Search Everywhere Optimization: Publish Where LLMs Really Look

Search everywhere optimization starts from one fact: AI recommends brands based on what it cites. So before you write anything for ChatGPT, Perplexity or Google’s AI Overviews, look at the sources those engines use.

Searchable tracked the domains 5 AI engines cited between 10 and 16 October 2026. After your own website, the answer points to 3 platforms: YouTube, Reddit and LinkedIn.

That’s where your brand should publish next.

What Is Search Everywhere Optimization?

Search everywhere optimization is the work of making your brand findable wherever people search.

Google is one of those places. The others include:

• AI engines: ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, Google AI Overviews and Google AI Mode
• YouTube
• Reddit and other forums
• LinkedIn and the other social platforms

Marketplaces like Amazon and voice assistants belong on the list too, depending on the product you sell.

For a B2B brand, the list gets shorter. Your buyers ask AI engines for answers, so the priority is the sites those engines read and cite.

Why Google Alone Isn’t Enough Anymore

Your buyers still use Google. They also open ChatGPT or Perplexity and ask “which agency should we hire for this?” They get a short, AI-driven answer with a few names in it.

The AI engine builds that answer from sources. Many of them sit outside your website: videos, forum threads, posts and articles written by people in your industry.

If your brand only exists on your own site, the engine has very little to cite. And a strong ranking in traditional search doesn’t carry over automatically. Each AI engine picks its sources its own way, so a page that ranks well on Google can still be missing from the AI answer.

That’s why we track AI visibility next to SEO, engine by engine. For your brand, that means 2 checks: where each engine looks, and whether you’re there.

Which Platforms AI Engines Cite Most

Searchable measured the share of answers citing each domain, from 10 to 16 October 2026. The data comes from tracked questions, with each account weighted equally. Search engines and syndication sites are excluded.

Across all 5 engines, the top 3 are:

• YouTube: cited in 11.2% of answers
• Reddit: 7.3%
• LinkedIn: 6.8%

Facebook (4.5%) and nih.gov (2.4%) complete the top 5. The picture changes a lot from one engine to the next:

ChatGPT’s sources lean on Reddit (5.4%), nih.gov (5.2%) and LinkedIn (4.9%), and YouTube isn’t in ChatGPT’s top 5. Reddit is in the top 5 of every engine except Perplexity. And Google’s 2 AI products cite YouTube far more than anything else.

Peec AI ran a separate analysis, published on 31 March 2026. It covers 30 million sources across ChatGPT, Google AI Mode, Gemini, Perplexity and AI Overviews. Its top 5 cited domains are Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, Wikipedia and Forbes.

Different study, different method, and the same 3 platforms at the top. The order isn’t fixed, though: Peec AI put Reddit first, and Searchable put YouTube first. Check again every few months.

So the platform to start with depends on where your buyers search. If they use Google, start with YouTube. If they use Perplexity, start with LinkedIn. For ChatGPT, start with Reddit and LinkedIn.

Your Website Stays the Foundation

AI needs your website to understand 2 things: what you sell and who you sell to. If your homepage and service pages are vague on either point, fix that before anything else.

Then accept the limit of your site. It’s the one place where you describe yourself. Before AI recommends a brand, it also looks for outside sources that confirm the description.

YouTube, Reddit and LinkedIn are the outside sources it cites most.

Search Everywhere Optimization, Platform by Platform

YouTube

YouTube matters most for Google. It’s cited in 32.3% of AI Overviews answers and 20.9% of AI Mode answers in Searchable’s data. In ChatGPT it isn’t in the top 5, and in Gemini it sits at 1.2%.

If your buyers search on Google, record a video that answers the question they ask. Put the question in the title. Then answer it the way you would on a sales call, with your own examples.

Keep the video on that one question, so the people asking it get a clear answer.

Reddit

Reddit is #1 in ChatGPT (5.4%) and Gemini (4.7%), and #2 in both of Google’s AI products.

For a B2B brand, Reddit SEO starts with real threads. Find a thread where people ask the question your clients ask you. Then answer it in a comment, under your own name.

Read the rules before you post. Reddit’s content policy asks users to post authentic content in communities where they have a personal interest, and it bans spam. On top of that, each subreddit sets its own rules, and some are strict about self-promotion.

So answer the question first. Mention your company only when it helps the person asking and the subreddit allows it.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is #1 in Perplexity at 12.8%, and it’s in the top 5 of ChatGPT, AI Overviews and AI Mode.

