Reddit as a search engine: What it means for small businesses

Searching with Reddit

Reddit has become many people’s go-to online source for information, offering a unique blend of user-generated content and community-driven discussions. Catching onto this trend, Google is deepening its partnership with Reddit to enhance user experience. Here are the demographics of Reddit users who use it as a search engine, what users search for most on the platform, and why.

Nearly two in three people in the U.S. said they use Reddit as a search engine at least once a week. Gen Z was twice as likely as baby boomers to use Reddit for their searches, highlighting a generational difference in search preferences between digital regulars and relatively newer web surfers. Reddit users have sought a mix of practical information and engaging content on the platform — the most searched categories on Reddit were tech, news, and personal finance.

Reddit’s user-generated content and community-driven discussions have fostered a sense of authenticity that resonates with its users: two in three of those we surveyed considered Reddit results more authentic than those from other search engines. This was reinforced by users’ trust in and satisfaction with the platform’s content: 92% of those using Reddit as a search engine said the results were trustworthy, while 95% found them helpful. These findings highlight how valuable genuine experiences and opinions are in the internet’s sea of marketing content.

A search engine showdown

As Reddit’s popularity as a search engine has grown, we compared it to the king of search: Google. Let’s see how users think the two stack up.

Over half of Reddit users (58%) have found the platform more trustworthy than Google. Generationally, Gen Z and millennials both believed Reddit to be more trustworthy than the first Google search engine results page (SERP). However, baby boomers and Gen X felt the opposite, placing more trust in Google. Overall, 41% of Reddit users across generations said it was a better search engine than Google

Most Reddit users said Google prioritizing subreddit pages in its search results increases the visibility of Reddit discussions. They’re not alone — in fact, Reddit content is shown so often in Google product review search results that some think it causes a SERP diversity issue.

Reaching Redditors

Small businesses are starting to recognize the potential of Reddit as a marketing channel for reaching their target audience. We investigated how they’re using Reddit in their marketing efforts, as well as the challenges and benefits it presents.

Nearly one in three small business owners have used Reddit as part of their marketing strategy, with almost half posting on the platform at least once weekly. The top content type business owners posted on Reddit was their replies to Reddit user posts, indicating a focus on community engagement and interaction.

However, marketing on Reddit has its challenges. According to small business owners, the most common examples have been:

1. Following subreddit rules (45%)
2. Fostering long-term engagement (43%)
3. Posting engaging content (37%)
4. Community resistance to marketing (37%)
5. Maintaining authenticity (32%)
6. Measuring return on investment (ROI) (29%)
7. Adapting to Reddit’s informal, humorous tone (13%)
8. Keeping up with trends (12%)
9. Adjusting to Reddit’s anonymity and privacy preferences (12%)

These challenges show how Reddit marketing requires strategy and a community-centric mindset to provide value and build genuine user connections. The platform’s emphasis on anonymity and privacy, which limits access to personal data and user behavior, might also require a shift in focus from individual targeting to community engagement.

Reddit has had a growing influence on Google’s search engine results: one in 10 small business owners said a Reddit page has ranked above their business page on Google’s SERP. Another 6% even said their content marketing efforts had generated more revenue from Reddit than Google. Among the small business owners who had not yet incorporated Reddit into their marketing strategy, 47% said that Google prioritizing Reddit pages in search results encouraged them to start posting on Reddit.