Reddit Is Key to AEO and SEO. So How Do You Measure Its Impact?

Reddit is showing up everywhere in search.

It appears in organic results, influences AI Overviews and answer engines, and shapes how brands are referenced when users research topics. There’s been growing industry discussion around this, including a recent article on Search Engine Land by Adam Tanguay, our Head of Growth, that takes a deep dive into why Reddit has become such a powerful business-building channel.

That said, it’s not straightforward to assess Reddit’s impact. We need to treat the channel as its own unique beast to measure the business impact of a brand’s organic presence.

The Business Impact We Actually See

The biggest impact of a strong Reddit strategy isn’t immediate traffic.

It’s brand recognition and brand sentiment.

Being present in the right conversations influences how people perceive and talk about a brand, especially in technical or niche communities. That visibility carries through into search behavior and AI-generated results, even if it doesn’t show up as a direct click.

The KPIs We’re Tracking (For Now)

There’s no perfect framework yet, but our current set of metrics is focused on:

• Impressions
• Engagement (upvotes and comments)
• Reddit account Karma
• Organic visibility of Reddit threads
• Visibility in AI search experiences

These metrics aren’t meant to tell a complete story on their own. They’re signals that help us understand whether trust, visibility, and reach are building over time.

The Tools We’re Using

Tracking Reddit impact isn’t automated end-to-end yet. Most of it is still manual.

Our current approach includes:

• Google Search Console, to monitor organic brand searches and related query growth
• Organic ranking checks, to see when Reddit threads appear on page one
• Profound, to track topic-level visibility in AEO / AI search and review citations
• Ahrefs, which is currently testing Reddit-specific tooling that we’re evaluating

This setup isn’t perfect, but it allows us to connect Reddit activity to search visibility trends.

How We Think About Karma (High or Low)

Reddit is not a quick-win channel.

It typically takes 3–6 months to build enough authority, or Karma, for your presence to matter. It’s important to note that early on, a low Karma score is expected, so don’t keep updating your approach before you give it time to gain traction. It’s also important to note that Karma, for us, is a signal of trust, not a growth metric.

If, after a couple of quarters of engagement, you Karma is low, make sure you:

• Avoid promoting the brand
• Avoid commenting with any commercial intent
• Focus entirely on engaging with the community and providing helpful answers

Once trust is established within specific subreddits, it becomes possible to organically mention the brand in a way that fits the conversation. 

What We Do After We Measure the KPIs

Measurement only matters if it informs next steps.

• If engagement or upvotes increase on a topic:
  That tells us that the topic resonates. We continue engaging around that theme and look for related discussions where participation makes sense.
• If we see growth in organic brand searches:
  Especially with brand searches tied to specific topics or threads, that’s a strong high-level signal that Reddit is increasing visibility. It’s also a good idea to double down on those topics with deeper content planning.
• If AEO / AI visibility improves:
  We use Profound at a topic level, then review citations to see whether Reddit threads mentioning the brand are appearing. That helps validate Reddit’s influence on AI search.
• If Reddit threads rank page one for non-brand queries:
  And our brand is mentioned within those threads, we view that as indirect non-brand SEO value, even if the traffic doesn’t land on our site directly.
  
  

How We Define Success Right Now

We’re often asked how to “prove” Reddit impact.

At the moment, clean attribution isn’t realistic. To get there, tools would need to understand exactly where and how we’ve engaged across Reddit, which isn’t fully possible yet.

So for now, success looks like:

• Increasing impressions
• Consistent engagement
• Growing Karma
• Improved visibility across brand search, AEO, and non-brand SERPs

As we post and engage, Karma becomes a proxy for trust, and trust is the foundation of everything Reddit influences.

Reddit is slower, messier, and harder to attribute than other channels, but it plays a real role in how brands show up in both organic and AI-driven search. The goal right now should be to build visibility and trust, then watch how those signals show up across search over time.