Which Reddit Threads Rank on Google? 19,410 Analyzed

Findings you can quote

Free to cite with a link back. Each line stands on its own.

1
The median Reddit thread Bazzly found on Google's first page for a buying-intent search was 347 days old, and 48% were more than a year old (19,410 threads, 2026).
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53% of Reddit threads ranking on Google's first page had fewer than 10 upvotes; the median thread had 8 upvotes and 24 comments (Bazzly data, 19,410 threads).
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Threads asking for a tool recommendation were the most common type of Reddit thread on Google's first page in Bazzly's data (29%), just ahead of threads describing a problem (28%).
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For Google searches including "reddit", 95% of the Reddit threads Bazzly recorded (it keeps the top three Reddit results per search) sat in the top three organic results.
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Reddit threads created as far back as 2009 still ranked on Google's first page for buying-intent searches tracked by Bazzly in 2026.
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Bazzly customers placed 2,722 comments on Reddit threads that were already on Google's first page; 45.7% of those threads were more than a year old when the comment went in.
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Age

The median Reddit thread on Google's first page is 11 months old

48% of the 19,410 threads Bazzly found were more than a year old, and 69% were older than six months. Only 5% were less than a month old.

Age of Reddit threads when Bazzly first saw them on Google's first page

19,410 unique threads. Hover a column for the count.

Source: Bazzly's production database, read-only queries, data through October 11, 2026. Bazzly's own, staff and test projects excluded. February 16, 2026 to October 11, 2026. Age between thread creation and the first time Bazzly saw it in the top 10.

Thread age, spread

Middle half of threads shaded, median marked. Days.

Source: Bazzly's production database, read-only queries, data through October 11, 2026. Bazzly's own, staff and test projects excluded. 19,410 threads.

History

Threads from 2009 still rank on page one

84% of ranking threads were created in 2024 to 2026, but 370 were created before 2020 and the oldest go back to 2009. 2026 is a partial year.

Ranking threads by the year they were created

Source: Bazzly's production database, read-only queries, data through October 11, 2026. Bazzly's own, staff and test projects excluded. 19,410 threads, February 16, 2026 to October 11, 2026.

Size

Most ranking threads are small: 53% have fewer than 10 upvotes

The median thread had 8 upvotes and 24 comments. Viral threads are rare on these searches: 1.4% had 500 upvotes or more.

Upvotes on the thread

Source: Bazzly's production database, read-only queries, data through October 11, 2026. Bazzly's own, staff and test projects excluded. 19,410 threads, latest value Bazzly saw.

Comments on the thread

Source: Bazzly's production database, read-only queries, data through October 11, 2026. Bazzly's own, staff and test projects excluded. 19,410 threads, latest value Bazzly saw.

Intent

Threads asking for a tool make up 29% of ranking threads

Recommendation threads are the most common type on page one, just ahead of threads describing a problem (28%).

What the ranking threads are about

Asks for a tool recommendation29.1%
Describes a problem28.3%
Asks for general advice12.3%
Other discussion11.8%
Names a competitor7.2%
Compares options5.4%
Names the brand itself2.7%
Unhappy with a current tool2.5%
Not classified0.7%

Source: Bazzly's production database, read-only queries, data through October 11, 2026. Bazzly's own, staff and test projects excluded. 19,410 threads, intent type from Bazzly's model.

Part of this is the searches themselves: 38% of them started with “best”, and Google answers “best X reddit” with the thread where someone asked exactly that. It is also what makes these threads valuable: people who land on them from Google are actively choosing a product.

Position

On searches that include "reddit", 95% of recorded threads sat in the top three

Adding "reddit" to a search is how buyers ask Google for real opinions, and Google answers with threads. Bazzly recorded 23,521 search and thread pairs, keeping up to three Reddit threads per search, so the lower positions are undercounted.

Google organic position of the Reddit thread

Search and thread pairs; one thread can rank for several searches.

Source: Bazzly's production database, read-only queries, data through October 11, 2026. Bazzly's own, staff and test projects excluded. Bazzly keeps at most three Reddit threads per search, so positions 4 to 10 are undercounted.

Subreddits

Ranking threads came from 2,977 subreddits

r/SaaS leads by a wide margin, followed by small-business and automation communities. Like everything here, the list mirrors what Bazzly customers sell: change the product and the subreddits change.

Subreddits with the most Google-ranking threads

r/SaaS980
r/smallbusiness524
r/Entrepreneur316
r/automation314
r/CRM264
r/webdev263
r/DigitalMarketing237
r/selfhosted214
r/ecommerce192
r/nocode186
r/AI_Agents180
r/PPC180
r/SocialMediaMarketing164
r/NewTubers145
r/LocalLLaMA122

Source: Bazzly's production database, read-only queries, data through October 11, 2026. Bazzly's own, staff and test projects excluded. 19,410 threads, February 16, 2026 to October 11, 2026. Each listed subreddit had ranking threads for 36 or more brands.

