Last month, we asked the CEO of a 100+ year-old seed company to delete her personal Facebook photos. Not because they were scandalous, but because we needed her real account to answer gardening questions in Facebook groups. 

That’s how SEO works now, getting into real chats, not hiding behind keywords.

SEO Isn’t Dead

We used to tweak keyword bids down to the cent. Now we allocate that budget to join and listen where people already hang out, like Reddit, Facebook groups, TikTok, and YouTube. The foundations remain: be helpful and visible. But the way we do it has shifted.

AI-generated answers are starting to replace Google click-throughs. Some sources say Google traffic has dropped up to 30% on certain queries. Brands are turning to visibility in short-form video, social feeds, and community chat.

So, It’s Moved. Where Has It Gone?

If you think search is still only happening on Google, you’re missing the full picture. People now search with their thumbs, not their keyboards, and they’re doing it in very different places.

Here’s where search behavior is actually happening today:

• Reddit: Third most visited site in the U.S., with over 1.2 billion monthly users, it’s full of real conversations, perfect for figuring out what your audience actually cares about.
  
• YouTube & TikTok: Short-form video is competing with websites for attention. Younger users especially turn to these platforms first for how-tos and product suggestions.
  
• Social-only search: 46% of Gen Z prefer searching on social platforms like TikTok and Instagram over Google.
  
• Google’s integration: Even Google is catching on, Reddit threads and YouTube videos are now showing up in top spots of search results.
  

The bottom line: if your strategy is built around only Google, you’re missing out on the real places where attention lives.

How To Get To Where SEO Is Going

You can’t rely on outdated playbooks if the game has changed. If your audience has moved to new platforms, your SEO strategy needs to follow.

Here’s how to keep up:

• Do community research: Track down actual questions in Reddit threads, TikTok comments, and Facebook groups. These are the gold mine of content ideas.
  
• Lean into social search: Optimize your social posts like you would a blog. Natural-language captions, hashtags, and alt text help your content show up where people are looking.
  
• Join conversations authentically: Create real profiles. Answer questions without being pushy. People trust people, not brands pretending to be helpful.
  
• Use social content for SEO: Google’s already ranking Reddit and YouTube posts. When your content shows up there, it doesn’t just help on social, it can help your rankings, too.
  
• Track metrics differently: Shares, saves, and comments are today’s backlinks. These engagement signals push content up in feeds and get you seen more often.
  

This isn’t about throwing out SEO, it’s about evolving it. Be useful where your audience actually is, and your visibility will grow across every platform.

SEO didn’t die, nor will it ever. It just moved out of the search bar and into the places where people are already talking, learning, and deciding what to buy.

If you’re ready to stop chasing algorithms and start answering real questions in real conversations, let’s build a new kind of strategy together. Shoot us a message, and we’ll help you get where your audience already is.