Resources
Creative Services
- Website Design
- Website Development
- Graphic Design
- Branding Services
Online Services
- SEM Management
- Search Engine Optimization
- Social Media Marketing
- Email Marketing
All About the Google/Reddit Deal (and Why It Matters)
If you thought the reported $60 million deal between Google and Reddit had nothing to do with you, think again. Here’s how their partnership affects AI, content creation, and SEO.
Towards the end of February 2024, Google and Reddit were all over the news for a reported $60 million deal struck between the two businesses. Now that the dust has settled and the media frenzy has died down a bit, you may wonder—was all the buzz surrounding this deal warranted? And are there any implications you, as a business owner, should be aware of? Here’s what we know.
What Is the Google/Reddit Deal?
For starters, when we say “$60 million deal,” that’s how much Reddit will reportedly earn from the partnership per year. Google, on the other hand, will now be allowed to use content from the online discussion network to train its AI models and improve Google Search. Needless to say, this is a big, newsworthy event all on its own—implications for business owners/content creators/marketers aside.
This deal is multifaceted and has a number of favorable outcomes for both sides of the partnership. Here’s a breakdown of how it benefits both parties.
How Will This Deal Impact Google?
You may be wondering, why would Google want access to Reddit’s content—especially considering that the site is generally more a forum for opinions, rather than facts. This is a good question. Essentially, Google is hoping to further advance its AI models by giving them access to authentic human conversations.
There is no better resource for this type of content than Reddit, which is a self-professed network of conversations about human interests, hobbies, and passions. Ideally, for Google at least, this content will enable their AI programs to produce more human-sounding output.
This deal also benefits Google search results because it means there will be more Reddit content popping up on Google’s SERPs. (Search Engine Results Pages.) People are torn on whether this is actually a good thing. But for Google, this means an increased opportunity to point users in the direction they’re looking for.
How Will It Affect Reddit?
Of course, more Reddit content on Google SERPs is a good thing for Reddit too. Increased visibility and accessibility for their website will only serve to bring them more traffic and gain them more users. Currently, they get about 450 million visitors per month, so it will be interesting to see what happens now that Google is actively pointing people in their direction.
Additionally, Reddit will now have access to Google’s AI models. They will likely use this technology to improve their own internal site search system.
Plus, you know, there’s the money Google will be paying them upfront. For Reddit, this deal is a win-win.
It is still too early in the game to know exactly how else this deal will benefit both parties. And it’s much too early to say how it will impact internet users in general. But experts are already beginning to make some predictions.
What Does the Google/Reddit Deal Mean for Artificial Intelligence?
If you didn’t know, Google has also been in the news this year for a handful of different controversies surrounding Gemini, its largest AI model. (Coincidentally, Gemini launched in February as well.) You can check out a full breakdown of those controversies here.
Basically, Gemini has been criticized by some big tech industry names for producing inaccurate and offensive content. This has led to bigger concerns that those same issues could extend to Google Search.
The point is: internet users are pretty distrustful of Google right now. (In fact, traffic for Google.com is over a billion less now than it was a year ago.) Users are also distrustful of artificial intelligence in general. The Google-Reddit deal has the potential to improve public perception on both counts. Here is what Google has said about the deal:
“With the Reddit Data API, Google will have efficient and structured access to fresher information, as well as enhanced signals that will help us better understand Reddit content and display, train on, and otherwise use it in the most accurate and relevant ways.”
Basically, Reddit is providing Google with a huge source of human-generated content. With this, Gemini (and future AI models) will hopefully become much more accurate and much less offensive. While it’s too early to say how this will affect the greater industry as a whole, you can bet it will have a lasting impact.
Currently, OpenAI and ChatGPT sit at the top of the artificial intelligence market, but Google is planning to use the Reddit deal to better compete for that top spot. As those industry giants struggle for the lead, you can expect the technology to rapidly improve.
Above all, the Google-Reddit deal indicates that the online landscape is going to continue to change rapidly.
What Does the Google/Reddit Deal Mean for Content Marketing?
Here’s another quote about the deal from Google:
“Over the years, we’ve seen that people increasingly use Google to search for helpful content on Reddit to find product recommendations, travel advice and much more. We know people find this information useful, so we’re developing ways to make it even easier to access across Google products.”
This tells us something interesting about search engine users: they’re looking for information that is verifiably human-generated. And Google knows it.
In fact, Google itself says that more and more people have been appending their searches to include “site:www.reddit.com.” Why? Possibly because it’s a good source for non-salesy, relatively unbiased, and authentic human conversations.
So, all the implications for artificial intelligence aside, this deal means Google is still looking to provide users with genuine, helpful, human-generated content. If your business is already producing that kind of content, keep at it. If not, it’s time to get started.
What Does the Google/Reddit Deal Mean for SEO?
Now that Google is going to be actively pointing people to content from Reddit, it may be time to think about building your presence on that site. If people are talking about your products and services on Reddit, that can only mean good things for your SEO. Marketing your business on Reddit is not something we’ve talked about before. But a lot of the tried and true techniques for social media marketing will hold true there as well.
A big part of SEO has always been link building, which was one way to prove to Google that people online were talking about your business. As Google algorithms continue to get smarter, you can send the same message simply by having people talk about your business on relevant sites, links or no links. So if you get the conversation started over on Reddit, Google is likely going to take notice.
Is There Anything Else Business Owners Need to Know?
The Google/Reddit deal may not directly affect your business. But as a business owner, you are also an honorary content creator, search engine optimizer, and marketer all rolled into one. So it’s important for you to stay up-to-date with the goings-on at Google.
In other words, all of the information we’ve talked about in this article are details you should keep in mind when marketing your business. Above all, the Google-Reddit deal indicates that the online landscape is going to continue to change rapidly. As AI grows, your SEO and marketing techniques will need to adapt. And you can plan on our team being an up-to-date resource for staying in the loop.
Share this article
Did you find this article useful? Share it up!
