Four Platforms to Focus On If You Want AI to Possibly Mention Your Brand [part 2]
Wikipedia, Reddit, YouTube and Quora are the new SEO powerhouses for AI answers.
In Part 1 of this series, I walked through where AI search tools like ChatGPT, Google’s AI Overviews, and Perplexity are pulling their answers from, and spoiler: it’s not your website or blog. There’s credible data that Reddit, Quora, YouTube, and Wikipedia are showing up again and again as the go-to sources these platforms trust. I also broke down how to start being surfaced on each one in a way that’s helpful and not cringe.
Now in Part 2, I’m getting into strategy—how to prioritize where you focus, what different AIs are looking for, and the key questions to ask before you dive in.
Strategic Planning: One Size Doesn’t Fit All
By now, it’s clear that each platform (Reddit, Quora, YouTube, and Wikipedia) offers a different way to get your content into the AI answer sphere. As the research shows, each AI platform has unique source preferences, from ChatGPT’s reliance on Wikipedia to Perplexity’s focus on community content. How do you prioritize and tailor your strategy?
Here are some guiding considerations:
Match the Platform to Your Audience and Goals
Not every brand should spend equal effort on all four channels. Consider where your target audience hangs out and what type of content makes sense for your brand:
Reddit for Consumer Buzz & Niche Communities: If you’re a consumer brand or your product is often discussed in forums (tech gadgets, gaming gear, fitness supplements, etc.), Reddit is likely a high priority. It’s also crucial for niche topics and passionate communities (think crypto, pet training, hobbyist electronics – there’s a subreddit for everything). Reddit can drive awareness and authentic discussion about your product, which in turn feeds AI answers with that authentic sentiment.
Brands that benefit from word-of-mouth or enthusiast recommendations (e.g., a new beverage, a SaaS tool for developers) should be listening to and engaging on Reddit.
Quora for Thought Leadership & How-Tos: If your goal is to be seen as an expert or educator in your field, especially in B2B, tech, health, and finance, Quora is a great place to showcase that expertise. Quora tends to attract people looking for explanatory answers. So if, say, you’re a B2B software company or a consultant, answering questions on Quora can put you in front of potential clients and also seed those answers into AI results.
Quora is also good for comparisons and recommendations (e.g., “What is the best project management software for a small team?” – a place you might want your product mentioned).
YouTube for Visual Learning & Reviews: Brands in spaces where visual demonstration or personality-driven reviews matter should lean into YouTube. For example, DIY, cooking, beauty, tech reviews, automotive, travel – these are domains where people love video content. If your product can be reviewed or your expertise can be showcased with a camera and maybe a screencast or two, it’s worth building a YouTube presence. The bonus is that Google’s AI seems to love surfacing YouTube content, so you get a bit of extra search mileage.
A YouTube strategy can bolster your traditional SEO as videos often appear in Google search results and can generate backlinks if popular.
Wikipedia for Credibility & Big-League Presence: Getting on Wikipedia is less about immediate marketing and more about long-term credibility. It’s almost a milestone: when your brand is notable enough for Wikipedia, it usually means you’ve got significant press or impact. Consider Wikipedia if you operate in a field with important general knowledge topics. EX: If you run a climate tech company, ensuring climate change-related pages or renewable energy pages have accurate data (perhaps including your company’s contributions if notable) can indirectly shine a light on you when those facts get cited.
If you’re a market leader or an up-and-coming company with a growing media footprint, investing in Wikipedia (ethically) is worthwhile. It will lend legitimacy in every channel, AI or not.
Different AI Systems, Different Tactics?
