• by John Morabito , May 30, 2025

Search isn’t dead—it’s just moved.

We’re not in a Google-only world anymore—people don’t just “Google it” and call it a day. Discovery now happens across a messy mix of platforms—TikTok, Reddit, YouTube, even ChatGPT—and the way people search looks completely different than it did five years ago.

Everyone wants fast answers and content that feels personal—not polished. And more often than not, they’re turning to creators, not companies.

This isn’t some abstract trend either. TikTok is already being used as a search engine by 40% of Americans—and that number jumps to 64% for Gen Z. Even Google has admitted it’s losing ground with younger users in key categories like food, beauty, and travel.

That shift is loudest in beauty and CPG, where TikTok is now a primary search engine for younger consumers. We’re seeing it in the data: Search demand is up double digits year-over-year on TikTok, while Google demand is either flat or declining across key categories like skincare.

The takeaway for marketers? Search isn’t disappearing—it’s dispersing.

What It Means to "Show Up" Has Changed

Traditional SEO rewarded metadata and links. Social search rewards real-time engagement and authenticity. TikTok's algorithm surfaces content based not on how big your brand is, but how your video performs within its first 300 views. If your content hits a certain engagement threshold, it gets pushed wider. Anyone can win—brands included—if they play the game the right way.

But most brands aren’t. There’s still a belief that TikTok is for creators, not companies. That assumption has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. The brands that are seeing organic traction on TikTok today are the ones that show up and act like creators. They lead with educational, entertaining content and tap into what people are already searching for.

It’s not about chasing trends, but building visibility around demand clusters. Brands can show up meaningfully if they stop treating TikTok like a media channel and start treating it like a search engine.

Strategy Over Virality

This new search landscape doesn’t reward random acts of content. It rewards intentionality. That means understanding which creators are consistently ranking in your space (not just who has the most followers), what terms are trending across platforms, and how your organic content can be supported by your owned channels to earn early engagement.

Optimize for Both Discovery and Conversion

One of the biggest unlocks we’ve seen is the ability to double-dip: Many of the same queries that drive TikTok discovery also trigger short-form video results in Google. That creates an opportunity to win twice—once inside the TikTok app, and again when those videos surface on the SERP.

It also creates a flywheel effect. By driving early engagement, brands can kickstart visibility in TikTok’s algorithm.

A New Kind of SEO Mindset

Search is now a multiplatform, multiformat, multialgorithm puzzle. It requires a new kind of SEO mindset, one that blends content strategy, creator marketing, and platform-specific data to answer one simple question: Are we discoverable where people are actually looking?

The brands that answer “yes” won’t just be ahead on TikTok. They’ll be ahead, period