BrightonSEO (Oct '26): The FYP is a SERP

The FYP is a SERP - What organic social tells us about how people actually discover brands today.

Your customer ‘discovered’ four times before ever opening Google. They browsed an FYP feed, explored a Reddit thread, a saved Instagram post, and a YouTube comment section. By the time they searched your brand name, their decision was already made.

This talk follows a typical buying journey across every surface it touched, and shows where organic media sits in that journey - not as a brand channel - as the first moment of discovery. We'll then assess what this means for 'Search' marketing.

Transcript

1. Ashley Liddell The FYP is a SERP Deviation | The Search Everywhere® Agency @WeAreDeviation
2. I WANT YOU TO THINK ABOUT THE LAST TIME YOU TRULY DISCOVERED SOMETHING NEW FOR THE FIRST TIME… #BrightonSEO
3. #BrightonSEO
4. #BrightonSEO
5. #BrightonSEO
6. YOU MOST LIKELY DIDN’T DISCOVER ON GOOGLE #BrightonSEO
7. LET’S MOVE SOMEWHERE FAMILIAR #BrightonSEO
8. THE HIGHEST PERFORMING KEYWORDS? 372K CLICKS #BrightonSEO 769K IMPRESSIONS 48.3% AVG. CTR 2 AVG. POS Previous 6 Months, ThruDark ‘Branded Query’ Terms, Google Search Console 2% ORGANIC CVR
9. [BRAND] QUERIES DID NOT CREATE THE DECISION, IT CONFIRMED ONE THAT WAS MADE EARLIER… #BrightonSEO
10. THIS IS THE SLIDE THAT GOES IN THE QBR DECK… Organic Search: 27.69% of Total Revenue Up 55% YOY Purchases Up 55.42% #BrightonSEO
11. THERE IS A STORY THAT ISN’T BEING TOLD HERE #BrightonSEO
12. GOOGLE SEARCH CAN ONLY CAPTURE DEMAND #BrightonSEO
13. NOW… THIS ISN’T REALLY NEWS #BrightonSEO
14. #BrightonSEO
15. WHAT IS NEW? THESE TOUCHPOINTS COULD NOW ALL FEASIBLY BE ‘SEARCH MARKETING’ #BrightonSEO
16. THE FYP IS DIFFERENT… #BrightonSEO
17. WHAT IS THE FYP? Search One Tap Away ✅Custom Feed ✅Based on your activity ✅Unique to you You don’t ask the FYP, It just delivers content. No Page Two. Infinite. #BrightonSEO
18. GENERATION / CAPITALISATION LOOP DEMAND GENERATION ACTIVITY DEMAND CAPITALISATION ACTIVITY Social save FYP A Social Search Comments Exploration Intent Raised Once, Replayed to You #BrightonSEO Another Platform AI/LLM Forum [Brand] Google search
19. GENERATION INTO CAPITALISATION - THE LOOP 650 > ~1.5M £0 70% Participants (2017-2026) Paid Media (2024-2026) First Time Participants Improve Sandbag Lunges Intent raised once, replayed to you Same Platform. Within Seconds DEMAND GENERATION #BrightonSEO DEMAND CAPITALISATION Exponential Compass (Substack), 2026. Smart Company, 2026. Huddleup (Substack), 2026.
20. UNAWARE SERVE BRAND DISCOVERY SEARCH #BrightonSEO INTERESTED CONVINCED REPLAY
21. TOP TIP: ACCELERATE THE FLYWHEEL WITH DIGITAL PR #BrightonSEO
22. We Engineer content to make a search happen We make sure [Insert Brand Name] is found, when the search does happen Accelerate and Amplify with Digital PR One system, measured on share of search, [brand search], and organic revenue. #BrightonSEO
23. AKA: ® SEARCH EVERYWHERE #BrightonSEO
24. AND THIS CAN LOOK DIFFERENT FOR BRANDS #BrightonSEO
25. LED BY: MARKET LED BY: CALENDAR LED BY: BIZ GOALS CRYOGLOW (SHARKNINJA) WILD NUTRITION THRUDARK Shark entered demand TikTok had already built. January demand won in November and December. Achieve Organic Growth of 25% YoY. What's moving in the category, culture, and search, right now. Demand arriving on a specific date, whether you are prepped or not. Working back from an established goal, and deciding how best to hit that objective. #BrightonSEO
