Democratise your content strategy to leverage the emerging search universe

Ashley says: “Audiences are diversifying the platforms that they’re leveraging for search and the search landscape is democratising.

As that happens, SEOs need to be democratising their content strategies to go across these platforms and leverage this search universe that’s emerging.”

Do SEOs have to be in as many places as possible for organic discovery or just be on the platforms that are most likely to appeal to their audience?

“It’s more about being where your audience is. Being everywhere and being in front of everyone is going to be tough. If you need to be on Facebook, TikTok, Instagram, etc., that’s going to become really cost-inefficient.

It’s about identifying the platforms that are most likely to connect you with your audiences and your communities, and investing heavily in those platforms. If, from your insights, that’s Google, then that’s where you’ll be investing your time.

If it emerges that TikTok, Reddit, or Pinterest are those platforms, then you should be investing in those platforms alongside Google for your search strategies.

If you try to be everywhere, you’re not going to do a good job of listening to each platform. The style of content that you need to publish in different places differs, so you’re not going to natively appeal on those individual platforms.

It is becoming easier as social platforms are converging and the way we deliver content on those platforms is becoming more homogenous. With YouTube Shorts, Instagram Reels, and TikTok, you’d be able to use similar content to appeal to those three platforms.

Forum platforms like Reddit and Discord also have similar content. It’s identifying where you can show up with your activations in a way that looks native, and delivering it as natively as you can.”

In terms of the customer journey, is it now harder to keep track of where customers are and what they’re doing prior to making a purchase?

“More steps are needed. I’m not sure that it’s tougher, though, because it actually mirrors the steps that we’ve always taken. We’ve always done research into top-of-funnel, middle-of-funnel, and bottom-of-funnel to identify the content that we need to leverage at that stage of the journey. It’s just that we’ve typically done that on a Google SERP.

Now, there is just that extra step of understanding which platforms that is taking place on. It’s finding those insights, whether that’s immersing yourself in the platform directly and taking those steps manually, or whether it’s leveraging the tools that are starting to emerge across the space.

That needs to be established, but I think SEOs will find it easy to do. It’s just an extra step in our process.”

Is it more difficult to define the content that they’re engaging with on a particular platform?

“A little bit. TikTok is getting better because they’re embracing that search functionality. They’re actually giving us search insights so we can see the queries that they’re using, the same way that we do on Google, to understand what content they’re seeking in that discovery or inspire stage.

I think that other tools will start to roll out similar features. Pinterest already has this. Reddit is already doing this, and you can attach the Reddit keyword to your Google keywords to get an insight into that as well.

The capability to find what content you need to be serving, and what queries you need to be meeting, is already there. It just needs to become slightly more sophisticated over the next 6, 12, or 18 months. As it does, that will become easier and easier.

There is probably a bit more of a manual step there at the moment, compared to what we’re used to from traditional search, but I don’t think it’s difficult for SEOs to get their head around.”

How do you identify whether a platform is right for a brand, and you should move into TikTok, Reddit, or something else?

“Initially, it definitely comes down to gut instinct – and certain categories currently lend themselves to the social search landscape. As more users start leveraging TikTok, Instagram, etc. for social search, more categories are going to become involved.

Right now, lifestyle brands are the ones that lend themselves to that conversation. Once we’ve decided that this is a lifestyle brand, we look at the audience that they’re trying to attract. If it’s Gen Z or millennials, those younger audiences are already displaying that they’re willing to embrace social search.

We’d then be able to say that this is a good category for social search right now. We know that the audience they are trying to attract is embracing social search based on Google’s evidence, and industry research into social search.

Then we’d follow that and look at Google trends and on the platforms themselves, to see what conversations are taking place. It’s definitely going to mature further over the next year, as more brands and more categories will be able to leverage social search, but those are the indicators to look at right now.”

What are some metrics that you look at to determine whether or not interaction on other platforms has been a success?

“It comes back to traditional search, ultimately. TikTok touchpoints, Reddit touchpoints, and Pinterest touchpoints are taking place but, before the stage of conversion, we expect a branded search to still take place on Google.

If you can see that brand search starts to grow, along with whatever you have been creating content around on the platform, then that’s a good indication that your content is starting to resonate with users. Then, you can obviously look within the platforms themselves.