Do you need one strategy for ChatGPT, another for Google’s SGE, another for Bing, or Perplexity? Yes and no. The core idea is the same: be present in the sources the AI trusts. But you might emphasize platforms differently depending on which AI your audience is likely to use:
ChatGPT (and similar LLM chatbots) – These (especially without browsing) lean on their trained knowledge. That means historical web content up to a cutoff. Wikipedia and other high-authority sites were heavily consumed in training. To influence ChatGPT’s answers, you need to have been part of that training data or appear in retrieval sources. That implies a strong Wikipedia presence, being mentioned on high-authority sites (news articles, well-known blogs), and also being in forums or resources that OpenAI has deals with (Reddit, possibly StackExchange, etc.). Also, professional content matters: ChatGPT was noted to often reference things like LinkedIn posts, Gartner, or G2 reviews for business queries. If you’re B2B, having a solid profile of positive reviews on Gartner Peer Reviews or G2 could mean ChatGPT will mention your product as “highly rated on G2” in an answer. That’s a form of optimization!
For ChatGPT: prioritize Wikipedia and professional review/ratings sites, and maintain a blog that other credible sources might cite (since ChatGPT respects those citations).
Google’s AI (Google SGE/“Gemini”) – It draws from the live web and Google’s index. Google explicitly suggests using good SEO practices (fast site, structured data, etc.) to help content appear in AI overviews. But aside from your site, we know Google’s AI loves Reddit, YouTube, Quora, and Medium. For Google, maybe put extra effort into Reddit and YouTube (since they are heavily weighted and Google owns YouTube). Also, Google has a bias towards fresh content – if there’s a breaking topic and a Reddit thread or Quora discussion is going viral, Google’s AI might grab from that.
For Google’s AI, ensure your site is crawlable and well-optimized (so it might directly be used as a source), but also push content to YouTube and UGC sites where appropriate. Google also understands schema markup; using FAQ schema on your site might even help your content be directly used in an answer (though it might or might not cite you).
Perplexity and Other AI Search Engines – These often combine Bing search with their own algorithms. Perplexity showed extreme Reddit favoritism and also uses sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and LinkedIn for certain contexts. So if you’re a local business or in hospitality (restaurants, hotels), note that review platforms like Yelp/TripAdvisor were high on Perplexity’s list.
That suggests if you want to show up in AI answers about “best restaurants in Phoenix” or “top-rated budget hotels in London”, you’d better have stellar reviews on those platforms (which could be a whole other marketing effort in online reputation management). Meanwhile, Reddit remains key for Perplexity for general knowledge. So again, strong community presence helps.
The good news is you don’t have to pick one AI to optimize for; by covering the major platforms we discussed, you’re casting a wide net that should improve your odds across all of them. Think of it like diversifying your investment: Reddit/Quora/YouTube/Wikipedia are like different asset classes, and each AI “portfolio” might weight them differently. You want to be present in all, then adjust the emphasis if you know your audience prefers one AI tool strongly.
Key Questions to Guide Your LLM Discovery Strategy
To make this more actionable, when planning your strategy for AI visibility, ask yourself and your team questions like:
“What questions are our customers (or potential customers) asking AI or searching for?” – Map out the user questions. This could be anything from broad informational queries (“How do I reduce my carbon footprint?”) to product-specific ones (“What’s the best project management tool for freelancers?”). This forms the basis of your content topics on all platforms.
“Where does content that answers those questions currently live?” – Do a quick audit: Google those questions, see what comes up. Are Reddit threads ranking? Quora answers? Specific YouTube videos? Wikipedia pages? This will tell you which platform might be your best bet to contribute to for that question. If the top results are Reddit threads, focus there. If there’s a Wikipedia article that clearly would answer it, maybe expand that article.
“Are we present in those places?” – If not, how can you get there? For example, if you realize no one from your company has ever engaged on Reddit, but that’s where the gold is, it’s time to start. If YouTube lacks content in your niche, maybe you can fill that gap.
“What unique value can we add?” – This is critical. Don’t just copy what’s already out there. Maybe you have proprietary data, or expert insights, or a clearer way of explaining something. Use that as your hook. Creating content others want to reference is the name of the game. AI will pick up on content that lots of humans found valuable (through links, citations, upvotes).