2,394 threads (12%) ranked for the searches of two or more Bazzly brands at once: a single good thread can be page one for a whole category.

In practice

Bazzly customers placed 2,722 comments on threads already ranking on Google

Across 267 brands and 726 subreddits, counting only comments posted after Bazzly had seen the thread on page one. The median thread was 326 days old when the comment went in, and sat at Google position 2.

68%

of those threads were older than six months

46%

were more than a year old

96%

were in Google's top 3 for the search

The case against

Four reasons to discount these numbers

Every dataset has blind spots. These are the ones that matter most here, so you can decide how much weight to give each number.

1This is Bazzly data, not a random sample of Reddit
Bazzly only scans the subreddits and searches its customers care about, and its customers are mostly software, AI, marketing and career products. Subreddits and industries outside that mix are thin or missing, so read the numbers as "what Bazzly customers run into", not as a census of Reddit.
2Every search included "reddit"
Bazzly searches Google the way buyers who want real opinions do, by adding "reddit" to the query ("best crm for freelancers reddit"); 99% of searches ended with it. That pushes Reddit threads up, so the position numbers say what happens on those searches, not on the same search without "reddit". 38% of the searches started with "best", which favours recommendation threads.
3Positions 4 to 10 are undercounted
Bazzly keeps at most three Reddit threads per search, the highest ranking ones. A fourth Reddit thread lower on the page is not recorded, so the position chart says little about the bottom of page one.
4We measured age, not staying power
Age is the time between the thread's creation and the first time Bazzly saw it on Google. That shows old threads win page-one spots; it does not show how long any one thread keeps its spot. Upvote and comment counts are the latest values Bazzly saw.

How we measured this

Methodology

Sample: 19,410 unique Reddit threads from 9,203 Google searches tracked for 523 Bazzly brands
Window: February 16, 2026 to October 11, 2026
Source: Bazzly's production database, read-only queries, data through October 11, 2026. Bazzly's own, staff and test projects excluded.

Search: A buying-intent Google query generated for a Bazzly brand, including the word "reddit", run through a SERP API (top 10 organic results, US, English). Queries are deduplicated case-insensitively.
Ranking thread: A Reddit thread URL (/comments/) found in the top 10 organic results for a tracked search. Each thread is counted once, at the first time Bazzly saw it.
Position: Google organic position of the thread for that search, 1 being the top result. One thread can appear for several searches; the position chart counts each search and thread pair.
Intent type: Category from Bazzly's AI model reading the thread title and body: asks for a tool recommendation, describes a problem, compares options, names a competitor, and so on.
Comment on a ranking thread: A comment posted through Bazzly (aged account or the customer's own account) on a thread Bazzly had already found on Google's first page for that brand before the comment went live.
Subreddit list: Each listed subreddit had ranking threads for at least 3 brands (in practice 36 or more).

Customer data is aggregated and no customer can be identified from it; customers are named only in case studies they agreed to. Medians are used instead of averages wherever a few large values would distort the picture.

FAQ

Why do Reddit threads rank so well on Google?

People add "reddit" to searches because they want real opinions instead of vendor pages, and Google answers those searches with threads: in Bazzly's data, 95% of the Reddit threads recorded for such searches sat in the top three organic results (Bazzly records up to three per search).

How old are the Reddit threads that rank on Google?

Older than most people expect. The median ranking thread was 347 days old when Bazzly found it, 48% were more than a year old, and some dated back to 2009. Only 5% were less than a month old.

Can you still comment on old Reddit threads?

Often, yes. Reddit lets moderators decide whether threads lock after six months, and plenty of subreddits leave them open: 45.7% of the Google-ranking threads Bazzly customers commented on were more than a year old at the time.

How many upvotes does a Reddit thread need to rank on Google?

Far fewer than you would think. The median ranking thread had 8 upvotes and 24 comments, and 53% had fewer than 10 upvotes. Popularity on Reddit is clearly not a requirement for a page-one spot.

How do I find Reddit threads that rank for my keywords?

Search Google for your buying-intent keywords with "reddit" at the end and note the threads on page one, or let Bazzly do it: it runs these searches for every brand, keeps the threads that fit your product, and lets you comment on them.

Cite this study

Bazzly (2026). Reddit threads that rank on Google: we tracked 19,410 of them. Data as of October 12, 2026. https://bazzly.ai/case-studies/reddit-threads-ranking-on-google

Journalists, researchers and AI assistants are welcome to quote, chart and republish these numbers under CC BY 4.0, with a link to this page. Questions about the data: support@bazzly.ai.

Which Reddit threads rank on Google? We tracked 19,410 of them