HawkscanSearch everywhere optimization
Search everywhere optimization is a marketing approach that works on a brand's visibility on every platform where people search, not only Google: YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, Reddit, Amazon and AI assistants such as ChatGPT and Gemini. It treats each platform as a search engine, with its own results and its own rules.
Why search everywhere optimization matters
Search everywhere optimization starts from a simple observation: many searches never touch Google. In July 2022, at Fortune's Brainstorm Tech conference, Google senior vice president Prabhakar Raghavan said that "almost 40% of young people, when they're looking for a place for lunch, they don't go to Google Maps or Search." Instead, he added, "They go to TikTok or Instagram." The figure came from Google's own studies, as reported by TechCrunch.
AI assistants have since become one more place to search, and they read the other platforms. A product that is discussed on Reddit or reviewed on YouTube can shape what an assistant says about it, whatever its website ranks on Google.
How search everywhere optimization works
Search everywhere optimization asks the same question on each platform: where do my buyers look, and what do they find there?
- Video and social search (YouTube, TikTok, Instagram): titles, captions and spoken words that match how people phrase their searches.
- Communities (Reddit, forums, Quora): genuine participation and useful answers, since AI tools draw on these threads too.
- Marketplaces and review sites (Amazon, G2, Trustpilot): complete listings and a steady flow of reviews.
- AI assistants (ChatGPT, Gemini, Microsoft Copilot, Google AI Mode): being named in answers, the field of generative engine optimization, which depends largely on the other channels.
The links between platforms are documented. Since May 2024, OpenAI has had access to Reddit's Data API to "bring enhanced Reddit content to ChatGPT". Google says its generative AI features "can show what's being said about products and services across the web, including in blogs, videos, and forum discussions."
Which platforms feed AI answers?
Whether a platform matters for AI visibility depends on the engine. University of Toronto researchers looked at the sources cited by Google, OpenAI's search-enabled model and Perplexity in 2025. The OpenAI model "consistently suppresses Social" sources in favor of reviews and publishers, while Perplexity cited YouTube more than any other site for car queries. Before investing in a new platform for the sake of AI answers, check which sources the engines you care about actually cite for your prompts.
How to measure search everywhere optimization
Each platform reports its own numbers, so measurement stays fragmented: view and traffic reports in YouTube or TikTok, impressions on marketplaces, mentions in communities. Pick the two or three platforms where your buyers actually search rather than tracking everything.
For the AI part, Hawkscan tracks whether ChatGPT, Microsoft Copilot, Gemini and Google AI Mode name your brand for the prompts your buyers ask, every day. Its citations view shows which pages those answers rely on, Reddit threads, YouTube videos or review sites included when the engines cite them, which tells you which platforms are worth the effort.
Sources
- TechCrunch, Google exec suggests Instagram and TikTok are eating into Google's core products, Search and Maps ()
- OpenAI, OpenAI and Reddit Partnership ()
- Google Search Central, Optimizing your website for generative AI features on Google Search ()
- arXiv (University of Toronto), Generative Engine Optimization: How to Dominate AI Search ()