“Do we need to adjust for different AI platforms?” – As discussed, if you have a particular interest in one AI (maybe you’re building a chatbot plugin for ChatGPT or focusing on Bing’s audience), you might weight your efforts. But generally, a holistic approach works. Still, asking this ensures you’re not, say, ignoring Wikipedia when trying to get into ChatGPT answers.
“How will we measure success in the AI era?” – This one’s tricky, because unlike traditional SEO, you don’t get clear analytics from AI answers (at least not yet). If an AI cites you or mentions your brand, you might not know unless you see it or someone tells you. However, you can track indirect metrics: referrals from those platforms (are you getting traffic from Quora or YouTube or Reddit?), brand mentions on social media (“I saw on ChatGPT that Brand X is…”) and overall search demand for your brand (if AI mentions spike awareness, more people might search your brand name). Also, you might consider using tools or services that specifically monitor AI citations (companies like Profound are working on “AI visibility” tracking). Internally, set KPIs like “Answer 5 Quora questions that collectively get 100k views,” or “Achieve Wikipedia page GA class (good article) for our company page,” or “Attain X upvotes on a Reddit answer”. These are proxies for success that likely correlate with AI visibility.
“Are we staying ethical and true to our brand?” – It’s easy to get carried away with “gaming” the system. But short-term hacks in AI search are not sustainable. Always cross-check that whatever you do (be it a Reddit post or a Wikipedia edit) aligns with being genuinely useful and honest. Not only is that important for integrity, but AI algorithms (much like Google’s) eventually penalize low-quality or manipulative content. Focus on building real authority and consensus online, not on trickery. As one Search Engine Journal article pointed out, there’s a “proven model that builds a ladder of citations” – it involves creating a trail of credible mentions across platforms, which in aggregate boosts your visibility. Think of it as building your brand’s online consensus: multiple independent sources pointing to you as noteworthy.
By addressing these questions, you form a strategy that’s proactive rather than reactive. The companies that thrive in the AI-driven search landscape will be those who deliberately plant seeds across the web – in communities, on Q&A sites, in videos, and in knowledge bases – so that their reputation and content become intertwined with the answers AI provides.
The New SEO Playbook: SEO ≠ Dead, It’s Evolved
You might be thinking, “This is a lot – do I have to do all of this on top of traditional SEO?” The reality is, traditional SEO and this new “AI SEO” are converging. In the past, we cared about blue links on a search results page. Now, we care about mentions in answer boxes and AI narratives. But the fundamental principle remains: provide the information people seek, where they seek it.
Rand Fishkin joked that people keep inventing new acronyms like AEO (Answer Engine Optimization) or GEO (Generative Engine Optimization), but it’s still SEO, now meaning “Search Everywhere Optimization”. Your job as a marketer is to ensure that when your audience looks for answers, whether on Google, ChatGPT, YouTube, or any platform, they find you. It truly is “search everywhere” now.
How does the playbook change?:
Content Distribution is as important as Content Creation: It’s no longer enough to publish a great blog post on your site and pray for Google to rank it. You might still do that (please do – your site is your home base), but you then need to amplify that content into other formats and communities. Maybe that blog post can be turned into a Quora answer summary, an infographic on Reddit, a short video on YouTube, and a tidbit added to a Wikipedia article (if it’s a neutral fact). The mindset shift is “I’ve got this knowledge, now how do I spread it across the web?” – because the AI will pick it up if it’s resonating in multiple places. Earning third-party mentions might be more valuable than on-site SEO tweaks for AI visibility. That’s a big shift for those of us who spent years obsessing over our domain authority.
Quality and Trust Beat Hacks: Just as Google eventually crushed many black-hat SEO tactics, AI will not be gamed for long by any trickery. Building trust through genuine contributions and high-quality content is the sustainable path. The good news is that AI tends to favor high-quality sources (the SEJ study showed ~31.5% high-quality sources vs. ~4.8% low-quality in citations). If you focus on being one of those high-quality sources – whether via an authoritative blog, a well-respected YouTube channel, or an active expert presence on forums – you become part of the trusted canon that AI pulls from.
