Should you double down on Reddit as an acquisition
channel?
Google is beginning to prioritize user forums like Reddit in its search results. Here's how ndie founders can capitalize by marketing on these forums.
Did you hear about Google's "Helpful Content Update"? It was a search algorithm update that Google released last year.
Unlike other updates, it dramatically reshaped the search landscape, judging by the increases and decreases in search-based traffic that followed.
In particular, user forums like Reddit and Quora saw drastic increases in search traffic.
According to data from SemRush, Reddit's Google traffic tripled between August 2023 and April 2024.
To put this into perspective:
In August 2023, prior to the update, Reddit received 132 million visitors from Google.
In April 2024, that number was 346 million.
According to SEJ, Reddit's traffic from Google is growing more than 39% year-over-year. Mashable also confirmed this.
The opportunity for indie founders like you
There's a clear trend: Google is prioritising user forums in its search results.
This means several things for you as an indie founders:
1. Pay (more) attention to Reddit as an acquisition channel
I've seen many founders on IH succeed with Reddit as a marketing channel for their SaaS.
I wrote a piece about this back in 2020. There are also a few more recent success stories about this.
2. Create (and claim) subreddits
Did you know there's a subreddit for claiming unmoderated subreddits?
It's called RedditRequest. See if there are any subreddits related to your niche there.
3. Create your own user community
As time passes, Google will probably keep prioritizing user forums over other types of content.
If you think about it, it makes sense: in the age of AI, where ChatGPT can give you an amazing answer to almost any question, Google wants to distinguish itself by focusing on content written by actual humans.
If you've ever thought about creating a forum related to your niche, now might be the best time to do it.
Reddit is an awesome platform, but it's not receptive to blunt self-promotion. It's better to be more strategic.
I want to operate Reddit well, but as others in the comments have said, Reddit is very prone to banning accounts. Are there any more detailed operational methodologies?
Reddit has surprisingly been a great space to drive traffic to our content and landing page, since we can provide answer to our target audience and then drops links that can be helpful to them.
We are just trying to be careful though, since a lot of the communities frown upon marketing products.
Thanks but I tried to create a Reddit account. They always ban me. Don't know why.
Thanks for sharing
Second this conclusion. I found that our major subscriber source (fina.money) is from Reddit (40%) now followed by X (20%) and then friend referral (7%).
X is mostly promotional, while Reddit is mainly organic and SEO. However, it is not easy to grow Reddit community for a product instead of a generic topic IMO.
Wow, cool info! Will try reddit
Thanks for sharing! That will definitely increase our activity there.
I'm glad someone has shed light on this, Reddit can be very beneficial if you know how to maneuver it. You have to be very careful though, you can get banned pretty easily there.
I really appreciate this insight into the Google Algorithm. Now I need to do some research into how to build and grow a Reddit community! My niche isn’t tech related and while it’s a quickly growing field there isn’t a large presence on Reddit so I’m wondering what kind of work it would require to grow.
This post opened our eyes to advertising on reddit and similar services, thanks for sharing!
Thanks for sharing. Besides the new algorithm, more traffic to Reddit also benefits Google, remember the exclusive deal with Reddit to use their data for training models?
Really informative, thanks for sharing!
Doubling down on Reddit as an acquisition channel can be highly effective if your target audience is active there. Reddit offers niche communities where you can engage directly with potential customers, but success requires a genuine, value-driven approach to avoid being perceived as overly promotional. Monitoring community guidelines and contributing meaningfully is key to leveraging Reddit for growth.
I really appreciate this insight into the Google Algorithm. Now I need to do some research into how to build and grow a Reddit community! My niche isn’t tech related and while it’s a quickly growing field there isn’t a large presence on Reddit so I’m wondering what kind of work it would require.