Amiga, Nobody Is Googling Anymore — Here's Where Your Audience Is Actually Looking For You

content strategy & growth
Written By Dominique Dros

Let me paint you a picture

Last year I asked the people in my WhatsApp creator community a simple question: when you want to find a recommendation for something — a product, a creator, a restaurant, a workout — where do you go first?

You know how many of them said Google? Almost none. They said TikTok. YouTube. Reddit. ChatGPT. Instagram. Some even said they ask in group chats before they would ever open a search engine.

And these are content creators — people who KNOW how the internet works. So imagine what your average audience member is doing.

If you are still optimizing only for Google, mi amor, you are optimizing for 2016. Let me catch you up.


Social media is the new search engine and I mean that literally

There are now over 5.66 billion social media users worldwide. Gen Z spends 54% more time per day on social platforms watching creator content compared to the average person, and they spend significantly less time on traditional TV and movies. They are not consuming less — they are consuming differently. And they are finding everything through social search.

For a lot of my audience — especially the younger creators I mentor — TikTok is their Google. They type a question into the TikTok search bar the way older generations type it into Google. And the results they get? Videos from real people. Creators. US.

Where people are actually searching in 2026

  • TikTok: Product reviews, recipes, travel spots, life advice, and 'is this worth it' content — this is the new search engine for under 30

  • YouTube: The place people go when they want the deep dive — tutorials, honest reviews, 'watch me do this' content

  • Reddit: Unsponsored, brutally honest opinions. If your product or name comes up on Reddit, it matters

  • AI chatbots like ChatGPT and Perplexity: People are literally asking AI to recommend creators in specific niches. This one changed the game for me

  • Instagram: Discovery for aesthetics, brands, vibes, and local finds

  • Newsletters and Substack: Where people go when they want expert curation they actually trust

When I stopped asking 'how do I rank on Google' and started asking 'how do I show up when my person is searching on TikTok or Instagram' — everything shifted. That question changed my entire content strategy.

What this means for how you create content

Every piece of content I make now, I ask myself: what question does this answer? Because that is how people find you now — they search a question and you show up as the answer.

Your video title, your caption, your hashtags, the actual words you SAY in your video — all of that is searchable. The creators who understand this are getting discovered by their perfect audience on autopilot. The ones who do not are wondering why their follower growth has stalled.

My personal tips for social SEO

  • Before you create anything, go search that topic on TikTok and YouTube to see what people are already asking

  • Put your keyword in the FIRST LINE of your caption — not buried at the bottom under 47 hashtags

  • Give your videos descriptive, specific titles like 'How I earned my first brand deal with under 5,000 followers' — not 'My creator journey part 8'

  • Answer the question in your first 5 seconds — this is what makes people stay AND what search algorithms love

  • Create content with chapters and clear structure — AI search engines reward clarity

The AI search layer that is changing everything

Here is the part that blew my mind when I learned it. When someone asks an AI tool to recommend a content creator in a specific niche, the AI is pulling from content it has learned from blog posts, podcasts, long-form articles. Creators who publish original, detailed, expert content are getting cited by AI tools to complete strangers.

That is a whole new way of being discovered that most creators are not thinking about yet. And it is one of the reasons I am so passionate about writing content like this long-form, original, specific because it works on every level of the new search landscape.

Start showing up where your people actually are

Google is not dead. But it is no longer the whole game. Your audience is searching on social, on AI, on video platforms. Show up there with intention, with keywords, with answers and let them find you where they are already looking. That is how you grow in 2026.


Written with love, honesty, and a lot of cafecito — from one creator to another

Dominique Dros
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