Diversify to survive

Ivana says: “First of all, don't give up: survive.

Google is going crazy with all the updates. Diversify. You cannot rely on just one source of traffic.

Google’s market share is shrinking, and there are new sources of traffic that we need to look into, including Reddit, which I will be talking about today.

Sometimes, in SEO, it feels a little bit hopeless. There is an update, you survived, there's an update, and you're down, and then there's another update. You start thinking, ‘What now?’ It is a little bit tiring, but that's SEO for you.

SEO keeps changing the rules and updating their updates. You just need to keep learning. Don't give up, keep learning, and stand tall.”

Are there other places that you want to highlight before talking about Reddit?

“Of course. For a very long time, it was Google, Google, Google. Then AI started to peek in, and ChatGPT arrived.

I'm not saying it's huge (it's under 1% of your traffic), but we started to be concerned about this ChatGPT thing that we hadn’t seen before. Then you have lots of things like YouTube and the new generation loving Shorts and videos. As SEOs, we need to learn how to work with that as a source.

There is Reddit, Quora, and tonnes of others. Obviously, Bing is growing. We are at 6% with Bing, and it keeps growing in importance. You have Yahoo, and if you are targeting different markets like China and Russia, you need to learn all the other search engines that are there.

Google’s share is shrinking a little bit. I'm not saying that they are being dethroned, but it's shrinking. This is the first time since 2015 that it is under 90% of the market share. That 10-12% has to go somewhere.

If you are a good marketer, you need to be looking there and thinking, ‘Am I there? Should I be there? Are my customers there? If yes, how am I going to get there?’”

Are there any countries where you would specifically recommend focussing on Bing?

“I'm coming from the online casino niche. For me, it would be the UK.

A lot of people, particularly from the older generation, have computers that come with Microsoft installed, and Bing as their default search engine. We can use that, knowing that we should push products like Bingo to them there. For me, Bing is a must. I see a growth of traffic for online casinos through Bing.

Especially with the craziness of Google, Bing is a little bit more stable. We see that as an important source of traffic for us. I'm sure it's different in different markets (it’s maybe not as big in the USA, for example), but for the UK, for sure.

Bing holds about 4% of the total market across the UK at the moment, but the desktop market share is over 13%. Some people have Edge/Bing as their default search engine, which skews toward desktop.

The older generation is not amazing on mobile. They have desktops still, and they do a lot of things from there, so you need to be there. The younger generation is going to have apps. You need to be there too, which is a completely new thing for us to optimize.

It's a little bit different, but the principles across Google, Yahoo, Bing, and apps follow. You understand your product and you optimize for it. It's always product-driven. If you're doing it differently, you're doing it wrong.”

Are you seeing any obvious significant increase in AI search volume?

“AI search is a headache for a lot of us. For online casinos, we are not that predominant on AI search yet, especially AI overviews, because it's YMYL. Google is not touching us yet.

What they are touching are the retention queries: betting results, football results, etc. Also, more informational queries: how-tos and all of that are being stolen. However, the ones that we convert on are still not there. We are trying to adjust our strategy to more actionable queries rather than informational ones, because the informational ones are being eaten by AI overviews. We're changing our strategies for how we do content.

We're learning. AI is not here to kill us. People are seeing it from a really pessimistic perspective and saying, ‘All our traffic is dead!’ We have fewer clicks, of course, but you can still promote your brand, and you can still learn what still works.

There are a lot of things that work. If you are going to a casino, you still need to click on a link to play the game. If you just want to find out what poker is or what a full house is, it might be enough to read the AI overview.

When it comes to ChatGPT, we are seeing traffic from there. It's interesting to optimize for it. We're still learning, but there is definitely traffic coming to us from there, and it's new and it's good. Maybe AI will kill us in five years' time, but for now, in 2026, I think we're still OK.”

Why is Reddit strategy important?

“First of all, there is a deal with Google. Google and Reddit are hand in hand. Basically, just like YouTube, Reddit became another Google product. They are moving a lot of traffic there because they are training their AI overview bots on Reddit, Wikipedia, Quora, and all of those forums. They want to see how people actually interact, what they talk about, and how they answer. They want to train their bots on that.

That's why we started to see so many horrible results in AI overviews two years ago, about putting glue on your pizza and jumping off a bridge if you are depressed. All of these horrible things were picked up from those sources, and they weren't filtered.

Google is using it as a source of information, and because they are using it as a source of information (and it is their product), they are moving lots of traffic there. Any update you look at, traffic on other sites is going down, and Reddit is growing.

Obviously, it's most important for English-speaking countries because that's the main language used. However, that doesn't mean that you cannot find results for Germany or Brazil. Everything is there. Reddit is really international.

We know that all of these bots are mainly being trained on Wikipedia. That's the most cited place in ChatGPT or AI overviews. It's up to 47% currently. Reddit comes up at almost 12%, which is the second biggest source.

If you want to be present there – and you want your brand to be visible in AI overviews, ChatGPT, and any other AI traffic source – you push your brand. You want it to say, ‘We found this information on this brand,’ and show the logo and the name. That's how you get the traffic, because people can either click on it or they can search for you, and it helps with brand awareness. You have to be there.

