Search Everywhere Optimization
Search everywhere optimization is SEO stretched to every place people search and look things up: TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, Pinterest and AI tools as well as Google. Ashley Liddell of the UK agency Deviation says Deviation coined the name. SparkToro's Rand Fishkin credited Liddell in 2025 when he argued the industry should use it.
Source: Deviation, Search Everywhere (Optimisation), Ashley Liddell (February 14, 2026), checked October 29, 2026
What Search Everywhere Optimization means for your business
Fishkin's case was that SEOs already get asked about YouTube, Reddit, Pinterest and AI answers, so the letters can stay and the E can stand for everywhere. We like the idea more than the label, and we'd rather name the apps your buyers use.
You'll also see it called multi-platform presence or platform-native SEO. The habit behind it, people searching inside each app instead of going to Google first, is sometimes called native search behavior. Each app has its own search box and its own help pages on what it looks at, so we read those first instead of running one checklist everywhere. We'd expect a post written for Google to need reworking before it fits TikTok or LinkedIn.
We wouldn't try to be everywhere at once. We'd start with the places your buyers already look, which might be Google and Google Maps plus one or two apps, and get those right before adding more.
If you're not sure which apps your buyers search before they get in touch, we'd help you find out first.
Last reviewed October 29, 2026. All terms
How AI answers it today
On October 29, 2026, Google's AI Overview cited agency blogs, Quora, a LinkedIn article and Search Engine Land, and neither it nor ChatGPT said who coined the term. ChatGPT cited no sources and shortened the name to SEO.
Our run through ChatGPT and Google's AI Overview, October 29, 2026. A sample, not what every buyer sees.
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