Surprise: Reddit’s $60 Million Content Deal with Google

While users followed the multi-episode drama between Reddit and Google, speculations arose about whether Google would remove Reddit from its SERPs or if Reddit would block itself from being indexed in the SERPs. This stemmed from the controversy surrounding Reddit’s boost in search rankings after the August 2023 Core Update, which resulted in a spam dump that most searchers didn’t want anyway. 

And then, Reddit shocked everyone by selling its content to…guess who – Google!

Yes, even after almost one half of a year of public disagreements, Reddit sold its user content to Google for $60 million annually, specifically for AI training. 

Reactions from the SEO industry were swift.

The irony of irrelevant, old Reddit posts outranking Google's official announcement here pic.twitter.com/cCqiA0bCEk

— Lily Ray 😏 (@lilyraynyc) February 26, 2024

Google to use reddit to train #AI is such a terrible idea even redditors agree 💀 https://t.co/AGGroOYteS pic.twitter.com/htk43RhLbv

— Len (@lenraleigh) February 22, 2024

This news is also related to our recent SGE snippet research, which revealed Reddit to be one of the top sources appearing in SERPs. Reddit data is now being directly fed to Google; a clear signal that Reddit content will soon appear more in Google SERPs. Google likely would not have made such an investment if this wasn’t the case.
Anyway, who do you think is next in line for this data mining fair? Maybe Quora? Grab your seat and continue watching with us!

Written by

Anna Postol

Anna Postol is a content marketer at SE Ranking, where she finds joy in creating content for SEO, digital marketing, and social media. Her focus is on writing accurate, easy-to-digest, informative pieces that turn complex topics into engaging narratives that resonate with readers. Outside of work, she enjoys stretching exercises, workouts, planning her next travel adventure, and spending time with her beloved cat-daughter.