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Reddit is a powerful resource for SEO and LLM optimization for two special reasons.
First, it offers real insights into your audience and their interests.
And second, it’s a prominent platform for amplifying your brand and increasing your off-site exposure.
Our free Reddit SEO analysis tool identifies these opportunities for your brand by finding niche-relevant keywords where Reddit is ranking on the first page of Google SERPs.
These insights allow you to tap into existing search traffic patterns where Reddit is dominating and guide your participation strategy on Reddit communities, along with owned content on your site.
Let’s explore both aspects of this platform: Reddit as an SEO research tool and Reddit as a distribution channel for your off-page efforts, one by one.
You can find discussions on pretty much every topic under the sun on Reddit.
Plus, it’s the place where both your existing customers and future ones hang out.
Observe their conversations, and you’ll have a better understanding of what your customers actually want.
The easy way to find relevant discussions on a given topic is by using a “site:reddit.com [keyword]” search on Google.
For example, a fitness website should have a strong understanding of what beginners need to know when starting their weight training journey.
Running a Reddit-focused Google search would be a great place to start. Run a search like “site.reddit.com advice for a beginner weight lifter” and see what comes up.
Read through relevant discussion threads and take special note of the language used, the problems shared, and the solutions/advice provided.
This is a good tactic for finding interesting keywords with SEO potential as well.
For example, I quickly noticed “weightlifting form” (or some variation of the concept) appears frequently in fitness discussions.
Let’s run a quick check using the Semrush Keyword Magic Tool to see if this can be a viable keyword to target for a fitness website.
And sure enough, there are a bunch of very interesting keyword ideas related to “weightlifting form” with low keyword difficulty (KD%).
So your chances of ranking for these with well-written content would be pretty high.
As you read through Reddit threads, you’ll discover ideas for complete content pieces you might not have thought of before.
Such as “delayed onset muscle soreness” for your fitness advice blog.
You can also use Reddit Answers to summarize discussions from a bunch of threads. Reddit Answers is Reddit’s AI, trained on a vast knowledge base of Reddit discussions.
It’s not a replacement for actually reading through the threads yourself.
But I find Reddit Answers quite handy for discovering threads and comments that sometimes don’t surface with a classic Reddit or Google search.
The good thing is that the answer contains plenty of links to specific comments and threads that you can read yourself.
I recommend doing this so you can better understand the context of the discussion and other comments in the thread.
Because without the context, you can’t address search intent to solve the queries of your audience satisfactorily.
Besides, you’ll discover relevant subreddits that you can keep an eye on for identifying new topics in the future.
Identifying pain points is part of topic research.
But knowing pain points also helps you refine your existing content so that it’s focused on addressing real problems your audience needs solving.
Once again, Reddit Answers can help you identify the prominent pain points that are troubling your audience.
You can specifically ask for a summary of pain points related to your topic in your prompt to get a nice overview.
On top of that, you can dig deeper by asking follow-up questions in addition to scanning cited threads yourself to identify specific frustrations affecting your target audience.
This combination of AI intelligence and manual analysis gives you the advantage of speed and reasonable thoroughness that’s necessary for successful content strategies.
I also recommend tools like PainPointy for a more comprehensive overview of pain points and complaints based on a large collection of Reddit discussions.
It’s a very handy tool for generating content ideas based on real user complaints and problems.
(I'll cover more tools in the rest of this article. But you can also check out our handy guide to 7 key Reddit SEO tools.)
SEO is never complete without competitor analysis.
And this isn’t limited to just reviewing your competitor’s on-page content and backlink profile. Their presence on Reddit is an equally important point of consideration.
Run a Google search by typing your competitor’s brand name in the “site:reddit.com” query and go through the top results.
Pay attention to the sentiments people are sharing about a brand. Is it positive? Are people recommending a brand and their products/services with enthusiasm?
Or are you feeling strong dissatisfaction piercing through their comments?
As you research competitors on Reddit, you should start getting a sense of their strengths and weaknesses as perceived by real users.
You can use a prompt focused on a competitor in Reddit Answers to find popular sentiments about the brand and where it’s lacking.
This overview can give you ideas for things you can do better for your own brand, both in terms of improving your features and marketing them better.
In fact, Reddit Answers also recommends popular alternatives in its answers to branded queries.
If you aren’t listed here, you’ve got work to do. That’s because there’s a good chance your presence is lacking in Reddit, or sentiments around your brand are unfavorable.
To address this problem, you’ll need to take an active part in Reddit communities strategically, as I’ll discuss in the latter half of this guide.
