For twenty years, SEO meant just one thing: appearing on the first page of Google. By 2026, that idea has become outdated. Your customers no longer always start on Google. They look up a recipe on TikTok, compare products on Amazon, read genuine reviews on Reddit and ask ChatGPT which agency to hire. We call this fragmentation of discovery search everywhere, and completely changes where and how your brand needs to appear.
What is ‘Search Everywhere’?
Search everywhere (in English, Search Everywhere Optimisation) is the strategy of making your brand visible wherever people search for information, not just on traditional search engines. It includes social media platforms such as TikTok, Instagram and YouTube; marketplaces such as Amazon; communities such as Reddit; and AI assistants such as ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google’s AI mode. The premise is simple: if someone can find the answer to their query without ever typing anything into Google, your traditional SEO won’t be enough for them to find you.
It’s not that Google is dead. What has changed is that it is no longer the only gateway. And for an SME, this has a very specific practical implication: spreading their focus across various discovery channels rather than staking everything on a single ranking position.
The figures: the search has already been shared out
It’s worth looking at the figures with a critical eye, because sensationalist headlines are rife in this area. Let’s focus on what is actually backed up by specific sources.
According to a survey by Adobe Express carried out in January 2026 (1,007 people in the United States, compiled by Search Engine Journal), the 49 % of consumers say they have used TikTok as a search engine, compared with 41 % in 2024. Among Generation Z, the figure rises to 65 %. However, the same survey qualifies the narrative that “TikTok is replacing Google”: when asked which platforms are most useful for searching, Google remains the leader at 85 %, followed by Reddit (29 %), ChatGPT (26 %), YouTube (24 %) and TikTok (16 %). This study was funded by Adobe and based on a US sample, so it should be interpreted as an indicative trend rather than a universal truth.
The other major entry point is marketplaces. A well-known figure from eMarketer (May 2022) put the figure at 61 %: the proportion of US shoppers who started their search for a product directly on Amazon, around half on a search engine such as Google and 32 % at Walmart. This figure is several years old, and we’ve included the date for the sake of transparency, but it illustrates a trend that has become firmly established since then: when someone wants to make a purchase, they often skip Google altogether.
And a new player has entered the fray: AI assistants. In that same Adobe survey, 14 % of consumers say they are more likely to trust ChatGPT than Google when searching. It is a minority, yes, but it is a minority that was almost non-existent two years ago.
What does this mean for your SME?
The obvious conclusion would be “you have to be everywhere”. But that’s misleading advice: no SME’s marketing team can produce quality content for six platforms at once without burning out in the process. Being visible everywhere isn’t about cloning yourself all over the place, but rather about carefully consider where your customers are when they’re looking for what you offer.
Here’s an example. A local dental practice is likely to make more money by ranking highly on Google and on its business profile (for searches such as “dentist near me”) than by making videos on TikTok. Conversely, a natural cosmetics brand selling online is more likely to reach its audience on Instagram, TikTok and Amazon than in the tenth position on a search engine. The right channel depends on your product, your profit margin and your customers, not on the trend of the month.
How to optimise for search everywhere
These are the levers we are working on, listed from most to least obvious:
- A solid foundation in Google. It remains the largest channel. Useful content, well-defined search intent and an optimised Google Business listing continue to represent the lowest-risk investment. If your technical SEO is lacking, the rest is less effective; that’s why we place such emphasis on correct the most common SEO mistakes.
- Social search. On TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, “SEO” means something else: titles and subtitles containing the words people search for, clear descriptions, and videos that answer a specific question within the first few seconds. This ties in with what we’ve already said about the short-form video.
- Marketplaces. If you sell products, your Amazon listing is a results page in its own right: the title, images, attributes and reviews determine whether you appear in the results. Optimising this is SEO, even if it doesn’t seem like it.
- Communities and reviews. Reddit, forums and review sites are becoming increasingly influential, partly because AI assistants rely on them to generate responses. It’s not about spamming, but about engaging honestly in discussions about your sector.
- AI assistants. For ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google’s AI mode to cite you, you need clear, verifiable and well-structured content. That’s what we work on at the Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO).
The common thread running through all these strategies is the same: content that genuinely answers a question. It doesn’t matter whether it’s read by a person on Google, an algorithm on TikTok or a language model on ChatGPT; they all value the same things: clarity and usefulness. That’s why the good news is that you don’t need six different strategies, but rather one central idea, well told and adapted to the format of each platform.
How we approach it at Vandelay
When a client asks us, “Which platforms should I be on?”, our answer is never “all of them”. We start with the data: where your audience is actually looking, which channels are already bringing you business, and which are just noise. From there, we prioritise two or three areas where we can work effectively, measure the results and reallocate our efforts based on those results, not on intuition. We’d rather do three things to the highest standard than ten half-heartedly.
If you notice that your Google traffic is stagnating even though your product is good, the problem may not lie with your website, but rather with the fact that your customers are already looking for you elsewhere – somewhere you don’t yet appear. That’s exactly the gap you should be looking into today. And if you’d like us to go through it with you, do get in touch: we’ll give you our honest opinion on which channels are worth investing in and which aren’t.
Sources
- Search Engine Journal, “Gen Z’s Preference for TikTok Over Google Drops 50%, Data Shows” (25 February 2026), on the Adobe Express survey conducted in January 2026: searchenginejournal.com.
- eMarketer, “Shoppers start their product search on Amazon” (9 August 2022): emarketer.com.
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