From “Search Engine” to “Search Everywhere”
Southeast-Asian consumers no longer search in one place — they search everywhere.
They ask TikTok before Google, YouTube before a brand website, and increasingly, ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Gemini before typing a single keyword.
According to Datareportal (2025), Southeast Asia now has over 480 million social-media users.
- TikTok usage exceeds 41% of total internet users in Indonesia.
- YouTube remains the region’s most-used platform, reaching over 95% of internet users in many markets.¹
And the new layer is here: AI search.
Google’s AI Overviews, rolled out globally in 2025, already reach 2 billion monthly users, while ChatGPT’s web traffic has surpassed 1.6 billion visits per month (TechCrunch, 2025; SimilarWeb, 2025).² ³
The implication is clear: Visibility is no longer about ranking on one list. It’s about being present and understood across all the places consumers go to discover answers.
Defining Search Everywhere Optimisation (SEO 2.0)
Search Everywhere Optimisation (SEO 2.0) expands the old definition of search to cover every platform and tool where consumers ask questions, browse, or generate answers.
It combines:
- 🤖 Structured Data: Making brand information machine-readable (Google Search Central: Structured Data, n.d.).
- 🗣️ Conversational Content: Creating human-sounding, question-led copy that feeds both voice and generative AI queries.
- 🌐 Platform-Native Presence: Ensuring consistent, optimized representation across TikTok, YouTube, Reddit, and AI assistants like ChatGPT and Perplexity.
At its core, Search Everywhere Optimisation ensures a brand is findable, recognizable, and quotable — whether the question is typed, spoken, or generated.
Why This Matters in Southeast Asia
Southeast Asia is a mobile-first, multi-platform region.
- 74.6% of Indonesians are online (about 212 million people), spending an average of 8 hours and 36 minutes online daily (Datareportal, 2025).¹
- 38% of mobile users in Indonesia already use voice search regularly (GWI, 2024).⁴
- TikTok’s search feature is now used by more than 40% of Gen Z globally to find restaurants and products (Google I/O, 2023).⁵
For marketers, this means the discovery journey rarely begins on Google anymore. A user might watch a “how-to” video on YouTube, check for real opinions on Reddit, and finally ask ChatGPT for a summarized recommendation.
If your brand isn’t engineered to appear in each of these touchpoints, you’re effectively invisible.
Practical Framework for Search Everywhere Optimisation
Drawing from the AVO (AI Visibility Optimization) methodology, a framework designed to make a brand the citable, authoritative source for AI-driven answer engines, here’s how marketers can apply a “Search Everywhere” mindset:
| Layer | Goal | Actions | Example KPI |
|---|---|---|---|
| Structured Data | Make brand info machine-readable | Implement Organization, Person, FAQPage, and VideoObject schema; use sameAs links to TikTok, YouTube, etc. | Schema validation rate ≥ 95% |
| Conversational Content | Match how users ask | Rewrite articles and FAQs using natural-language questions (“how,” “why,” “what is the best…”) | FAQ engagement ↑ ; featured-answer share |
| Platform Presence | Extend visibility | Optimize TikTok captions, YouTube transcripts, and Reddit AMAs with entity-linked keywords | Cross-platform brand mentions ↑ |
| AI Readiness | Be the cited answer | Build entity profiles (Wikidata, GBP), link SMEs with bios and credentials | Inclusion in AI Overviews / Perplexity citations |
This system ensures discoverability across traditional search, social discovery, and generative interfaces.
The Near Future: AI Search at 25 – 50% Share
By late 2026, analysts expect AI-assisted queries to represent 25 – 50% of global search activity, driven by integrations across Google, Bing Copilot, ChatGPT Search, and emerging local engines (Pew Research Center, 2025; Search Engine Land, 2025).² ⁶
For Southeast Asia, where mobile usage and conversational interfaces dominate, the shift may be even faster.
AI will no longer be an optional channel — it will become the layer that interprets every other one.
The Takeaway for Marketers
Search is no longer a department; it’s a distributed discipline.
Your brand must be present wherever discovery happens, and your content must speak both to humans and machines.
To thrive in 2026 and beyond:
- Treat schema and structured data as core marketing assets.
- Create answer-first content — not clickbait, but clarity.
- Diversify visibility — YouTube, TikTok, Reddit, LinkedIn, ChatGPT.
- Measure Entity Lift and Answer Share, not just traffic.
- Aim to be the cited source, not just the top link.
Because in the new landscape of Search Everywhere, the brands that are understood will outrank the ones that are merely seen.
References (Public Sources)
- Datareportal (2025). Digital 2025: Indonesia and SEA Overview.
- TechCrunch (2025). Google’s AI Overviews reach 2 Billion users.
- SimilarWeb (2025). ChatGPT Statistics.
- GWI (2024). Voice Search Usage in Indonesia.
- Google I/O (2023). How Gen Z Searches Now.
- Pew Research Center (2025). Users click traditional links 8% with AI summaries vs 15% without.