26. DISCOVERY COMPARE DEFER / SHARE ADJUDICATE VERIFY / BUY THE FYP REDDIT AND FORUMS THE SAVE OR SHARE CREATOR COMMENTS [BRAND] SEARCH Audience is introduced to you for the first time. They start to weigh up the options. They save you for later. Share you with friends. They see what their favourite voices think. You become chosen. They Search you by name. #BrightonSEO 14
27. LETS GO DEEPER HERE… #BrightonSEO
28. THE FYP (TIKTOK, YT SHORTS, INSTAGRAM) Surface 1: Job? Discovery. This is where it all started, and (technically speaking) there is nothing here for a search marketer to optimise, because there is no query… #BrightonSEO
29. THE REDDIT EFFECT Surface 2: Job? Compare ID’d solutions FYI: This thread is also a Google result. On this surface, social IS the search result (and we are seeing more of the surfaces discussed appear on the SERP). #BrightonSEO
30. SOCIAL SAVES (INSTAGRAM/TIKTOK) Surface 3: Job? Defer & Share Intent The save acts as an Intent bookmark. 47% of TikTok users convince others to buy products that they saw on the platform via shares/saves (TikTok, 2026). #BrightonSEO
31. YOUTUBE (VIDEO COMMENTS) Surface 4: Job? Adjudication / Qualification Reviews migrated. Nobody is reading your testimonials page. Your audience are putting more trust in the opinions and thoughts of their favourite creators online than in the traditional trusted review platforms. #BrightonSEO
32. BRAND SEARCH (VIA GOOGLE) Surface 5: Job? Verification & Action People arrive already knowing what you do. The visit is an audit or an action… not an introduction. Rising bounce/engagement alongside rising conversion is the signature of verification traffic, not discovery traffic. #BrightonSEO
33. DISCOVERY COMPARE DEFER / SHARE ADJUDICATE VERIFY / BUY THE FYP REDDIT AND FORUMS THE SAVE OR SHARE CREATOR COMMENTS [BRAND] SEARCH Audience is introduced to you for the first time. They start to weigh up the options. They save you for later. Share you with friends. They see what their favourite voices think. You become chosen. They Search you by name. #BrightonSEO 14
34. FOUR SURFACES. NOBODY TYPED ANYTHING. #BrightonSEO
35. INVESTMENT BECOMES EXPOSED Budget by surface, against that surface's position in the journey. #BrightonSEO
36. NOW, SOME OF YOU ARE GETTING ITCHY… #BrightonSEO
37. “A FOR-YOU-PAGE HAS NO QUERY… IT CANNOT POSSIBLY BE A SERP” #BrightonSEO
38. LET’S GET TO WHAT A SEARCH ENGINE ACTUALLY IS QUERY #BrightonSEO RANKING SYSTEM EVALUATION/ EXPLORATION SERP (ACTION)
39. WHAT A SEARCH ENGINE (ACTUALLY) IS Surface Query Ranking system Evaluation moment Action [Brand] Google search Typed Ranking algorithm Compare results Click YouTube comments Inferred Top comments / sort Read consensus Upvote, reply, leave The Social save Inferred Feed ranking Worth keeping? Save Reddit thread Typed or Inferred Upvotes + Google / AI Compare options Click, comment Typed or Inferred Recommendation engine Watch or scroll Watch, follow, save The FYP #BrightonSEO
40. IN 2026… THE ‘QUERY’ IS BECOMING INFERRED, INSTEAD OF TYPED. #BrightonSEO
41. Watch time Rewatches What you paused on #BrightonSEO Follows Saves What you scrolled past Shares Time of day
42. ENGINEERED DISCOVERABILITY… TOUCHPOINT 1 #BrightonSEO TOUCHPOINT 2 TOUCHPOINT 3
43. THE PAIN/NEED/WANT/DESIRE DIDN’T STOP BEING IMPORTANT… IT JUST STOPPED REQUIRING A TEXT ENTRY FIELD #BrightonSEO
44. A SEARCH SESSION HAS ALWAYS HAD AN END… AND IT WASN’T ALWAYS THE ENDING WE WANTED. #BrightonSEO
