Search Everywhere Optimization
Optimising visibility across every surface an audience searches on, not only web search: social platforms, marketplaces, video, forums and assistants. Coined by Ashley Liddell in 2022.
What it actually means
People search on TikTok, Amazon, YouTube, Reddit and inside assistants, and a strategy that treats Google as the search surface is optimising a shrinking share of the behaviour.
The discipline is to identify where your audience actually looks and be present on each, accepting that the mechanics differ substantially between them.
Why it turned out to matter for AI
Coined before the generative wave, it has become more relevant because of it. Models trained and retrieving across the open web draw heavily on forums, reviews and video transcripts, so presence on those surfaces feeds back into AI answers.
Reddit in particular has become a disproportionately cited source. A brand absent from the places people discuss its category is absent from a large part of what models read.