New Metrics and a Broader View: We might need to adjust how we measure success. It’s not just about your website’s organic traffic anymore. You might celebrate that a Reddit thread mentioning your brand hit the front page, or that your Quora answer was selected in an AI’s response (if you can catch it). It’s a more holistic, brand-centric view of SEO. In a way, it blends into PR: getting mentioned in an industry publication, being a guest on a podcast or YouTube show, contributing a guest article – these all feed the AI engine as “earned media”. SEO in 2025 and beyond is as much about brand presence and content partnerships as it is about title tags and meta descriptions.
Don’t Neglect the Basics: That said, technical SEO still matters. If your site isn’t crawlable or is painfully slow, AI search might ignore it or not find your content to include. Structured data, clean HTML, and an authoritative domain can help. The Profound study noted that .com and .org domains made up the vast majority of AI citations, implying that having a strong domain (and perhaps some age/backlinks to it) still plays a role in what AI chooses to cite. So, continue to keep your site healthy and optimized. Think of it as fortifying your home base while you send out “ambassadors” (your content pieces) to various outposts of the web.
In summary, the traditional SEO playbook isn’t thrown out, it’s expanding. We now play on a bigger field with more players. It can feel daunting, but it’s also a huge opportunity. Marketers who adapt and start treating Reddit threads, Quora answers, YouTube videos, and Wikipedia pages as extensions of their SEO strategy will have a head start.
It’s about meeting your audience wherever they seek answers.
Be the Answer, Everywhere
The age of AI in search is not the end of marketing as we know it (despite the number of times we are told marketing is dead lol); it’s just a new chapter. People will always have questions, and brands that help answer those questions will always earn attention and trust. What’s changed is how those answers reach the user. Today, it might be an AI voice speaking a result, or a chatbot giving a cited response. Tomorrow it could be something even more integrated. But if your content is woven into the fabric of the internet in the right ways, your brand will be discovered through these intelligent systems.
So, take these insights and start making a plan. Maybe your next content calendar will include “Answer 10 Quora questions” alongside “Write 3 blog posts.” Maybe your PR efforts will extend to pitching expert quotes that might end up on Wikipedia. Maybe your SEO team will sit next to your social/community manager and coordinate Reddit outreach. This cross-pollination of marketing disciplines is how you win in the AI answer world.
To act on the Profound/Lafferty study’s insight: focus on the platforms that AI cites most – Reddit, Quora, YouTube, and Wikipedia – and make them part of your marketing mix. By doing so, you’re not just optimizing for one search engine, you’re optimizing for an entire ecosystem of AI-driven discovery.
Remember, when an AI confidently gives an answer featuring an example or insight, you want that example to be you. Achieving that isn’t magic; it’s the result of smart, strategic content placement and genuine engagement across the web. The playing field is wider, but with that comes more opportunities to stand out.
In the AI era, the old mantra “Content is king” still holds, but now context is queen. Put your content in the right contexts (platforms and communities), and you’ll rule the answers.
Happy optimizing, everywhere!
Sources:
Profound (Nick Lafferty) – AI Platform Citation Patterns: How ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, and Perplexity Source Information
LinkedIn (Josh Blyskal, Profound) – Post on Reddit citations spiking
SparkToro (Rand Fishkin) – How Can My Brand Appear in Answers from ChatGPT…; “Search Everywhere Optimization”
Search Engine Journal – AI Search Optimization: Data Finds Brand Mentions Improve Visibility (Matt G. Southern)
LinkedIn (Joseph Siegel) – Post on increasing LLM SEO via Reddit, Quora, etc.
Search Engine Journal – How To Build Consensus Online To Gain Visibility In AI Search (Kevin Rowe)