If you’ve been using Google Search lately, you might have noticed that it’s been showing a preference for Reddit in its search results, even going so far as to append “Reddit” in the search keywords. That’s not all. Google recently gave Reddit an unprecedented boost in its search rankings. However, in a peculiar twist, Reddit threatened to block Google from crawling its website. So, what’s the deal? As we delved into the matter, it turns out there’s more to this story than meets the eye.
It all started in June 2022 when Charlie Warzel penned an article for The Atlantic titled “The Open Secret of Google Search.” The piece explored the ascent and descent of Google Search, unraveling why the world’s most dominant internet search engine isn’t quite what it used to be. In his article, Warzel recounted an emergency plumbing issue and how he turned to Google for assistance. However, he described the search results he encountered, in his own words, as “Unhelpful.”
“A few weeks ago my house had a septic-tank emergency, which is as awful as it sounds. As unspeakable things began to burble up from my shower drain, I did what any smartphone-dependent person would: I frantically Googled something along the lines of poop coming from shower drain bad what to do. I was met with a slew of cookie-cutter websites, most of which appeared hastily generated and were choked with enough repetitive buzzwords as to be barely readable. Virtually everything I found was unhelpful, so we did the old-fashioned thing and called a professional. The emergency came and went, but I kept thinking about those middling search results—how they typified a zombified internet wasteland,” Warzel wrote.
The Rise and Decline of Google Search
Warzel eventually managed to resolve the plumbing issue. However, as he delved deeper into Google, he discovered numerous users were adding “Reddit” to their search queries as a workaround to manipulate the search results and access direct information.
“Instead of scrolling through long posts littered with pop-up ads and paragraphs of barely coherent SEO chum to get to a review or a recipe, clever searchers got lively threads with testimonials from real people debating and interacting with one another. Most who use the Reddit hack are doing so for practical reasons, but it’s also a small act of protest—a way to stick it to the Search Engine Optimization and Online Ad Industrial Complex and to attempt to access a part of the internet that feels freer and more human.”
Simply put, the article suggests that Google has lost some of its effectiveness, and the only way to obtain meaningful search results is by adding “Reddit” to your queries. This triggered a massive PR nightmare for Google. Right after the article’s publication, Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms buzzed with users supporting and opposing the notion that Google Search is genuinely flawed and unhelpful.
How Google Helpful Content Update Led to Reddit’s Traffic Boost
How did Google respond to the issue? Well, it seems that, like many big corporations facing significant backlash, Google felt the need to take action. While there was no official confirmation directly from Google, about a year later, in September 2023, the company rolled out a significant update known as “The Helpful Content Update.”
The original guidance:
“Google Search’s helpful content system generates a signal used by our automated ranking systems to better ensure people see original, helpful content written by people, for people, in search results.”
The updated guidance:
“Google Search’s helpful content system generates a signal used by our automated ranking systems to better ensure people see original, helpful content created for people in search results.”
What unfolded after Google’s Helpful Content Update? Well, Google significantly boosted Reddit’s traffic, surpassing 2 billion hits. Thanks to the Helpful Content Update, Google massively elevated Reddit in the SERPs, causing a significant impact on many professional bloggers who saw a decline in their visibility and ranking.
Reddit’s organic visitors surged from 120 million a month before Google Help Content Update to an impressive 280 million, or about a 150% increase in organic traffic. Notably, other user-generated content (UGC) platforms such as Quora, Medium, and YouTube also experienced a substantial increase in traffic. Unfortunately, Reddit’s surge in traffic has resulted in a significant loss for independent bloggers, with some experiencing drops ranging from 10 percent to a staggering 90 percent.
Meanwhile, it didn’t take long for Reddit users and moderators to capitalize on this newfound traffic influx. In the video below, Spencer Haws, the founder of Niche Pursuits, highlights that Reddit moderators, who have a history of influencing what rises to the top on both Reddit and Google, are now leveraging organic traffic from Google to promote affiliate products on the Reddit platform.
The video is an in-depth look into the dark side of Reddit, exposing questionable tactics that affiliate marketers are using to make money from a growing number of users visiting the site. Enjoy!
