AI search glossary
Search everywhere optimization: SEO beyond Google, AI tools included
Search everywhere optimization is the practice of making a brand and its content easy to find on every platform its audience uses to search, including web search, video and social platforms, marketplaces, app stores and AI assistants, rather than on Google alone.
Also called: search everywhere optimisation, SEOx, search everywhere
Why it matters for AI search
AI assistants are one of the places people now search, and they also read the other places. When an engine answers a buying question it often cites forum threads, videos, marketplace listings and review sites alongside brand websites. Being present and accurate across those platforms gives the engine more sources that mention you, which is why the idea overlaps so closely with generative engine optimization.
How search everywhere optimization works
The idea is simple: people do not only search on Google. They search YouTube for how-to videos, Reddit for honest opinions, marketplaces for products, app stores for tools and, more and more, AI assistants for recommendations. Search everywhere optimization treats each of those as a search engine with its own ranking rules and asks whether you show up in each one your buyers use.
Michigan Tech's marketing team describes it, sometimes shortened to SEOx, as making sure your content is easy to find in all of these places and not just on traditional search engines. Its list of channels covers web search, app store optimization, ecommerce search, social and video search, AI and LLMs, voice search, local search and niche platforms.
Where the term came from
Rand Fishkin of SparkToro wrote in May 2025 that Ashley Liddell of Deviation coined the term. Fishkin's point was that the industry did not need a new acronym for AI: SEO could stay SEO, with the meaning widened to influence audiences in all the places they consume content about a topic. We have not seen a dated original from Liddell, so this page relies on Fishkin's attribution.
What it means for AI search
AI search is both a channel in this model and a reader of the others. When an assistant searches the web before answering, the pages it retrieves are often not brand sites: they are comparison articles, forum threads, video pages and marketplace listings. A brand that is discussed accurately in those places gives the engine more independent sources to draw on. A brand that exists only on its own website gives it one.
How to put it to work
- List the five or six places your buyers search before buying. Ask customers, check referral data, read sales call notes.
- Search your category on each one and note who shows up and who is missing.
- Fit content to each platform: titles and descriptions for video, honest participation for forums, complete listings for marketplaces.
- Keep basic facts (name, pricing, what you do) consistent everywhere, so engines do not find conflicting versions.
- Ask AI assistants your buyers' questions and see which of those platforms they cite.
Related ideas
The AI-specific slice of this is generative engine optimization. Forum presence is covered in Reddit SEO, and the off-site signal it builds is brand mentions.
Questions
- Who coined search everywhere optimization?
- In a May 2025 SparkToro post, Rand Fishkin credits Ashley Liddell of the agency Deviation with coining the term. We have not found a dated original source from Liddell, so treat that as Fishkin's attribution.
- Is search everywhere optimization different from SEO?
- It keeps the SEO acronym on purpose. Fishkin's argument is that SEO should mean influencing audiences everywhere they look for content on a topic, instead of inventing new acronyms for each platform. The tactics differ per platform; the goal is the same.
- How does it relate to GEO and AEO?
- Generative and answer engine optimization focus on AI answers. Search everywhere optimization is broader and treats AI assistants as one channel among several, next to Google, YouTube, Reddit, app stores and marketplaces.
- Do I need to be on every platform?
- No. Michigan Tech's guide advises mapping where your customers actually search and focusing on those platforms rather than trying to cover every new one.