You also need to keep an eye on new Reddit discussions and mentions about your competitors. I recommend using a Reddit monitoring tool like F5bot.com.
This tool tracks keywords you’re interested in and sends you an email whenever your tracked keywords appear in a Reddit thread.
You’ll always be in the know about what people are saying about your competitors.
Reddit is great for getting a pulse on your brand reputation online and how you’re portrayed by users.
You don’t need to do anything extra to monitor your Reddit performance. Just repeat the same steps as above:
Additionally, it helps to review quick stats about how well Reddit is working out for your domain and the range of available opportunities with the free Reddit SEO analysis tool.
This will also show you keywords relevant to your industry where Reddit is ranking at the top.
Knowing top-performing Reddit keywords means you know exactly which keywords should be on your
radar when looking for threads to participate in for maximum visibility.
Reddit has considerable marketing value for brands savvy with the platform.
Engage in discussions like a regular Reddit user. That means sharing your honest thoughts, opinions, problems, and advice.
Occasionally, when it makes sense, you can take advantage of opportunities to plug your brand or link to relevant owned content. But take care not to make this a pattern.
This user’s profile is a great example:
They frequently write comprehensive posts on investment portfolio management. The advice is sound and free from any promotional angle.
They could be just another investor sharing their experience and knowledge. Or they could be a professional broker.
But no one can tell from their Reddit activity.
That’s how your profile should look like too, if you want to gel in with the crowd in communities relevant to your niche.
It sounds counterintuitive, but marketing success on Reddit depends on not sounding like a marketer. That means:
Tip: Don’t try to win people over on Reddit. Redditors don’t shy away from downvoting comments they don’t love. Not everyone will agree with you, but that’s okay.
This is a natural part of Reddit participation and you shouldn’t worry about it as long as most of your comments have a net positive vote count.
Reddit plays an important role in the decision-making of many users seeking solutions or product recommendations.
There are two facts that make this abundantly clear:
To add to that, LLM platforms like ChatGPT and Google AI Mode frequently cite Reddit in their responses as well. Or at the very least, their perceptions are shaped by training data that often includes Reddit content.
That’s another important reason why you need to track your brand on Reddit so you can shape LLM answers in your favor.
You just need to be aware of the key themes driving both positive and negative sentiment about your brand in AI chats.
The Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit offers a handy overview of your strengths and weaknesses from the point of view of different AI models.
With this intel, you know which themes you can focus on when opportunities for mentioning your brand arise in Reddit discussions.
As enough discussions with positive sentiments take place, AI models will pick up more goodwill about your brand and speak favorably of you.
Essentially, you can kill two birds with one stone with strong Reddit marketing: improve your visibility and reputation among the Reddit crowd and earn positive recommendations in LLM answers.
Further reading: See this guide on uncovering actionable LLM optimization insights with the Semrush AI Visibility Toolkit.
Every subreddit is a unique world of its own with distinct personalities, preferences, and unspoken expectations beyond the official rules.
What works in r/entrepreneur might get you downvoted to oblivion in r/personalfinance.
Before jumping into any subreddit, spend time lurking and observing. Look at:
Take r/investing as an example.
The community values analytical discussions and tends to be skeptical of get-rich-quick schemes.
Without this understanding, your comments are likely to be misaligned with a subreddit’s prevailing culture.
This is why it’s a good idea to avoid creating new threads from the outset. Instead, take your time to understand the culture, and interact under comments first.
Once you demonstrate genuine understanding of and respect for a community's culture, you'll find doors opening for meaningful participation and, eventually, appropriate brand mentions.
Brands that use Reddit successfully understand this one key concept: you can only thrive on Reddit on its own terms, not yours.
If you can honor the culture, learn the language, and deliver value without expecting anything, communities will love you.
But show up with a sales pitch and a promotional agenda, and they can smell you from a mile away.
This is why you need to put your best put forward on a platform as tricky as Reddit for the best chance of success.
And the way to do that is by using tools like the free Reddit SEO analyzer that digs out SEO opportunities you can cash in on if you can demonstrate the patience to play by Reddit’s rules.
Use real-time topic data to create content that resonates and brings results.
Exploding Topics is owned by Semrush. Our mission is to provide accurate data and expert insights on emerging trends. Unless otherwise noted, this page’s content was written by either an employee or a paid contractor of Semrush Inc.
Use real-time topic data to create content that resonates and brings results.
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Written By
Osama Tahir
Content & SEO Specialist
Osama is an experienced writer and SEO strategist at Exploding Topics. He brings over 8 years of digital marketing experience, spe… Read more
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