If you ask any SEO professional what the first half of 2024 has been like for them, there’s a 50/50 chance they’ll start crying.
Google’s updates have come thick and fast recently – but why? And what effect have they had on the results we’re presented with when searching?
In this article, integrated marketing and communications agency, Liquid, explores the most significant shifts of 2024, focusing on the rise of user-generated content platforms and what this means for your SEO approach.
What are the latest Google updates?
There’s certainly plenty to be keeping up with in the SEO world nowadays – if it isn’t AI threatening marketer’s jobs, it’s a new social media platform that aims to “replace Google”.
It’s hard to keep up, even for those of us that spend our days online, and even Google seems to be struggling to know where to turn its attention next; whether it be a stop start deployment of its Gemini AI tool in Search Engine Results Pages (SERPs) to its double algorithm update this Spring, Google is battling to keep ahead of the digital landscape.
Google’s seeming change in focus extends to rankings at the moment. One thing that is emerging through 2024 is the increased presence of forum-based social sites, such as Reddit and Quora, in Google SERPs.
For context, 2023 was a turbulent year for SEO, with no fewer than 4 core updates from Google, compared to 2 in 2022. Many updates in 2023 focused on helpful content, relevance and usefulness to users and reducing spam. The extended into 2024 when – in March – Google took a somewhat unprecedented step of running concurrent updates – one core and one focused specifically on spam content.
Google’s focus on relevance, helpfulness, authority and non-spammy content is nothing new – a lot of their ranking recommendations and documentation are saying the same things they’ve said for years; focus on good quality and informative content that answers searcher intent and you’ll be okay.
The big change, and the one that seems to be sending some SEOs into a spiral, is that recent updates are actually making a significant difference to the makeup of SERPs.
Google now seems to be prioritising lived experiences, direct knowledge and well researched content rather than keyword-optimised blog content drafted by SEO marketers who were vying for their company’s content to take Google’s top spot.
This seems to be a direct response to the fact that before these updates, users searching for information were likely to be sold a product or service at the same time as answering their query. Users, as a result, were seeking out sources of information that were more reliable and helpful – after all, 10% of Gen Z are using TikTok over Google as a search engine.
Is user-generated content the new source of truth?
This leads us back to user-generated content, from sites like Reddit and Quora, and Google’s prioritisation of them in search results.
It seems that, since around September last year, these forum-based sites have been climbing in organic rankings. There appears to be a direct correlation between Google’s core update dates and increases in rankings for Reddit and Quora.
Interest in the search term ‘reddit’, past 5 years, Google Trends, 9th June 2024
Both of these sites have something that marks them as a different social media to Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn. Instead of ‘Likes’, ‘Celebrations’ or whatever the latest reaction is, Reddit & Quora operate an upvote/downvote system for posts and comments. With the assistance of human intervention in the form of moderation, these platforms have become powerful influencing tools and a dependable source of information and advice.
Google knows the increasing popularity of these sites. It knows people are appending ‘reddit’ to their search queries. It’s why it trained its AI on a load of Reddit content – with questionable results.
Reddit.com, organic pages and organic traffic, last 2 years, Ahrefs, 9th June 2024
Quora.com, organic pages & organic traffic, last 2 years, Ahrefs, 9th June 2024
Looking at these two graphs, in August 2023 both sites start gaining rankings (and therefore traffic). In fact, according to Ahrefs, from August 1st 2023 to 25th June 2024, Reddit and Quora’s organic traffic has increased by 542% and 319% respectively.
How does this impact us?
So, since August last year the face of SERPs has been changing, but is this new prevalence of ‘social forum’ search results a good thing?
Well, it depends. If you’re the user, you’re more likely to find something useful, and you’re more likely to trust the person (profile) you’re hearing it from.
It’s also a good thing if you’re Reddit. In fact, in a huge coincidence, the owners have just taken it public and will now be looking to maximise profits for their new shareholders. If you’re anything like us, you’ll have recently had a sales pitch from a newly hired ‘Reddit Ads Account Managers’. These Account Managers can use Reddit’s new positioning in search and increase in organic traffic as tool to convince advertisers onto a platform that has historically struggled to sell ad inches.
It is us, the humble marketers, who must take the brunt of this changing digital landscape and adapt to survive in the world of SEO.
It now seems like if you’re with a brand that takes its SEO seriously, you need to be thinking about how to get your brand onto these forum-based platforms to leverage some of that new relevance.
The benefits of establishing an organic presence on the likes of Reddit could well be worth it:
- Extra brand visibility & awareness
- Engagement with potential customers
- First hand market research within your niche
- Increasing non-linked brand signals and backlinks to your site
In theory having a presence on the likes of Reddit is exactly the same as any proactive community management on the likes of Facebook, X or LinkedIn, you should be looking for opportunities your brand can enter the conversation and add relevant insight.
The issue on Reddit is that the community may not always be as receptive to this community management as they are on other channels. One example of a corporate social media team getting it very wrong is when EA decided to take to a Reddit ‘Ask-Me-Anything’ session to answer questions on their upcoming game. They really misjudged the mood of their audience, with their comment looking like it will hold the record for the most downvoted comment in Reddit history, for a while.
So, it’s important to get it right on forum-based platforms such as Reddit. Places that host a lot of user-generated content can spot inauthentic posts, especially from brands, and will not hesitate to call you out on it. The key to getting it right it is being honest, being human and having a sense of humour. If your company is vulnerable to examination, it’s probably not the place for you, but if you have a brand that has something useful to say, some way to help people, some insight or helpful advice, or you’re just bringing some good into the world, it’s worth being part of the conversation.
With the prevalence of Reddit (and other forum-based websites) in Google search results not looking like it’ll slow down; it may be that these channels will form part of a standard SEO strategy in 5 years.
To establish your brand on these kinds of sites, organisations should assess their site’s performance vs. forum sites, monitor and research the topics in their sector, become familiar with community etiquette and learn what kind of posts are successful, and interact with the community honestly and transparently.
If you’d like some support on SEO – from capitalising on Google’s latest updates to optimising your content strategy – reach out to Liquid now: info@weareliquid.com.
