If you’d asked me a year ago what the most-asked questions I’d get in 2026 would be, “can you get us a Wikipedia page” and “do you manage Reddit for brands” wouldn’t have made the list. AI taking over every layer of marketing, sure, I saw that coming years ago. But this specific side effect and shift in interest, I didn’t see coming.
But over the past few months, that’s exactly what’s landed in my inbox. Not “can you improve our SEO”. Not even “Can you grow our Instagram followers.” Specifically: Do you create content for Reddit? Can you get us a Wikipedia page? Do you manage Reddit?
Turns out I’m not just imagining it, and once I started doing some research, the reason made a lot more sense than “Reddit is just trendy at the moment.”
My theory is that it’s all related to the AI search explosion.
The short version: Reddit is showing up in AI-generated answers, on ChatGPT, Perplexity, and even inside Google’s own results, because AI tools trust content that’s discussed by real people. If you’re a small business this matters even more: buyers are already asking AI tools to shortlist your category for them. The way in isn’t posting more content; it’s listening first, but using Reddit for real market research, and building a presence patiently instead of running it like a campaign.
The real shift: AI started giving answers sourced from online forums
The entire search model that started 20 years ago has changed. More people are now turning to ChatGPT to ask a question instead of typing into Google. This is a more personalised way to search and get answers, instead of Google showing you a list of 10 blue links, AI chatbots give you one simple answer that is a summary of all those articles.
Speaking of AI chatbots: Wonderchat AI lets you build your own AI chatbot and deploy it on your website in just 1 minute, and that’s something you can consider to build more trust with shoppers on your own site.
And when an AI tool generates an answer, it isn’t getting it from the same sources Google used to rank pages.
Reddit’s Rise
Reddit itself isn’t new; it’s been around since 2005. Fun fact: it was co-founded by Alexis Ohanian, yes, Serena Williams’ husband. That’s before Instagram and TikTok even existed. It’s a forum-style platform built on communities or chat groups where people join, ask questions and share opinions on any topic.
What is new is how suddenly relevant it’s become, both to search and to marketers paying attention to it.
Data Supports Reddit’s Rise in Search Visibility
SE Journal’s analysis of 100,000 keywords in June 2026, found Reddit’s search visibility rose to 10.24% after Google’s May 2026 core update, and it now holds the #1 spot for nearly 14,000 keywords, up 54% from just a few months earlier.
And this is not a random case. SparkToro research shows that 68% of Google searches now end without a single click, and only 232 clicks reach the open web for every 1,000 searches.
As we all started noticing, less traffic is reaching independent websites overall, and more of it is concentrating on a handful of big platforms, Reddit being one of them.
Suggested read: How I diagnosed a traffic drop with WordPress.com stats.
And as proof that Reddit’s business is growing, they posted their first fully profitable year in 19 years, $2.2 billion in revenue (up 69%), and 126.8 million daily active users in Q1 2026 (up 17%).
I tested to see if Reddit appears in search results
Are these stats actually true? I was curious to test to see if Reddit even gets picked up in AI chatbot answers and also on Google search.
I asked ChatGPT: “Is Buffer a good content scheduling tool for freelancers?”
ChatGPT gave me 3 Reddit sources, alongside the official Buffer website, and some other tech blogs. This shows that discussions on Reddit like “best Buffer alternative?” do make an impact on AI chatbot answers. I did not expect discussions like these to be in the top sources cited.
One Reddit post, “Seeking advice on cost-effective platforms” was even dated 2025, which is a year old. It also surprised me that Reddit discussions dated two years ago also made it to the citation. This shows how long your Reddit chats can stay relevant.
Next, I went to type something similar on Google to see if Google search results give me any Reddit links.
I asked Google: “Is Buffer good for freelancers?”
When I scrolled down past the 1st sponsored result, I could see the Discussions and forums box, and of course Reddit, and Quora conversations dated between 2 years and 5 months ago were highlighted.
Google prioritised picking questions and answers with more votes and comments. But it’s equally surprising that now forums like Reddit are on page 1 of Google – without sponsored posts, and without any SEO struggle. All organic.
