The Google Trap is Over: The New Way to Reach Customers

The Outdated Playbook: Why Traditional Marketing is Failing

For a long time, the name of the game for businesses was all about Google. The focus was on getting to the top of the search results, fine-tuning your website’s words, and getting other sites to link back to you. I mean, it made perfect sense, if you weren’t on Google, you practically didn’t exist online.

But that whole approach is no longer as effective as it once was. Even if you’re winning at Google, you could still be missing out on customers. It’s a real paradox I’ve seen happen over and over. The simple truth is, we’ve been so focused on being visible in one place that we missed our customers making their actual decisions somewhere else. People aren’t searching the old way anymore. A surprising amount of search activity, something like 73% of it, happens outside of Google. That’s on social media, retail sites, forums, and even in AI chatbots. So while businesses are still trying to get that top Google spot, their customers are actually making choices and validating their purchases on a bunch of different platforms. It’s like you’re playing yesterday’s game while everyone else is playing a new one.

The New Consumer Journey: A Constellation of Micro-Decisions

The biggest reason that the old marketing playbook is failing is because the way we buy things has completely changed. People aren’t just following a simple, straight path anymore. Instead, it’s become this “constellation of micro-decisions” that happen all over the place.

Imagine this: someone sees a new product on TikTok, which piques their interest based on how it makes them feel. Then, they hop over to Amazon to read real-world reviews, looking for social proof and trust. After that, they might jump on a Reddit thread to see what unbiased people are saying about it. They might even ask an AI chatbot like ChatGPT for recommendations or alternatives. And all of this can happen in minutes, without them ever visiting the brand’s main website.

This is the new reality. Each platform now serves a different, very specific purpose in our decision-making process:

• TikTok is for feeling, it’s about emotion and novelty.
• YouTube is for learning, it’s where people go to gain expertise and see proof.
• Reddit is for trusting, it’s where you find honest, unfiltered opinions.
• Amazon is for buying, it’s about social proof and checking reviews.
• ChatGPT is for believing, it’s where people go for clear, factual information and recommendations.

The most important thing to remember is that these aren’t sequential steps. They’re all happening at the same time, and if you’re not a part of those moments, no matter how great your Google ranking is, you’re missing the most important part of the conversation.

The New Solution: Search Everywhere Optimization

So, what’s the fix for this? The old playbook isn’t cutting it, and you can’t just be everywhere at once. The answer is something called “Search Everywhere Optimization.” It’s a way of thinking about search that’s a whole lot bigger than just Google. Instead of trying to get found on one search engine, you focus on getting chosen across the entire internet.

This doesn’t mean you have to be posting on every single platform every single day. That would be exhausting and probably not very effective. It’s really about having a purposeful presence. You need to understand that when a person asks an AI model like ChatGPT for a recommendation, your brand needs to be mentioned in that answer. When someone scrolls through Reddit looking for honest thoughts, your company should be part of the conversation. And when they are on Amazon checking products, your reviews need to be visible and trustworthy.

The old way of thinking was that marketing was a one-stop game with a single set of rules. This new approach recognizes that every platform is its own mini-universe, with its own logic and its own way that people make choices. You can’t just copy and paste a blog post to LinkedIn and call it a day. What works on TikTok will fail on Amazon, and what works on Reddit will flop on YouTube. You need a specific approach for each one. That’s the real shift: it’s not about doing more; it’s about being present where it truly counts.

The Key Difference: From Visibility to Validation

This brings us to a really important point that trips up most marketers. A lot of people think that simply being visible is the same as being successful. They see their content getting views, their posts getting likes, and they think they’re winning. But visibility is just the entry fee. What actually drives decisions is something else entirely: validation.

Think about the difference.

• Visibility is what you do. It’s having a TikTok account or ranking on Google.
• Validation is what others say about what you do. It’s having a person reference your brand in their own TikTok video, or being mentioned by ChatGPT when someone asks for recommendations.

Validation is what truly matters, especially now. AI models don’t scroll through search results the way we do. They summarize, and they do it based on who gets mentioned the most and is trusted the fastest. If your brand isn’t part of that conversation, if you aren’t being talked about in Reddit threads, reviewed on Amazon, or cited in articles, then you just won’t show up in the AI’s decision-making process.

This is why the new approach focuses on earning trust signals across different platforms, not just on making more content. In a world where AI is increasingly making recommendations for people, being trustworthy isn’t just good business, it’s the only way to stay relevant.

How to Start: The RICE Framework

So, after all of this, you might be thinking, “This sounds overwhelming. Do I really need to be everywhere?” The answer is no, and that’s the best part. The goal isn’t to be all over the internet; it’s about having a smart, targeted presence.

A simple framework you can use to figure out where to start is called RICE. It helps you decide which platforms to put your focus on:

• R is for Reach: How many people are actually using that platform every day?
• I is for Impact: How much could this platform help your business grow?
• C is for Confidence: How sure are you that you can succeed there?
• E is for Ease: How simple is it for you to get started and keep going?

You can give each of these a score to help you pick your top two or three platforms to begin with. Maybe your focus is on getting mentioned in Reddit threads and becoming a go-to source for AI models. Or maybe you’ll dominate Amazon reviews and Youtube.

The whole point is to be woven into the fabric of how decisions get made in your specific field. Your competitors are likely still stuck in the old way of thinking. This gives you a massive chance to get ahead by playing the new game while everyone else is still focused on the old rules. Start with just one platform outside of Google that matters most to your customers, and focus on earning trust there before you try to expand anywhere else.