Parasite SEO: Ranking Through High-Authority Platforms
New sites lack the domain authority to rank for competitive keywords. Established platforms like LinkedIn, Medium, and Reddit have massive authority that search engines trust. Publishing on these platforms lets you borrow their authority for faster rankings.
Why Platform Authority Matters
Google trusts domains with long histories, massive backlink profiles, and consistent quality signals. LinkedIn, Medium, Reddit, and similar platforms have spent years building this trust. Content published on their domains inherits that trust immediately.
A new blog post on your domain might take months to rank, if ever. The same content on Medium might rank within days. The platform’s authority carries your content higher than your own domain could achieve alone.
Choosing Your Platform
LinkedIn articles rank well for B2B and professional topics. Google values LinkedIn for career, business, and industry content.
Medium suits long-form writing on diverse topics. Its domain authority helps content surface for competitive keywords that new blogs couldn’t touch.
Reddit and Quora are increasingly important for AI search. ChatGPT and similar tools heavily cite Reddit discussions and Quora answers as sources for their responses. Presence on these platforms means potential AI citations beyond traditional search.
V2EX and similar tech communities provide fast indexing for developer-focused content. Posts with backlinks to new sites help those sites get indexed within hours rather than days.
Execution Strategy
Target keywords your own site can’t rank for. Write comprehensive content on those topics and publish to high-authority platforms. Include natural mentions and links to your own site within the content.
The platform content can outrank competitors’ independent sites because of the authority differential. Users clicking through to your links become traffic you captured through borrowed authority.
Platform Policies
Platforms penalize overt spam. Pure promotional content gets removed. Frame your content as genuinely helpful with promotional elements naturally integrated.
Build platform reputation before promoting heavily. On Reddit, establish karma through genuine participation. On Medium, publish helpful non-promotional content first. The groundwork enables later promotional success without triggering platform defenses.