When you first join Reddit, you’re welcomed by this message:
“How It All Works
- Users post to communities, also known as subreddits.
- Other users vote and comment on those posts.
- Based on those votes, the best posts rise to the top for all to enjoy.
Users who post or comment earn karma points when their content gets voted up, or upvoted.
As you’re participating, be aware that each subreddit has its own unique personality and rules, usually found in their sidebar. Those are the basics! Once you poke around the site a bit, please feel free to check out a more in-depth explanation about what reddit is and how it works. Happy redditing! 🙂”
This sounds like most of the social media algorithms out there. Someone posts, people comment, and then one person has a great comment that generates more likes, so you see it under the post without having to expand comments. It’s the same concept, except likes are equal to upvotes and comments naturally expand in Reddit, with the upvoted ones showing up first. The most upvoted a post is, the more likely it is to be relevant and high quality.
With Reddit the topics are more specific, and it’s often used as an educational resource. I’ve heard people saying they can go down a rabbit hole of Reddit threads, but in the right subreddits, that rabbit hole can be a productive one.
SEO falls under the SEM umbrella, and under that umbrella there are pieces in motion that need to work together. One of the most important things that bots pay attention to is the audience of a brand, and a variety of metrics associated with them. How are they reacting to the appearance of a result in search? Are they exploring the website? Do they progress through the funnel and reach the end? Are they engaging with the brand, mentioning it, or citing it?
Reddit allows you to create a community (whether it be the only community, or a great addition to a preexisting forum), that engages, shares links, and helps each other. This can make them feel like a part of your brand, nourish that relationship, and ultimately develop strong loyalty. Not only will this help you keep clients or bring them back, but it will encourage them to make others aware of you or your brand.
Whatever community you’re involved in, it’s within the Reddit community. That community spans all over the world and there are more than 330 Million active users each month according to socialmediatoday.com. You read that right, there are the same amount of active users on Reddit each month as there are people in the United States of America.
Sounds like it could be pretty beneficial for digital strategy, right?
SEO Tactics within Reddit
Content
This is pretty much what it’s all about. Content answers questions, encourages upvotes, increases karma and your reputation along with it. Make sure your Reddit content is not spammy or promotional. It should have the goal of helping the person you’re responding too. Being spammy can get you downvoted, you could lose karma, and you could be flagged and potentially kicked out of the Reddit community.
Putting great content on your website gives you great reason to link and share helpful information. Even taking a blip from your content or offering a quick summary for those who may not have time to read every detail. From there the link is a friendly addition if folks want to dive deeper.
If you’re posting, use a title that is enticing. It will bring more people to assist you.
Use Video content. It generates engagement, and social media algorithms like Facebook are prioritizing it.
Research/Tools
Reddit is a phenomenal resource to find content gaps. If you find the right subreddit communities, you can search for “problem” “issue” “question” etc., to see what users are talking about. These tools will help you find the right communities, and have an understanding of what is being discussed:
You can also use https://www.keyworddit.com/ to search Reddit threads and extract keywords. If I search the “web_dev” thread, it shows me phrases like “html and css”, “front end developer” or “text editor” (Slightly off topic, but UltraEdit is our favorite text editor and we highly recommend it!) The lists are lengthy, providing a many variants, and the tool also shows you monthly search volume and context.
Another great resource is http://redditlist.com/. Search a topic and find a popular thread, and data on each one. If I search “web developer” it will show me popular threads like “/r/reactjs/” or “/r/webdev/”.
Links
In text or email conversations, we often share links to answer a question someone may have, or support our opinion. The same is frequently done in Reddit threads.
The links in Reddit pass value too! They do not have a nofollow attribute on them. They do have noopener noreferral tag that protects Reddit from security vulnerabilities. Even better than passing value, if users click through to your link and like what they see, they can help create awareness for your brand. They may use your article as a reference, share it with others. This ultimately will bring more traffic to your website and build authority.
A precaution: link shorteners like tinyurl can be flagged as spam, so don’t use them.
Engagement/Comment Marketing
Utilizing the research tools above, you’ll see what interests your target marker, what questions they have, and challenges they’re experiencing. If you use this to write articles and build content (especially with topics where resources are lacking), you’ll have places to amplify content as soon as you publish it.
It will be relevant to those communities you’re engaging with, and you’ll be engaging with those in your industry or target market. It’s a good look for your brand’s reputation and awareness.
Through this process, you’ll increase your karma, and credibility. You’ll also build brand awareness. This will be useful as time goes on to give some leverage to your other comments or posts where you share articles.
Current Reddit Demographics
Where better to get this information than at the source?
A Reddit Demographics Study and Article from Pew Research Center.
A Reddit Thread with User Demographic Resources in the top comment.
For some businesses, utilizing Reddit doesn’t make a lot of sense given the younger male demographic. That being said, specific communities, topics, professions, etc. generally have unique demographics. If anyone asks a question on Reddit and it proves to be a relevant answer, it could end up appearing in Google Search Results too, who could be found by people of all ages. All of this being said, if you’re targeting a younger demographic, Reddit could be a big winner to add to your digital strategy.
Is Reddit Right for You or Your Business?
Reddit-related SEO efforts follow the best practice principles of general SEO efforts. It all comes down to the searcher or person asking a question, the best possible answer you can. Providing a solution to a problem. Helping or reinforcing that someone is making the right decision.
Given the high level of activity on Reddit, it can be time consuming. Plan on going in every day, if not multiple times a day, to answer questions, respond, comment, etc. You need to be active to grow awareness and be relevant.
We have the time to do it right for you. We manage SEO campaigns that include Reddit, YouTube, and much more in the strategy. If you’re looking for strictly social media (audience growth, engagement, awareness) we manage Social Media accounts too. Send us a message if you’d like to talk!
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