An August 27, 2026 Ahrefs analysis of 145 million U.S. Google search results found that Facebook — entirely through public Groups — is the second most-cited domain in Google's "Discussions and forums" feature, appearing in 38.3% of them and passing Quora for the spot in January 2026.
2026-08-31 · by Moe Ameen
Ahrefs published new research on August 27, 2026 measuring which sites Google pulls into its "Discussions and forums" search feature — the block of community threads Google shows above or alongside classic web results for questions where firsthand experience matters. The analysis, led by Glen Allsopp with data scientist Xibeijia Guan, covered roughly 145 million U.S. Google search results, of which the Discussions and forums module appeared in about 11.7% (some 16.9 million results). The headline is Reddit's near-monopoly: it showed up in 87.8% of U.S. results carrying the feature (83.9% worldwide). But the more actionable finding sits just below it.
Facebook is now the second most-common domain in the feature, appearing in 38.3% of instances, with Quora third at roughly 32%. Those three sites together account for about 76.75% of all Discussions and forums links worldwide. The detail that matters for creators: every Facebook URL Ahrefs saw in the feature came from a post inside a public Facebook Group — not a Page, not an ad, not a profile. Facebook overtook Quora for the No. 2 slot for the first time in January 2026. The top 100 Groups accounted for about 9.27% of Facebook's placements, so the long tail of niche communities carries most of the weight.
The intent skew is worth noting: about 98.7% of these forum appearances are on informational-intent queries — how-to, "is this normal," "which one should I buy," troubleshooting — exactly the questions where people trust a real community answer over a brand page. Google is, in effect, treating public community discussion as a first-class answer source, and Facebook Groups have quietly become the second-largest reservoir of it.
Two scope notes before building strategy on this. The numbers come from an SEO tool company reading Google's SERPs, so treat them as directional and confirm against the study before repeating a precise figure. And there is no submit button: Group placement in this feature is earned by genuine, useful discussion inside communities Google deems credible, not by publishing at people. What you can control is being the recognizable, on-brand source those communities and search surfaces keep encountering.
The trap here is reading this as "spam every Facebook Group I can find" — which gets you removed, not cited. Google surfaces Group threads that genuinely help, and that placement is earned by participation, not by broadcasting. So the real play is the other direction: treat the recurring questions inside your niche's Groups and forums as a running list of content briefs, then use [Kompozy](/) to build the definitive, on-brand answer to each one and distribute it across every surface you *do* own. The question a Group keeps asking is a validated topic with proven demand. Drop it into Kompozy and, governed by your [Persona Brief](/glossary/persona-brief), it fans that one question into a long-form [Blog Article](/glossary/output-buckets) that can rank for the query, a [Carousel](/glossary/hyperframes) that walks through the answer, [Quote Graphics](/glossary/output-buckets) of the key takeaways, a [Persona Short](/glossary/persona-shorts) that explains it on camera, and an Email Newsletter for your list — every piece in one consistent voice.
Then Kompozy publishes it where you have standing to publish. It fans the batch across the eight social platforms plus blog and email — your Facebook Page, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, X, and the rest — behind a per-post review or on [Autopilot](/glossary/autopilot), so the answer you built from a community question becomes a recognizable, on-brand footprint everywhere Google's features and AI answers look. To be clear about the boundary: Kompozy does not auto-post into Facebook Groups, and it shouldn't — Group visibility is won by a real person showing up and helping. What Kompozy removes is the supply problem behind everything else: turning what you learn in those communities into a week of published, in-voice content, consistently, so the expertise you demonstrate in a Group is backed by a brand search can actually find. For the adjacent shift — Google's AI Overviews citing Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok posts directly — see [Google AI Overviews cite social platforms as sources](/news/google-ai-overviews-facebook-instagram-tiktok).
Yes. An Ahrefs study published August 27, 2026, analyzing roughly 145 million U.S. Google search results, found Facebook is the second most-cited domain in Google's "Discussions and forums" feature, appearing in 38.3% of them — behind only Reddit (87.8% of U.S. results). Every Facebook URL in the feature came from posts inside public Facebook Groups, and Facebook passed Quora for the No. 2 spot in January 2026. Treat the figures as directional, since they come from an SEO tool reading Google's SERPs.
There is no submission process. Google surfaces public Group threads it deems genuinely helpful and credible for informational questions, so placement is earned by real, useful participation — answering the recurring questions in your niche well — not by posting promotional content at scale. The reliable lever you control is being a recognizable, consistent, on-brand voice that both communities and search keep encountering.
Per the Ahrefs analysis, Reddit is far and away first (87.8% of U.S. results with the feature, 83.9% worldwide), Facebook second at 38.3% entirely via public Groups, and Quora third at about 32%. Those three account for roughly 76.75% of all Discussions and forums links worldwide, and the feature appears on about 11.7% of U.S. searches, overwhelmingly on informational-intent queries.
Use the recurring questions in your niche's Groups and forums as content briefs, then build the definitive answer and distribute it where you own the audience. A generation-and-publishing engine like Kompozy turns one validated question into a blog article, carousel, quote graphics, a short, and a newsletter in your Persona Brief voice, then schedules and publishes across the eight social platforms plus blog and email — so the expertise you show in a community is backed by an on-brand footprint search can find.