Reddit becoming a search engine is taking your traffic

If your website traffic fell off a cliff and your YouTube CPMs feel flat, you're not crazy. The ground under "how people find stuff" is shifting fast.

Search behavior is rerouting around AI sludge and SEO soup. And the detour sign points to one place: Reddit.

What happened

Google leaned hard into AI summaries in results. That's pushed more "zero‑click" behavior - the answer shows on Google, users don't visit your site. Multiple industry studies have already put zero‑click north of half of all searches, and AI overviews are accelerating that trend. Some categories are seeing meaningful declines in organic traffic as a result.

Meanwhile, users started appending "reddit" to queries to get human answers, not affiliate fluff. That habit stuck. Reddit's become the web's giant Q&A memory, and it ranks - often high - for product, how‑to, and "is it worth it?" searches.

Advertisers noticed. In the U.S., Reddit's ad spend grew roughly 46% year over year as of late 2025. Quarterly ad revenue hit the mid‑hundreds of millions, accounting for the vast majority of Reddit's income. Growth outpaced most social platforms; even YouTube's U.S. ad spend growth trailed low single digits in the same window.

Reddit isn't pretending to be anti‑AI. It licensed content to major AI companies in 2024, launched its own AI ad tools in 2025, and is now aiming at the search throne. The company says over 70 million people use Reddit search weekly, and its AI product, Reddit Answers, is already in the millions of users. The default search box now includes both classic search and Answers, with plans to expand globally.

Why creators should care

This is a redistribution of attention. If you rely on Google for discovery, expect fewer clicks to your site and more user time spent inside Google or Reddit. If your funnel starts at "best X for Y" or "how do I fix Z," your prospective audience is now reading top comments and accepted answers in subreddits before they ever see your content.

It's also a redistribution of ad dollars. Budgets follow intent. As more "in‑market" queries happen on Reddit and brands get better at targeting conversations, expect more sponsored placements and higher competition for those eyeballs. That affects your sponsorship pipeline, affiliate conversions, and what brands ask you to produce (more proof, more demos, more community validation).

Finally, it's a workflow change. Your outline shouldn't start with keywords; it should start with the 10 recurring questions people are asking in the top two subreddits for your niche. Reddit is now both your research lab and your distribution channel.

When search turns into a conversation, creators who can answer cleanly, humbly, and repeatedly win. If your plan is "hope Google still sends traffic," you don't have a plan.

The mentor take

Google will keep testing AI overviews because they increase retention on Google. Reddit will lean into AI because it increases scale and monetization. Neither move is built to send you traffic. Both are built to keep users on their turf.

So play where the questions live. Build trust in the communities that already rank. Treat Reddit as top‑and‑mid funnel - not just a place to drop links, but a place to demonstrate you actually know your stuff. Yes, it's slower than blasting shorts. It's also stickier.

Creators who show up in threads with receipts - timestamps, tests, and tradeoffs - will siphon intent from AI summaries. Be the answer people quote, not the page AI paraphrases.

What to do next

Win the "human answer" moment. For every new video or episode, draft a 120-180 word, non‑salesy answer to the core question it solves. Post it in relevant subreddit threads (or weekly megathreads), add timestamps for proof, and link only if the mods allow. Aim for a 10:1 help‑to‑self‑promo ratio.
Design for Reddit search intent. Title and structure content around the phrases people actually type: "X vs Y," "Is X worth it in 2026," "Best X for [budget/use case]," "Fix [problem] without [tradeoff]." Put the bottom line up front in your video description and pinned comment so it's quotable in threads.
Establish a real presence. Pick 2-3 subreddits, read the rules, disclose affiliations, and participate weekly. Host an AMA after a big release. Share test methodology, not just conclusions. Earn karma the slow way - it pays back as trust and traffic you can't buy.
Test Reddit Ads surgically. Start with small budgets targeting high‑intent threads and keywords. Use creative that looks like a helpful comment, not a billboard. Tag links with UTMs and compare session quality and conversion against YouTube/TikTok traffic.
Build an owned "answers" hub. Assume zero‑click keeps rising. Publish skimmable summaries, checklists, and gear lists on your site and newsletter. Add chapters, FAQs, and comparison tables so even partial snippets satisfy the query while still nudging to your full content.

Bottom line

Search is becoming social, and social is becoming search. If you adapt your workflow to where questions are asked - and answer better than everyone else - you won't just survive the AI era. You'll become the source that both humans and algorithms cite.