Plus, a lot of people are there looking for tonnes of products, including online casinos, betting, and anything crypto. Crypto is crazy there. So, you want to get those people who are looking for products directly on Reddit – either through organic social, because they already search for it, or through parasite SEO.

Reddit posts, Reddit threads, and subreddits really rank in Google, and you can skew it by manipulating the traffic there. You can utilise Reddit in so many ways, and if you do it correctly, then it can be a very good source of traffic. However, because Reddit is onto us, they are making it more and more difficult.”

Is Reddit suitable for all types of businesses?

“Everything is there, from SEO services to local things like plumbing.

For me, what is valuable is casinos, betting, and crypto. Those are my niches, and they are the ones that get an extreme amount of traffic from Reddit and are being closed down by Reddit. However, this is applicable to any business and almost any country.”

Do you need to be conservative about focussing too much on Reddit in case Google change their relationship, then all of your efforts will have gone to waste?

“It is one of the sources I would add to your traffic. I wouldn't ditch your strategies everywhere else because of Reddit, just like I wouldn't overwrite all my strategies because ChatGPT has a 0.6% market share. Consider it a thing to look into and add to your traffic, because any click is good, any click is money, and any click is a customer. Also, see whether it's going to grow.

Reddit changed. I've been using Reddit for two years now, and it used to be super easy. You could open a subreddit in seconds, and you didn't have to worry about it. Then suddenly, SEOs saw traffic, we went there, and we started to milk that traffic and basically kill Reddit.

Reddit got onto us, and they made it more difficult for you to open a subreddit. Now, if you are trying to open a subreddit or even create a post, you need to have been a user for at least 30 days and have at least 100 karma. To create karma, you need to be active on Reddit and to be active on Reddit, you need to have karma. It's a bit of an ouroboros, so it's getting more difficult.

Also, if you are operating more subreddits, you need to use anti-browser detection systems because Reddit stores tonnes of data. I don't even know if it's legal. It's not just your IP address and your username or email; your screen resolution, your operating system, and all of this information is being stored, so you need to change that every time. You don’t want to buy a new computer every time you get banned.

You need to be a little bit clever about it, and you cannot just use a VPN or go incognito. Reddit knows those tricks. You need to buy a proper proxy from wherever you want to be – which is not too expensive, but it's an extra step. Then you need to sync it with a new computer that has anti-browser detection.

This gave rise to lots of tools that can help you create mentions, comments, or even links. Reddit might be trying to close businesses out, but it gives growth to a completely new business, and the people who are able to create the tools are happy right now.”

How do AI comments and human comments compare on Reddit?

“Zurich University carried out some unauthorised research on this. Basically, there is a subreddit called r/ChangeMyView where they have ten rules, and three of them say that you need to be human. They don't accept anything AI-generated, and it has to be human. Three of their ten rules are strictly against AI.

Zurich University wanted to look at how they would do on engagement with human versus AI content. They created and published lots of conversations with other humans through AI, and a lot through humans. They found that the engagement with AI was six times better.

We are breaking Reddit. Reddit is thought of as a human place where people are exchanging points of view, advice, help, and a little bit of hatred, too. We love to love and hate online because it's so anonymous, especially on Reddit. That's why Google chose it as a place to train its bots.

Through the stats, it was revealed that almost 50% of all Reddit is AI. AI is starting to be trained on AI, even on Reddit. So, we're definitely breaking the internet here.”

Is AI having conversations with AI on Reddit?

“Yes. I tested several tools for creating mentions and conversations, and I went to subreddits where you are allowed to post AI content – mainly in gambling, betting, and crypto.

I used tools to create AI-generated comments. I read it and I was like, ‘This is horrible. That's going to be deleted almost immediately.’ No, that survived. Then I went and, with my expertise, I wrote something that didn't even get published.

There is some lenience toward AI. Maybe it's because the language is simpler. Maybe it’s because, when I write about SEO, I would use terminology, and I would go deep into explanations. I think the simplicity of the AI conversation is what attracts.”

Is there still a place for going on there, mentioning your own brand, and having that incorporated within search?

“Yes. However, ChatGPT and Perplexity are still a little bit stupid, to be honest. They are not as clever as the Google algorithms. I would go and create mentions, posts, comments, and even links about a brand.

For Majestic, I would say, ‘Majestic is an amazing tool,’ and I would publish on several subreddits. Once I have reached critical mass (10 or 20 mentions), I would go to ChatGPT and ask, ‘Do you see any mentions of Majestic on Reddit?’

To start with, it might not find anything. Then you do it several times, and they start to crawl Reddit and look for your mentions, and then you start to appear in ChatGPT. You still need to push them a little bit to think the way you want.”

Ivana, what's the key takeaway from the tip you shared today?

“Diversify because nothing is stable.

Google is shrinking. Reddit was growing; now, Reddit is challenging. Always look for the next source of traffic. Never stop learning and keep experimenting, because that’s the essence of SEO.”

Ivana Flynn is a Head of SEO and Marketing Strategy. Find out more over at Online.Casino.