Why Social Search Belongs in Your SEO Strategy

SEO has always been about one thing: showing up where people search. For most of the last two decades, that has meant Google. For the most part, it still does.

But search behavior has—and will continue to—fragment. Shoppers type queries into TikTok's search bar, look up tutorials on YouTube, and check Instagram for reviews before they buy. AI tools like ChatGPT add yet another place to ask. In beauty, where consumers want to see a product in action before buying it, this shift is especially visible.

So how much beauty search actually happens on social, and should SEOs be paying attention? To find out, we surveyed beauty consumers from our Glimmer community on how they search for, research, and buy beauty products, with an emphasis on LLMs and social search.

The top confirmation from our study: Google is still the #1 place beauty shoppers start. Forty-three percent of respondents go to Google first with a beauty question, more than Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok combined. But the other 57% start somewhere else, and social search shows up in every age group we surveyed, from 18 to 29 all the way to 60+.

This isn't a "Google is dead" post. Traditional search engines are still the foundation of SEO. But social platforms work as search engines too, and their content increasingly shows up inside Google's own results. That makes social search a subset of SEO worth its own focus. Below, we break down why social search belongs in your brand’s SEO strategy.

We shared a first look at these results in Search Engine Land. This post focuses on what they mean for SEO strategy.

WHERE BEAUTY CONSUMERS SEARCH

This is about searching, not scrolling, and that distinction matters.

This of-the-moment consumer understanding isn’t about how many users watch beauty content on their For You page. Rather, we are focused on active search intent, the same thing that SEO is built on.

TikTok shows how common that intent has become. Among consumers who use TikTok for beauty content, 95% use its search bar at least occasionally, and 46% use it often or always. Even across the full sample, including people who don't use TikTok at all, 61% have used TikTok search to find beauty content, and 60% have searched TikTok instead of Google at least occasionally.

Passive discovery happens too: 42% have bought a product from content they weren't searching for. But active search is the part that SEOs can optimize for, with the right keywords in the right places.

WHERE BEAUTY SHOPPERS GO FIRST

When respondents have a beauty question, where do they go?

Google: 43%
Instagram: 12%
YouTube: 11%
TikTok: 11%
ChatGPT or other AI tools: 10%

As mentioned earlier, Google wins the first click by a wide margin. But Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok together account for about a third of first searches.

Those platforms are also where beauty consumers spend their time. Sixty-seven percent turn to Instagram for beauty content, followed by YouTube (48%), TikTok (45%), Pinterest (31%) and Reddit (15%). And that habit isn't fading: 31% rely on social for beauty research more than they did two years ago, while 58% do so about as much.

The takeaway: Google is still the anchor. But social platforms are real search engines for a large share of beauty shoppers—a share that is growing.

PEOPLE SEARCH SOCIAL WITH INTENT, AT EVERY STAGE OF THE FUNNEL

What consumers search for on social says a lot about why they're there. Among respondents who search on TikTok, here's what they're looking for:

Product reviews: 53%
How-to tutorials: 44%
Product comparisons: 33%
Specific brand content: 30%
Dupes and alternatives: 27%
"Get ready with me" content: 23%
Ingredient information: 20%
Trends: 18%

This is known territory for beauty brands. Reviews and comparisons are investigation. Tutorials and ingredient questions are informational. Brand searches are navigational.

SOCIAL SEARCH SPANS THE FULL FUNNEL

Social is often framed as a top-of-funnel discovery channel. The data shows it's more than that. Reviews are the #1 thing people search for on TikTok, and comparisons are #3. Both usually happen after someone already has a product in mind.

That person might have found the product on TikTok and kept researching there. Or they might have heard about it from a friend, seen it in a store, or found it on Google, then gone to social to see what real people think. Consumers use social platforms to research and validate, not just to discover. That puts social search in the middle and bottom of the funnel, where purchase decisions are made.

SEARCH BEHAVIOR LOOKS A LOT LIKE GOOGLE

How users search on social also feels familiar. Forty-five percent type a short phrase, and 13% use one or two words. When the first results miss, 59% add more words to narrow the search. That's keyword refinement, the same behavior SEOs optimize for on Google.

THE BEST PLATFORM DEPENDS ON THE QUESTION

Consumers, of course, don't treat every platform the same. Which one they choose depends on what they want to know:

Ingredients: about two-thirds choose Google, compared with 8% for TikTok.
Skincare concerns: 53% choose Google, followed by TikTok (14%) and YouTube (12%).
Makeup tutorials: YouTube leads (31%), with TikTok close behind (27%).
Dupes and alternatives: the closest race, with Google at 40% and TikTok at 26%.

WHERE SOCIAL SEARCH TIES BACK INTO TRADITIONAL SEO

Here's where social search stops being a social-only concern. Google shows TikTok and YouTube videos in its own search results, and beauty shoppers notice.

Sixty-five percent of respondents have seen social videos in Google results. Thirty-one percent click on them often, and another 34% notice them but rarely click.

The younger the shopper, the more those results are clicked.

IF THE SERP SHOWS VIDEO, VIDEO IS PART OF YOUR SEO STRATEGY

Brands focused on SEO should pay close attention here. A video pack or social result on a target keyword's results page is Google showing you what it thinks answers that query. That makes video and social content part of the ranking picture.

So, winning that space isn't a separate social task. It's part of your brand’s SEO strategy for that keyword. If your brand doesn't have optimized video content for those queries, a competitor's TikTok or a creator's YouTube review will take that spot, and the click that comes with it.

