Hi {{first_name}},
In this issue, we look at the framework that changes how you think about being found online.
Last week, I introduced you to April.
Twelve years in business. A website that works. An Instagram she updates. Clients who love her. Growth that makes no sense to her.
People find her on Maps, through ChatGPT, via a best-of list. None of it shows up clearly anywhere she could measure.
We told her the problem was not SEO. The problem was that discovery had fragmented. And that she was optimising for one engine while her clients were using six.
This week we show her what to do about it.
But first, let's look at the numbers. They illustrate clearly where the challenge for business owners is.
Every single day:
Google processes 13.7 billion searches.
YouTube handles 3.3 billion.
Instagram sees 6.5 billion.
TikTok processes 1 billion.
ChatGPT handles 2.5 billion prompts.
Reddit processes 900 million searches.
Perplexity handles 30 million queries and growing.
And that is before we add Bing, which handles 450 million searches every day. DuckDuckGo, another 100 million. Yahoo, Yandex, and others add millions more on top of that.
When researchers at SparkToro analysed 41 major platforms in Q4 2025, they found that once you include YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, Amazon, and AI tools, Google's share of where people actually go to find things drops to around 27 percent.
April’s clients are not all starting with Google. Some open Maps and scroll photos. Some type their question into ChatGPT and book whoever gets recommended. Some search YouTube for "best balayage Northampton" and trust whoever shows up in a video. Some ask Reddit. Some ask a local Facebook group.
Discovery has multiplied.
So we sat down with April and introduced her to a framework.
We call it DEO.
Discovery Engine Optimisation.
Not a replacement for SEO. The larger system that SEO belongs to.
The idea is simple. Every platform your clients use to find, evaluate, and choose a local service provider is a discovery engine. Google is one. YouTube is one. ChatGPT is one. Maps is one. Reddit is one. A local best-of blog is one.
DEO means showing up correctly and convincingly on every engine your specific clients actually use.
Not all of them. Not everywhere at once. The ones that matter for your business, your town, your clients.
When we explained this to April, she had an a-ha moment .
She stopped thinking about SEO as the problem to fix. She started thinking about discovery as the system to build.
That is the mindset change that makes everything else work.
And this thinking goes beyond digital discovery.
When Masuda launched her restaurant in Amherst last year, she did not start with SEO. She went to the BID. She worked with the Chamber. She organised a ribbon cutting. There was press. There was publicity. People showed up, took photos, posted on social media.
That was a discovery engine. A physical one. And it worked.
The clients you want are somewhere. They are paying attention to something. They respect certain voices, certain events, certain publications. Some of those are online. Some are not.
DEO is not a digital framework with a nod to the real world. It is a way of thinking about every place your clients discover businesses like yours, and making sure you show up there convincingly.
Over the next few issues we are going to walk through exactly how to build your discovery system. Step by step, platform by platform.
Each piece has a name. Each name describes a job.
Next week: the first piece. And the simplest place to start.
Keep howling!
Fungai
Your Owwtreach Guy
Grow with Owwtreach
www.owwtreach.com