Semrush, with input from LinkedIn, analyzed 89,000 unique LinkedIn URLs cited by ChatGPT Search, Google AI Mode and Perplexity. The format makes a big difference:

• Articles make up 50% to 66% of the cited LinkedIn content, depending on the platform.
• Feed posts make up 15% to 28%.

Engagement matters less than you’d expect. The median cited post had 15 to 25 reactions. One company’s data report post was cited in at least 26 ChatGPT search prompts. About 95% of cited posts were original rather than reshares, and well over half of the cited content was knowledge- or advice-driven.

A clear answer to a real question, published as an article, can get cited with a small audience.

For additional resources, check out this detail explanation made by Romain, Crescendo’s co-founder, on why social platforms should be part of your content strategy.

What We See for Our Clients in Clairon

The data matches what we track for our clients in Clairon, our AI visibility platform:

• The Reddit threads we help them appear in get used by AI.
• The videos we ask them to record get picked up by LLMs quickly.
• Their LinkedIn articles get cited the same way.

Clairon shows which domains and pages each engine cites on a client’s buying questions. That’s how we see a thread, a video or an article start showing up as a source.

You don’t need a big stack to start. Search Console shows your rankings, a keyword tool shows how buyers phrase their questions, and an AI visibility tracker like Clairon shows which sources each engine cites.

Where to Start: One Real Client Question

Start with the question your clients ask every single day. You’ll find it in your call transcripts, support tickets and emails. If the same question keeps coming back, that’s the one. It’s the simplest way to start with search everywhere optimization.

Create a dedicated piece of content for that one question. Answer it clearly in about 1,000 words. Leave the pitch out, and leave the keyword stuffing out too.

1,000 words fits the Semrush data: the most-cited LinkedIn articles run 500 to 2,000 words.

A clear answer is the minimum. Then add what only you can say:

• A point of view, backed by an example from your own work
• Unique data, if you have some: a data-driven point is hard to find anywhere else

Your example and your data exist only in your content. That gives an AI engine a reason to cite you over a generic answer it can find anywhere.

Then adapt it for each platform. You write the answer once, and each platform gets its own version:

• YouTube: record a video answering the same question.
• Reddit: find a thread where people ask it, and answer in a comment under your own name.
• LinkedIn: publish the full answer as a LinkedIn article.

Don’t copy-paste the same text everywhere. A Reddit comment reads differently from a LinkedIn article, and a video needs to be spoken. Keep the answer and the point of view, and change the format.

Then watch that one question. The result to look for is your thread, video or article showing up as a source, and then your brand named in the answer.

Be Visible Wherever Your Buyers Search

Your buyers search on Google, in AI engines, on YouTube, on Reddit and on LinkedIn. AI engines read those platforms before they name a brand.

“Search is multi-platform, so you need to appear everywhere your clients are searching.”

Adrien Thomas, co-founder of Crescendo

That’s the work we do for our clients at Crescendo: YouTube SEO, Reddit visibility, Google Business Profile and LinkedIn articles, built around the questions their buyers ask.

Pick one client question and answer it. To find out which platforms the AI engines cite in your market, and where your brand is missing, contact us at Crescendo.

FAQ

What is search everywhere optimization?

It’s the work of making your brand findable on every platform where people search: Google, AI engines like ChatGPT, Perplexity and Gemini, YouTube, Reddit, LinkedIn and the other social platforms. For B2B brands, the priority is the platforms AI engines cite when they build their answers.

How is search everywhere optimization different from SEO?

Traditional SEO focuses on your website and its rankings on Google. Search everywhere optimization keeps your website as the foundation and adds the outside platforms where buyers search and where AI engines look for sources, like YouTube, Reddit and LinkedIn.

Which platforms do AI engines cite most?

In Searchable’s analysis of ChatGPT, AI Overviews, Perplexity, AI Mode and Gemini, the top 3 are YouTube (11.2% of answers), Reddit (7.3%) and LinkedIn (6.8%). Peec AI’s analysis of 30 million sources has the same 3 platforms at the top, in a different order.

Does ChatGPT cite YouTube?

YouTube isn’t in ChatGPT’s top 5 cited domains in Searchable’s data. ChatGPT’s top sources are Reddit, nih.gov and LinkedIn. YouTube leads in Google’s AI Overviews (32.3%) and AI Mode (20.9%).

Should I write LinkedIn posts or articles for AI visibility?

Articles. In Semrush’s study of 89,000 LinkedIn URLs cited by AI, articles made up 50% to 66% of the cited content, against 15% to 28% for feed posts. The most-cited articles run 500 to 2,000 words.