that has taken time to develop, even if they have to wait a few days. As I mentioned earlier, this platform thrives on comments and posting rushed answers to valid questions isn’t just pointless but also harmful to the brand.

Of course, there are exceptions like a live AMA. For that, it pays to anticipate questions and formulate responses ahead of time by looking into trends that apply to your niche.

Subreddits Instead of Websites

With the search scope limited to Reddit, its search engine may prompt businesses to set up their respective subreddits. These communities may be centered around the company or one of their products or services. For example, Chinese game developer MiHoYo (doing business as HoYoverse globally) maintains official subreddits for each of its games.

Subreddits offer several advantages over official websites. Besides maintaining a presence within the platform, they also provide a medium for users to discuss topics or share related content. In the example above, users are more likely to remember the name of the product than the company that created it. Also, creating one costs nothing (account required).

They aren’t without their downsides, though. Growing a Reddit community takes time, and the existence of already bustling subreddits makes it an uphill battle. Once they grow large enough, you’ll need to put together a moderator team to uphold the subreddit’s rules.

As such, businesses that can’t spare the time and effort to run a subreddit often choose to post on existing subreddits. While much easier, it isn’t as effective in getting brands out, as it’s competing with others for attention in a more encompassing subreddit. Also, without a subreddit, they miss out on a crucial mode of communication.

Reddit Search Will Shake SEO Up

Realistically speaking, Reddit’s search engine isn’t expected to be a threat to Google in the short term due to the latter’s dominance. That said, its debut will introduce new ways to do SEO on top of the ones already common knowledge.

If the company commits to this in the next few years, we may see the birth of a one-of-a-kind search engine. And the last time that happened was when Google was born.

References

1. Reddit. Homepage – Reddit [Internet]. www.redditinc.com. 2024. Available from:https://redditinc.com/
2. NPR. Live Episode! Reddit: Alexis Ohanian & Steve Huffman [Internet]. NPR. NPR; 2017. Available from:https://www.npr.org/2017/10/03/545635014/live-episode-reddit-alexis-ohanian-steve-huffman
3. Kemp S. Digital 2024 October Global Statshot Report [Internet]. DataReportal. 2024. Available from:https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2024-october-global-statshot
4. Chapekis A, Lieb A. Google users are less likely to click on links when an AI summary appears in the results [Internet]. Pew Research Center. 2025. Available from:https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2025/07/22/google-users-are-less-likely-to-click-on-links-when-an-ai-summary-appears-in-the-results/
5. Reddit – Dive into anything [Internet]. www.reddit.com. Available from:https://www.reddit.com/best/communities/1/
6. Reddit – The heart of the internet [Internet]. Reddit.com. 2025 [cited 2025 Aug 6]. Available from:https://www.reddit.com/r/answers/comments/1k3ao53/when_the_heck_is_the_difference_between_hot_top/