Search Is Decentralising: Why Your Brand Needs to Be Everywhere Answers Are Happening

Search is no longer just about Google. From TikTok and Reddit to ChatGPT and YouTube, the way people ask questions and find answers is changing - and brands that don’t keep up risk missing the conversation entirely.

As a digital marketer, I’ve spent most of my career helping clients succeed on one platform: Google. The traditional approach to SEO - optimise your site, rank high, and earn clicks - used to be a reliable path to visibility. That approach still matters, but today, it’s only one piece of the puzzle.

Consumers are turning to TikTok for restaurant ideas, scanning Reddit for reviews, watching how-to's on YouTube, and getting instant summaries from ChatGPT or Perplexity. Meanwhile, Google itself is evolving - with AI Overviews and the soon-to-launch 'AI Mode' pushing traditional organic links further down the page.

Discovery is happening everywhere - and brands that don’t adapt risk becoming invisible where it matters most.

The Signs Are Everywhere: Search Is Decentralising

The notion that organic search is decentralising isn’t just a theory - it’s already happening. Here are key developments driving this shift:

Google’s AI Overviews (2024–Present)

AI-generated snapshots are now front and centre for many queries - often taking up the most prominent real estate on the results page. These summaries typically cite third-party sources, bypass traditional blue links, and frequently exclude brand websites entirely. As a result, organic results are being forced further down the page, reducing their visibility and impact even when rankings remain strong.

Reddit’s Rise in Google SERPs

Following a high-profile content-licensing deal, Reddit content is now dominating search results across verticals. From product comparisons to travel advice, users are actively seeking community insights over brand copy.

Criticism of Google’s Search Quality

Mainstream outlets like The New York Times and The Verge have published widely shared critiques of Google’s declining search experience. In response, users are manually adding Reddit, YouTube, or TikTok to get more useful, trustworthy results.

TikTok Is Gen Z’s Search Engine

Google’s own data suggests that up to 40% of gen z'ers prefer TikTok or Instagram over Google for discovery - especially for where-to-go, what-to-eat, and how-to-do-it queries.

ChatGPT and Perplexity Are Replacing Search for Many Tasks

ChatGPT’s real-time browsing and Perplexity’s citation-driven AI summaries are being used for decision-making, research, and discovery. These tools aren’t just answering questions - they’re replacing clicks.

ChatGPT 4.5 (or GPT-5) Is Coming

OpenAI is rumoured to release its next model this spring or summer, with faster, smarter, and more personalised web-integrated search experiences. As these tools evolve, they'll continue to pull users away from traditional search engines.

Google’s Upcoming 'AI Mode'

Expected to roll out widely in 2025, AI Mode will allow users to toggle into a Gemini-powered experience within Google Search - transforming it from a list of links into a chat-based, answer-first interface.

The Rise of llms.txt and AI Crawler Directives (2024–2025)

Following the rise of AI-generated search experiences, platforms like OpenAI, Perplexity, and Google Gemini have introduced new user agents to crawl the web for LLM training and real-time responses. In response, publishers are adopting llms.txt - a proposed standard to control how and whether their content is accessed by large language models.

Search Has Changed - Your Strategy Should Too

For years, we focused on climbing Google’s ladder - rankings, snippets, clicks. But with fewer people relying solely on traditional search, and the top of the SERP increasingly dominated by AI-generated snapshots and community-sourced content, it’s time to rethink what organic visibility really means.

Even with a page-one ranking, AI Overviews can push blue links well below the fold, significantly reducing click-through and exposure. Add the rise of social search, AI-powered Q&A tools, and platforms like Reddit, and it becomes clear: ranking isn’t the same as being seen.

The goal has shifted from dominating a single channel to understanding where your audience is being influenced—and showing up there with meaningful content. The future of organic search isn’t just about tactics; it’s about perspective. And in this new landscape, we could all use a little more SE-Openmindedness - a willingness to rethink where and how our audience finds answers.

Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO): A New Mindset for Organic Visibility

To thrive in a decentralised search landscape, brands must expand their strategy beyond traditional SEO to also include AEO - Answer Engine Optimisation: a focus on earning presence wherever answers are being served.

AEO means creating content that’s not just crawlable—but citeable, sharable, and machine-readable by the growing number of tools users rely on to ask questions and make decisions.

What does AEO look like in practice?

Structuring content for machine readability

→ Think: FAQ blocks, semantic HTML, schema.org markup. These elements help AI and social algorithms extract and display your content cleanly.

Building entity authority across platforms

→ Ensure consistent presence across sources like Wikipedia, Crunchbase, Reddit, YouTube, and even Google Business Profiles. These are often referenced in AI-generated summaries and answer feeds.

Prioritising citation-worthy content

→ Publish how-to guides, comparisons, product explainers, or unique POVs that are likely to be quoted or linked to by others - ​or pulled into AI snapshots.

Repurposing content across formats

→ Take one valuable idea and adapt it for TikTok, blog, Reddit, email, and ChatGPT plugins. The more formats you serve, the more engines you feed.

Creating content based on proprietary research or expertise

→ AI is trained to trust original, expert-driven sources. If you’re publishing data no one else has—or commentary from known subject matter experts—you’re far more likely to be cited in AI answers.

Search is no longer just about being found - it’s about being referenced, embedded, and trusted. AEO doesn’t replace SEO; it builds on it, adding a strategic layer designed for a search environment where machines, not just humans, are evaluating your relevance.

Are You Ready for Decentralised Search?

Use this checklist to evaluate whether your brand is positioned to thrive in an answer-driven, multi-platform search landscape:

Visibility

Are you showing up where your audience is actually looking for answers?

- Have you audited your presence on platforms outside of Google?

- Do you show up for branded + modifier queries (e.g., “Your Brand + Reddit”)?

- Are you tracking visibility and engagement across non-Google channels?

Content and Structure

Is your content designed to be understood - and used - by AI, social search, and human readers?

- Are your pages structured with proper heading hierarchy, schema markup, semantic HTML, and FAQ blocks to support machine readability?

- Are you publishing content that answers specific questions clearly and concisely?

- Are you creating content based on proprietary research, data, or real expertise?

- Are you actively repurposing core content into multiple formats (short-form video, UGC, how-tos, etc.)?

Authority Signals

- Are you building the kind of credibility that machines and users alike trust?

- Are you included in third-party content likely to be cited by AI tools or forums (e.g., review sites, Reddit, product roundups)?

- Are you tracking brand mentions and citations in AI-generated content (e.g., ChatGPT, Perplexity)?

- Are your subject-matter experts visible and active on platforms like LinkedIn, YouTube, podcasts, or niche communities?

A New Definition of Search Visibility

Search isn’t dead. In fact, it’s expanding. Today, visibility means showing up wherever people are seeking truth, clarity, or connection. If your brand isn’t there, you could be missing the mark.

The brands that will win in 2025 and beyond are the ones that think beyond traditional search. They don’t just rank - they show up where and when it matters most.