A practical first step: check your priority keywords for video packs and social results. Wherever they appear, plan video content to win back those clicks.

WHERE SOCIAL SEARCH MEETS GEO AND AI SEARCH

Social content doesn't only show up on social platforms and in Google. AI tools like ChatGPT, Google's AI Overviews and AI Mode, Perplexity, and Gemini also pull from social and video content when they answer questions. YouTube in particular is frequently cited in AI Overviews.

That matters because beauty shoppers use AI. Sixty percent of respondents use AI tools at some point in their beauty research, and 10% go to AI first with a beauty question. Among 18-to-29-year-olds, AI ties or edges out Google as the first stop.

Trust in AI is still split. Fifteen percent rate AI tools as very trustworthy, while 28% say they're not trustworthy at all. Many shoppers cross-check what AI tells them, which brings them back to Google and to real reviews on social.

WHY SOCIAL CONTENT FEEDS AI ANSWERS

AI answers tend to reflect what many sources say consistently. Reviews and creator videos are where that consensus lives. When a brand's products are discussed, reviewed, and demonstrated across social platforms, there's more material for AI tools to draw on.

That's what makes social search such an efficient investment. One optimized video can appear in social search results, in a Google video pack, and in an AI-generated answer. That's three search surfaces from one asset, which is why social search belongs in your brand’s GEO strategy as well as your SEO strategy.

SOCIAL DISCOVERY STILL LEADS BACK TO GOOGLE

None of this means Google matters less. If anything, the survey shows how closely social and traditional search work together.

After finding a beauty product on TikTok, 72% of respondents search for it on Google next. Only 7% buy it right away in the app. And when TikTok or YouTube doesn't answer their question, 61% switch to Google.

Trust points the same way. Google search results are the second most trusted source for beauty information, rated very trustworthy by 30% of consumers. Only friends and family rank higher, at 53%. Creators trail well behind: 14% rate YouTube creators as very trustworthy, and TikTok creators score lower still.

That's why traditional SEO is still the foundation. Social often starts or extends the research, and Google is where many shoppers go to validate before they buy. If a shopper discovers your product on TikTok but can't find it on Google, you risk losing the sale at the validation step.

EVERY AGE GROUP SEARCHES ON SOCIAL

Social search isn't just a Gen Z behavior! At least a third of every age group uses Instagram and YouTube for beauty content, including those 60 and older (Instagram 33%, YouTube 36%). Even among people 60+, 37% have used TikTok search for beauty.

How much each group relies on social does vary:

Age group	Use TikTok search often or always	Go to Google first	Bought from TikTok or YouTube in last 6 months
18 to 29	32%	20%	56%
30s	34%	39%	60%
40s	21%	45%	43%
50s	20%	43%	34%
60+	8%	50%	17%

A few things stand out:

People in their 30s are the most active TikTok searchers, slightly ahead of 18 to 29. They're also the most likely to buy because of social: 60% made a social-driven beauty purchase in the last six months.
People in their 40s and 50s still search on social. About 1 in 5 use TikTok search often or always, and 43% of people in their 40s made a social-driven purchase.
Google's role grows with age, from 39% going there first in their 30s to 50% at 60+. For the 60+ group, YouTube, Instagram, and Pinterest matter far more than TikTok.

WHAT THIS MEANS FOR YOUR BRAND’S SEO STRATEGY

You don't need to rebuild your SEO program around social. But the data makes a strong case for adding social search to it. Here's where to start:

Keep traditional SEO as the foundation. Google is still the first stop for most beauty shoppers and where many of them validate before buying.
Check your priority keywords for video packs and social results. Where they appear, plan video content for those queries.
Add social keyword data to your existing keyword research. Look at what people search for on TikTok and YouTube alongside your Google data, instead of running a separate process.
Match platform to topic and audience. Google for ingredients and skincare concerns, YouTube for tutorials, TikTok for reviews and dupes, adjusted for the ages you're trying to reach.
Track social and AI visibility alongside organic rankings. Rankings on TikTok and YouTube, video pack presence, and AI citations all belong in your reporting.

What a full social search strategy looks like, from keyword research to optimization to measurement, deserves its own post. We'll cover that next.

SEARCH IS A WORLD OF YES, AND

Yes:

Google is still the most important search engine in beauty; traditional SEO is still the foundation.

And:

Beauty shoppers of every age type queries into TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram. They search for reviews, comparisons, and tutorials at every stage of the funnel. And the content they find there shows up in Google's results and in AI-generated answers too.

SEO has always been about showing up where people search. Today, that list is just a (lot!) longer.

Insights like these are why Stella Rising is the agency for beauty. Through Glimmer, our proprietary research community, we've always understood beauty consumers best, and we put that understanding at the core of every strategy, from paid to organic. It's how we help our clients shine. Want to see what that approach can do for your brand? Get in touch.

ABOUT THE SURVEY

We hosted the survey in July 2026 on Glimmer, Stella Rising's community of beauty consumers. We received 511 responses from people aged 18 to over 60.

The audience skews established. Ninety-seven percent of respondents are women, and the average age is 47.3. People in their 40s (33%) and 50s (26%) make up the largest groups, followed by those in their 30s (21%), 60+ (15%), and 18 to 29 (5%).

We see that skew as a strength. Most conversations about social search center on Gen Z. This is an audience of established, buying consumers, so when social search shows up here, it's hard to write off as a trend.

We asked about actual behavior, including: