The compounding impact has been impressive. Everything the Foundation team has built over the last year is still working for us.
– Tara Robertson, Chief Marketing Officer, Bitly
At a Glance
- Bitly had strong brand recognition and an existing presence across third-party sources. However, there was an opportunity to build a more intentional and consistent presence, particularly across Reddit and other sources influencing search, AI recommendations, and buyer research.
- When buyers searched for link shorteners or QR code tools, the answers came from sources Bitly didn’t write and couldn’t control.
- Foundation built a Reddit-first GEO program: a credibility-earned account, native content engineered to rank and be cited, and a brand-owned subreddit Bitly controls outright.
- During the 12-month engagement, Bitly’s citation share for link shorteners grew to 11.7%, nearly double the next competitor, supported by an integrated program spanning on-site content, Reddit, and YouTube.
- 130+ live Reddit URLs working as evergreen assets, with referral sessions growing from 178 to 930 (up 422%) and engaged sessions increasing from 98 to 426 (up 335%).
The Challenge
Bitly was navigating a shift many brands are experiencing today. Instead of typing “best URL shortener” into Google and scanning ten blue links, buyers were turning to two key discovery channels for answers:
- Community platforms and forums that include unfiltered experiences and product feedback from Bitly users.
- LLMs like ChatGPT, Perplexity, and Gemini that pull from a wide range of sources using the query fan-out
So, whether someone was using traditional or AI search to ask about link shorteners, QR codes, or click tracking, the response was assembled from sources Bitly didn’t own: Reddit threads, YouTube videos, review aggregators, and third-party tools. They needed to expand their influence to the off-site sources that algorithms and buyers trust.
As one of the most highly-cited domains by Google and LLMs, Reddit was the obvious first step. But Reddit punishes brands that show up looking promotional, so the standard B2B marketing playbook wasn’t going to work.
The Insight
Two ideas drove how we approached the engagement.
- Reddit is the trusted source for both search and generative engines: A single well-built Reddit thread can rank in Google for a high-intent query and get cited by ChatGPT for the same query, then compound in value as it ages. One asset, three forms of visibility, with no recurring ad cost to keep it alive.
- AI citations and answer mentions are the new SERP rankings: When a buyer asks an AI tool which product to use, the brands named in the answer make the consideration set while the ones left out disappear from it. Winning AI search is about being the source models pull from, not chasing clicks that Reddit suppresses by design.
The job-to-be-done was to earn authority on Reddit, publish content engineered to rank and be cited, and claim a corner of the platform Bitly could control. And finally, measure the thing that compounds, which is the share of AI citations, rather than referral sessions.
The Strategy
We built an organic Reddit GEO engine with four working parts, designed to turn community presence into durable AI search visibility:
- Earned-Authority Account: A dedicated, human-run Reddit account built from 0 to 1,472 karma over 12 months across 450 contributions in 48 subreddits, clearing moderation gates in r/marketing, r/webdev, and r/SocialMedia Marketing. This led to credibility that enabled the content to survive where promotional posts get removed.
- GEO Content: Native Reddit posts written to rank in Google and to be cited by LLMs, targeting the exact high-intent queries buyers use when they research link and QR code tools.
- A Brand-Owned Subreddit: A revived branded subreddit turned into a controlled, indexed library of evergreen content that competitors and outside moderators can’t take down.
- GEO Measurement Infrastructure: Continuous citation tracking across ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and other LLMs, so that the program is optimized against AI visibility rather than vanity metrics.
Key Actions
Established account credibility:
Reddit is a closed ecosystem where unestablished accounts get filtered as spam. We spent the early weeks earning standing through non-promotional participation, growing our primary account by 1,500 karma and gaining access to competitive subreddits like r/marketing, r/webdev, and r/SocialMediaMarketing. Every later result on the program ran on that foundation.
Published native content engineered for search and AI:
We produced in-depth, genuinely useful posts on the topics buyers actually search, optimized for search indexing and AI visibility rather than upvotes alone. Individual threads now rank for 19 to 34 keywords each, feeding referral traffic and citations.
Repurposed existing content into Reddit-friendly assets:
We took content Bitly had already created, reshaped it for Reddit, and let Reddit’s domain authority do ranking work that a standalone blog post would need months to earn. One repurposed post reached position 6 in Google for “what is a vanity url,” a keyword with 7,600 monthly searches.
Grew a branded subreddit into an owned channel:
A dormant subreddit with 38 members became an active content hub with a published library of posts and comments, growing organic visitors week over week.
Maintained a daily, non-promotional presence:
Reactive commenting, advice, and community support made sure the account was seen as a participant, not a marketer, which is what makes future posts more likely to surface and be cited.
Ran a paid Reddit pilot to amplify the organic work:
A paid campaign reinforced the organic presence by reaching users already in category conversations. Reddit’s own business team featured the results as a published success story.
The Execution
Month 0; Strategy Work: This meant community analysis, content-market fit, SERP analysis, and a community-based distribution plan.
Months 1 to 3; Retainer Launches: At this point, the account went active, karma building began, first posts went live, and a referral baseline of 327 sessions was set.
Month 6; Scope Expansion: At this stage, we added GEO and LLM reporting and ramped up our production cadence and branded subreddit publishing. We also launched a paid Reddit pilot alongside the organic work.
Month 10; Measurement and Optimization: Here, our primary KPI became AI search visibility, with supporting metrics for authorship, community growth, and subreddit engagement.
Month 12; Move to a New Channel: With Reddit compounding, YouTube became the next target as a second GEO surface. Strategy and content planning are complete and we are moving to production at the time of publishing.
The Results
Within 12 months, the program delivered on:
- Bitly held the #1 QR code visibility position in AI answers at 27.3%, ahead of Google, Canva, Adobe, and Eventbrite.
- Category citation share for link shorteners grew to 11.7% citation share, nearly double the next competitor, alongside the integrated program’s ramp across Reddit and YouTube.
- 8 r/Bitly threads we published are now cited directly in Google AI Overviews, with 4 holding position #1 and assets we created showing up as sources in AI answers.
- 130+ live Reddit URLs working as evergreen assets in both search and AI answers.
- 430K+ views across published content, with individual threads ranking for 19 to 34 keywords each.
- Our Reddit content holds 41 top-3 keyword rankings in Google, up from 28, with 86.6% of ranking keywords on page 1, driving 2,010 organic monthly visits (2x the prior quarter).
- 4.6x increase in subreddit members and grew monthly post views to 35,000, with weekly organic visitors more than doubling the program target.
- Reddit referral traffic to bitly.com grew from 178 to 930 sessions, and engaged traffic increased from 98 to 426, confirming the traffic arriving to the site was qualified and interested in Bitly’s product.
The compounding impact has been impressive. Everything the Foundation team has built over the last year is still working for us, and the huge jump in Reddit referrals on top of the citation gains shows it’s not slowing down.
– Tara Robertson, Chief Marketing Officer, Bitly
Why It Worked
By focusing our Reddit strategy on establishing trust with people and algorithms, we were able to transform Bitly’s brand authority into search and AI visibility. This success was rooted in a few key principles:
We respected the platform:
The account earned its standing through real contribution, so its content survived in places where promotional posts get removed. Authority on Reddit is built, never bought.
One asset, multiple surfaces:
Each post was optimized for Redditors, Google, and LLMs at once. A single thread could rank, drive referral traffic, and get cited in AI answers, then compound over time as engagement signals accumulated.
We measured what compounds:
Moving off referral clicks and onto citation share aligned the metric with the actual goal, getting Bitly named when buyers ask AI which tool to use. It also removed the pressure that pushes Reddit programs into spam territory.
We built an owned community on prime real estate:
The branded subreddit is an asset Bitly controls. As it grows past Reddit’s visibility thresholds, the platform surfaces it more in search, compounding the GEO footprint and reducing reliance on subreddits Bitly doesn’t own.
We moved early on AI citations:
Recognizing that LLMs treat high-ranking Reddit content as authoritative, we positioned Bitly as a reference in AI answers before competitors started competing for the same space.
Most importantly, none of this works without a solid partnership with a brand that embraces experimentation.
Bitly backed a Reddit-first program when most B2B companies treat the platform as a liability, and committed to a persona account instead of a safe corporate handle. When the data pointed toward citation share over referral clicks, the team moved with us rather than defending the metric they already knew. They turned reviews around fast and shared context generously. More than that, they trusted the program enough to let us experiment before the results were guaranteed. Good GEO needs a brand willing to learn in public, and Bitly was that from day one.
Your Turn
We built Bitly’s presence by first establishing account credibility through non-promotional participation, which unlocked access to high-intent communities. We then scaled this through a combination of native GEO content, repurposed assets, and the growth of an owned branded subreddit.
By maintaining a daily presence that prioritized genuine contribution over broadcasting, we transformed Reddit from a promotional risk into a compounding engine for both search rankings and AI citations.
For Bitly, an integrated GEO program across on-site content, Reddit, and YouTube turned underused channels into a compounding source of AI citations, search rankings, and category authority. The result is a position competitors will need years to catch, and a repeatable model now extending to YouTube as the next channel in the same strategy.
We could do the same for you, yunno!
