These are the top 10 most-clicked sites in Google Search in 2025:
- YouTube
- ChatGPT
- 𝕏
- Wikipedia
- TikTok
Last year, 2024, by contrast – Wikipedia was #3. Reddit was #1. Quora was #10. Stack Overflow was #9. Amazon was #4. And TikTok wasn’t even listed.
UGC – user generated content – is dominating even more than it was last year, with video going especially hard.
(This research comes from a massive newly-released report from Datos and SparkToro: https://datos.live/report/state-of-search-q1-2025/)
The mistake
The biggest mistake digital marketers will make this year is not using these platforms more for SEO while it’s still non-competitive.
Most video creators target keywords with a sloppy list of hashtags at the END of their descriptions. This is all wrong. Targeting keywords is super easy, you can make the content faster than with traditional SEO, and you can AND SHOULD target the same keyword with multiple pieces of content.
Similarly, most users on Reddit don’t realize that with just a little bit of consideration, their posts and comments will have a much greater shot at showing up in search results (or recommended by AI).
Oh and while you do this, you also grow your brand on socials as algorithms push your content out to relevant viewers.
The simple principle
Have a target keyword.
Make your content (video, Reddit post/comment) about that target keyword.
Position your target keyword at the beginning of your content.
- Beginning of video description (most video platforms only have a description field)
- If there is a title field (like there is on YouTube) at beginning of title field as well
- If Reddit – at beginning of comment or in post title and beginning of post’s main contents
Basically anywhere where there is a field for you to write – put your target keyword at the beginning of that field.
Then (for description field in video) write ~150-300 words after your target keyword is placed. To make it easy, I just use my video transcript after the keyword.
Automate
Again, making this type of high-ranking content takes significantly less time than traditional SEO.
If it’s a Reddit post/comment, takes a few minutes.
If it’s a video, takes a few minutes as well:
- YouTube Shorts, IG Reels, and TikTok all have native video-creation capabilities used by SIX YEAR OLDS. If six year olds can figure it out, so can you.
- For more flexibility, what I do: shoot my videos on my phone. Import into Descript. With one click, remove all gaps between words. Then remove bad takes from the transcript (every raw video gets auto-transcribed). Removing bad takes from the transcript also removes them from the finished video.
Once you upload your video, use this automation to make it auto-release everywhere at once:
- YouTube Shorts
- 𝕏
- TikTok
Here’s what you just did
You just made a piece of content targeting a keyword in 10-20 minutes, and then it auto-released to 6 of the 10 MOST-CLICKED websites in Google Search – which AI ALSO TRAINS OFF OF.
Again, the biggest mistake will be in 2026 saying, “Oh, I wish I capitalized off UGC SEO sooner.”
Quality
Also – don’t sweat the quality – just start.
Here’s how raw my videos used to be:
- Dec 29, 2022 – https://www.youtube.com/shorts/k5LqJ0PUsVk
- Dec 30, 2022 – https://www.youtube.com/shorts/ffJbnHolYVI
- Jan 18, 2023 – https://www.youtube.com/shorts/8UNxPVhSaOQ
What keywords to target
UGC SEO is a blue ocean.
Most SEOs are skipping over video.
Most video creators and Redditors don’t know the first thing about keyword-usage in their content.
You don’t have to be as strategic as with traditional SEO – you can go after any keyword that looks appealing.
Also, if you took the time to target a keyword with your website, make a video or Reddit post for it as well – the information is already top of mind for you so you don’t need to do extra research or ideation.
Personally, I like to go after purchase-intent keywords:
Purchase-intent keywords convert way better, but because search volumes are much lower – as shown above – than informational keywords, VERY few marketers bother to target them.
With traditional SEO, competition for purchase-intent keywords is already very low.
With UGC SEO, competition for purchase-intent keywords is non-existent.
I’m so passionate about purchase-intent SEO, I spent a year making this 13 hour course on it. The course shows in depth how to find these keywords, make pages for the keywords, and there’s a thorough section on UGC SEO as well.
Don’t make the mistake
Searchers prefer short videos:
- They’re faster to consume
- They’re more engaging
- They’re more personal and authentic
- Everyone has fast-enough Internet to load video now
If it’s Reddit:
- The anonymous and social nature of brand recommendations make them convert above average
Anyone can do it. Few people with the knowledge do. Start your UGC SEO efforts now, before the market becomes saturated.
Go deeper
My UGC articles 👇
https://edwardsturm.com/articles/organic-social-media/
My SEO articles 👇
https://edwardsturm.com/articles/search-engine-optimization/
My SEO course 👇
https://compactkeywords.com/
