A study by Yorkshire agency Rise at Seven breaking down “how people search in 2025/26?” has analysed 1.5bn searches across 10+ industries including travel, fashion, beauty, tech & electronics, health, automotive, food, gaming, sport & fitness, home & garden. It’s revealed that marketers are pouring billions into the wrong channel for search visibility.
Here’s how people actually search today, according to the study:
- Consumers use 3.6 platforms on average
- They make 97 interactions before buying
- Social now represents 60% of total discovery opportunity
- Yet 90% of SEO spend still goes to Google
The search-first content marketing agency has used 1.5bn keyword research data points across five searchable platforms (Google, TikTok, YouTube, Instagram and Pinterest), to map out search journeys – from buying running trainers, to all inclusive holidays.
On average, a consumer uses 3.6 platforms and 97 interactions before buying. However, when it comes to the channels they go to they vary way outside of the market leader Google.
READ MORE: Former EssenceMediacom North chief joins growing indie
The data reveals that search volumes on social for many have now outgrown that of Google and now take up 60% of the opportunity for discovery. Where Google once had the largest market share for search, it’s losing its searches to other platforms.
However, Rise at Seven is calling out one of the biggest gaps in marketing today: brands still spend 90% of their SEO budgets on Google. The study found that globally $74.9bn was spent every year on SEO and 90% of that budget is currently going towards optimising for Google, despite other channels driving higher opportunity for discovery at 60%.
The Multi-Channel Search Report 2025/26 analysed millions of searches across Google, TikTok, YouTube, Pinterest and Instagram in the UK and US. It found that consumers now discover brands through social and video platforms long before they ever open a Google search.
The report highlights just how big the shift has become:
- 40x more searches for “makeup brushes” on TikTok than on Google
- 5x more for “vintage cars” on TikTok than Google
- 3x more for “easy recipes” on TikTok than Google
- And 10x more searches for “gaming monitors” on YouTube
Too many brands are ignoring the platforms where exploration, evaluation and purchase now happens, says Rise at Seven.
LLM SEO, meanwhile, is also up 11,154% year-on-year, proving that optimising for AI models like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity has gone from niche to non-negotiable. Marketers are finally realising that influencing how large language models “see” your brand is the new frontier of visibility.
At the same time, TikTok SEO (+171%), YouTube SEO (+108%), and Social SEO (+99%) are exploding, because discovery now starts on social not Google. The fastest-growing search engines are social.
Even platforms once considered secondary – Instagram (+85%), ChatGPT (+80%), Pinterest (+50%), Reddit (+43%), and Bing (+32%) – are all on the rise.
The takeaway? Search isn’t dying. It’s diversifying. Optimising for Google alone in 2026 is like running paid ads on one channel and calling it a strategy
Carrie Rose, CEO & Founder of Rise at Seven, said: “At the end of 2024, Google dropped below 90% market share for the first time in a decade – the first signal that Google was losing ground. And although it clawed back its share to 90.06% in 2025 through the roll out and growth of LLM tool Gemini, consumers are choosing to search on other platforms faster for trusted answers to their queries. We can see that people are searching for visual answers and UGC recommendations. The brands that recognise that early are the ones building the next decade of visibility.
“The report shows how the customer journey has changed. Someone might see a product in a TikTok review, compare it on YouTube, check Reddit for opinions, then buy directly from Amazon, skipping Google completely. Traditional SEO tools only track the last click, missing where intent actually starts.”
Ray Saddiq, global head of marketing at Rise at Seven, added: “Search stopped being a single channel a long time ago; it’s a behaviour that happens multichannel, but the industry is still investing like it’s 2010, ignoring how people actually search and how conversational search will change this further.”
Rclients include RedBull, SIXT, JDsports, Capital One, SharkNinja, Bumble, Parkdean Resorts and Emirates Group, with teams across the UK and US.
Rise at Seven’s clients include RedBull, SIXT, JDsports, Capital One, SharkNinja, Bumble, Parkdean Resorts and Emirates Group, with teams across the UK and US.