45. GENERATION / CAPITALISATION LOOP DEMAND GENERATION ACTIVITY DEMAND CAPITALISATION ACTIVITY Social save FYP A Social Search Comments Exploration Intent Raised Once, Replayed to You #BrightonSEO Another Platform AI/LLM Forum [Brand] Google search
46. AUDIENCES NO LONGER RETURN TO THE SEARCH. THE SEARCH RETURNS TO THEM. #BrightonSEO
47. #BrightonSEO
48. SEARCH WAS A PLATFORM: NOW… SEARCH IS A BEHAVIOUR #BrightonSEO
49. LET’S GET INTO WHAT THIS MEANS FOR SEARCH MARKETERS #BrightonSEO
50. CONSEQUENCE 1: #BrightonSEO
51. ORGANIC MEDIA IN BRANDS IS BEING COMPLETELY MISUNDERSTOOD #BrightonSEO
52. IT SITS IN THE BRAND BUDGET. #BrightonSEO
53. IT GETS BRAND KPIS. REACH, ENGAGEMENT, SENTIMENT, SHARE OF VOICE. #BrightonSEO
54. IT'S JUDGED ON AWARENESS. #BrightonSEO
55. BUT IT ISN'T ONLY A BRAND CHANNEL. IT'S THE FIRST MOMENT OF DISCOVERY. #BrightonSEO
56. ‘[BRAND] SEARCH’ IS AN OUTPUT METRIC FOR SOCIAL-SEARCH #BrightonSEO
57. THIS IS ESSENTIAL… 1 2 3 4 5 Last-click PR, They get cut [Brand] search Pipeline shows [brand] Social-Search, or investment volume drops. + direct driving AI, SEO is reduced. decays, Nobody can most of content - all becomes clear explain why. pipeline look inefficient ~3 months later #BrightonSEO
58. SOCIAL-SEARCH IS UNDER REPORTED. YOU DEFUND THE DEMAND GEN ENGINE. #BrightonSEO
59. CONSEQUENCE 2: #BrightonSEO
60. SOCIAL SEARCH FEATURES ‘RANKING PROBLEMS’ #BrightonSEO
61. Content Freshness Query-matched titles Engagement Semantic Relevance Video Meta Information #BrightonSEO Related Content Comments / Comment Depth Sort Order Captions Hook Optimisation
62. THIS DISCIPLINE, RANKING INSIDE SOMEONE ELSE’S SYSTEM, THAT IS OUR SKILL… OUR DISCIPLINE. #BrightonSEO
63. AND YOU’LL WANT TO START WITH UNDERSTANDING YOUR OPPORTUNITY… #BrightonSEO
64. SEARCH EVERYWHERE CONVERSATION INDEX #BrightonSEO
65. SEARCH EVERYWHERE CONVERSATION INDEX #BrightonSEO
66. THE POINT? HELP BRANDS PRIORITISE WHICH CONVERSATION, ON WHICH PLATFORM. #BrightonSEO
67. WE HAVE ACTIVATED THIS ACROSS: 🏭5 INDUSTRIES 🗣85 CONVERSATIONS 🔍COVERING ~40K QUERIES. #BrightonSEO
68. YOU CAN ACCESS IT HERE… #BrightonSEO
69. NOT COVERED YOUR INDUSTRY? DM ME ‘OI, WHERE’S X’ AND WE’LL SORT YOU OUT… #BrightonSEO
70. WHAT YOU OPTIMISE CHANGES What you optimise now What it becomes Keyword → The first three seconds of the video Title tag → On-screen text in frame one / Video Title Meta description → The hook / The Captions / The Description Internal linking → The comment section Backlink / Mention → A share into a group chat you will never see #BrightonSEO
71. LET’S WRAP THIS UP #BrightonSEO
72. THE HIGHEST PERFORMING KEYWORD? 4K SOCIAL SAVES 3.8K SOCIAL SHARES 2.8M VIEWS +16% BRAND SEARCH #BrightonSEO Previous 6 Months, ThruDark ‘Branded Query’ Terms, Clicks, Google Search Console
73. STILL SUPPORTED BY ‘X% OF REVENUE’. EVIDENCED TO NOT BE 100% OF THE REASON. #BrightonSEO
74. AND GOOGLE SEARCH CONSOLE CAN SUPPORT HERE #BrightonSEO
75. REMINDER GSC ONLY STARTS TRACKING FROM THE DAY YOU ADD THE PROPERTIES TO YOUR ACCOUNT. #BrightonSEO
76. WE ARE THE ONLY DISCIPLINE (SEARCH) THAT KNOWS HOW TO ‘RANK’ INSIDE A SYSTEM YOU DO NOT OWN AS A BRAND. #BrightonSEO
77. THAT SKILL JUST GAINED COUNTLESS NEW SURFACES… #BrightonSEO
78. NEW OPPORTUNITIES #BrightonSEO
79. THE FYP IS A SERP And you already know how to work with a SERP. #BrightonSEO
80. FOLLOW ME FOR FURTHER INSIGHTS ASHLEY LIDDELL Co-Founder, Deviation #BrightonSEO