You can look at things like views, impressions, and whether it is ranking. TikTok will tell you where it’s ranking on a TikTok SERP, and you can start to see where that’s performing and how that’s being picked up. There are also SERP features on TikTok that you can leverage to see whether it’s being picked up there – and all of these become metrics for success.

However, the main one always comes back to traditional search at the moment, and the growing share of branded search.”

What do you do on other platforms to get people to remember you, and what do you do on your own site to surface for the brand queries you’re trying to encourage?

“The first part of that is about looking native on the platform. On TikTok, for example, you can’t be overly pushy or overly ‘salesy’. You need to be doing it subtly and getting your brand across subtly.

This is also true on other platforms, but especially on TikTok: you need to put the community at the heart of everything that you’re doing. Speak to that community about a pain that niche has – or a want, need, or desire – and meet those needs head-on.

As a brand, having those conversations within niche communities is what you’re looking for, in terms of growing that brand community and advocacy towards a brand, and then, on the backs of that, developing awareness.

In terms of how you’re showing up, for us, traditional search has been the foundation and the core. The reason for that is that we’re a B2B business, so we’re trying to speak to people who are seeking SEO services – and that’s still taking place on a traditional search.

However, we’re supporting that with social search as a way of evidencing that we can talk the talk, but we can also walk the walk. You’ll find a lot of repurposed content on our TikTok, on my own LinkedIn, and across the likes of YouTube and YouTube Shorts as well.”

How do you identify the pains, needs, wants, and desires of your target audience?

“It all comes back to traditional keyword research. It’s the old, ‘if it’s not broken, don’t try to fix it’ mentality. Traditional keyword research can be amplified, and you can add social search insights into that.

We start with our traditional keyword universe for a brand, and that becomes our source of truth in terms of what we know has been searched for either historically or right now, on a Google SERP. However, as that search migrates to other platforms, it becomes important to consider whether you can map TikTok keywords to this universe. Can you map Pinterest, Reddit, or whatever platform you’re leveraging at the time, to those keyword universes?

What you emerge with is a keyword set that not only focuses on traditional search but also has insights across the search universe, and across the platforms that you’re leveraging for that brand.”

You say that brands need to act more like creators. What can brands learn from creators?

“One of the biggest things is authenticity. Creators, especially those that are smaller, have to be authentic. They have to be speaking to their audience in a relatable and relevant way. They also have to be speaking to their audience in a truthful way that develops trustworthiness. On the back of that, they’re then perceived as authentic and they’re developing authoritativeness.

All of those buzzwords that I’ve just spoken about lend themselves to search marketing and what Google has historically told us they’re looking for in content.

If you can embrace the idea of being truly authentic – not trying to fake authenticity but actually helping your user with a pain, need, want, or desire – then you’re going to build that community. You’re going to get that advocacy, and you’re going to develop awareness on the back of that.”

Should brands come up with a content strategy and run with it themselves or identify creators and try to work with them?

“It’s a combination of the two; embracing both is the way to go. You want to have search content sit on owned channels but also have search content from UGC, EGC (employee-generated content), and also those content creator relationships that you’re able to leverage and develop.

Employee-generated content can sit on owned channels or, if you are brave enough and willing to embrace it, you can allow staff to put their own content on their own channels, talking about the brand that they work for and the brand that they work with.

Embracing both of those ideals is the best way to go. If you only have the budget for one, I would personally go for the creator-led model. The reason being, it’s easier because they’ve got access to those communities already. There may be people who aren’t aware of your brand within their community, so you’re able to access those niche communities that I’ve already spoken about.

That can help you develop social search at an easier and more accessible rate than if you try and grow your own channel. However, I would try and do both if you can.”

If an SEO is struggling for time, what should they stop doing right now so they can spend more time doing what you suggest in 2025?

“Stop over-obsessing over the Google algorithm updates. Google and traditional search are vital to what we’re doing as SEOs, however, over-obsessing over what comes out of a Google algorithm update is detrimental to the longevity and long-term success of SEO strategies.

Instead, focus on creating effective content to speak to your audience. If you are authentic, relevant, and trustworthy, that’s always going to be successful. Don’t just react to what comes out of a helpful content update or core algorithm update. As we’ve seen over the course of this year, Google can change their mind from one update to another, and you’re always playing the short-time game there.

Look at longevity and long-term success instead.”

Ashley Liddell was the Co-Founder at Deviation, and you can find him over at WeAreDeviation.co.uk.