What People Ask Me About Reddit Marketing
The question I get most often about Reddit comes usually one of three ways:
Scenario 1: They came across a Reddit thread trashing their product, and how should they respond to mitigate the risk to their business
Scenario 2: A competitor started showing up in a Reddit ranking thread, and now they want “that too”
Scenario 3: They simply ask: “can you just handle Reddit for us?”, the same way they used to ask me about scheduling their Instagram posts, and managing comments.
All three come from the same place, a client noticing Reddit matters now, without yet understanding why, or what showing up on Reddit actually requires. That’s where most of my actual conversation happens.
Should You Start Building a Reddit Marketing Strategy?
My honest answer is this: Reddit isn’t a channel you just jump in and post a lot of content and hope to get leads. It’s closer to slowly building a reputation over time, not just based on a promo campaign. Most successful brands on Reddit are not promoting their products directly. They’re either managing thier reputation or engaging with their community and sharing useful information. Most recently, everyone wants to start a Reddit channel because it gets picked up by AI tools.
If you want to get started on Reddit, here are my tips:
Tip #1: Don’t just cross-post the same content
One mistake I see constantly: brands take the exact same post they published on Facebook or Instagram and post it into Reddit, word for word. That’s not how things work here. Before you post anything on Reddit, spend time observing how people in your specific industry actually write, what tone they use, how detailed their posts are, and what gets upvoted versus ignored.
Reddit has its own style, more conversational, more detailed, and way less formal than a LinkedIn caption. And obviously, posts that read like marketing copy get called out fast. My advice is to listen first, then create something original for that specific room, not a repost of what you already made for somewhere else.
Tip #2: Use Reddit as a market research tool
This is the part most brands miss entirely. Reddit isn’t just a social media listening tool where you log in to see what people talk about your brand. It’s one of the best free market research tools out there, if you know where to look.
Here’s an exercise for you: type a broad buyer question into Google, something like “best hairdryer,” and look at the “People also ask” box. You’ll usually find the real comparison questions buyers are actually stuck on, lightweight vs powerful hairdryer, Dyson vs regular hairdryer.
Most importantly, these aren’t questions your competitors wrote on Reddit to get more traffic, they’re pulled from what real people are already asking, and can be traced straight to the original Reddit threads. That’s how you study buyer intent, all for free.
I used Reddit as a topic research tool, with my own blog, and also with clients before we ever write a single piece of content. Instead of guessing what are the issues and topics your audience wants to find answers, you can go find the exact language they use, and build your content and positioning around that instead of just guessing.
Tip #3: Watch out for the Reddit moderators
Reddit is organised as communities, called subreddits, built around specific interests. You can join communities about food, tech reviews, home and gardening, gaming, and whatever your industry touches. Each community sets its own rules of conduct, and moderators are the ones who enforce them, making sure everything posted by members actually follows those guidelines. They can remove your content, and they can kick members out of the community entirely.
That’s why I tell clients Reddit isn’t for you if you just want to “post your promos”. Moderators will remove anything that feels like a product pitch, even if the comment was actually helpful. Keep breaking the community rules, and your account can get banned from that subreddit altogether.
Tip #4: Transparency is a must
I know some of you are thinking: Ah, I will create multiple accounts and act like anonymous customers leaving goof reviews for my brand.” Let me warn you, the chances of you getting caught are pretty high, and the damage isn’t contained to that one thread. I’ve had clients half-jokingly ask if they could “just use a personal account” and don’t disclose they are a brand page. The answer is always: you can, but if you use your personal account to promote a brand, disclose it, or don’t do it at all. It’s worse to be discovered as being unethical and fake.
Tip: If you want to keep track of your brand mentions, a tool like Pallyy with a single social media inbox makes it easier to keep tabs on what’s being said about your brand across all social channels in one place, instead of navigating five different apps.
The Bottom Line on Reddit Marketing
So, should you start building a Reddit strategy? Yes, but not the way you’d approach Instagram or LinkedIn.
Reddit rewards brands that show up to listen, research, and contribute like an actual member of the community, not ones that post promos, ads and just disappear from the community. That’s really the whole reason clients keep asking me about this in the first place: AI tools are already pulling their answers from Reddit, so your presence there, or the lack of it, is impacting what buyers hear about you before they ever click and land on your website.
If you’re trying to figure out where Reddit fits into your own content strategy, that’s exactly the kind of thing I help clients work through, feel free to reach out.
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