Will Google’s SEO search changes start a PR data evolution?

Rich Went, head of client services and strategy at Gallium Ventures: “The latest shakeup from Google is going to undoubtedly cause more than a few headaches across the world of PR. But it showcases a need to radically rethink long-standing strategies and approaches.

“Against a backdrop of increasing focus on Generative Engine Optimisation, these changes promise a huge shake-up of how PRs work and our recommendations offered to clients when it comes to the best ways to engage a target audience.

“This means that the focus must now turn to long-term, strategic brand building, rather than a scatter-gun approach of flooding the internet with backlinks and mentions. Granular, vertical-based strategy will be everything; agencies will need to identify precisely where a client’s target audience is and how to connect with them. Utilising the usual major media channels won’t be enough, as agencies will need to pinpoint the correct micro channels, too.

“This is fantastic news if you are already adept at knowing and targeting the most specific and relevant audiences from Substack authors and bloggers to niche-interest magazines and big hitting nationals. It’s a significant difficulty if you don’t. But that’s exactly why PRs should now embrace the challenge of delivering best value for the longer term rather than focusing on short term vanity metrics."

Robert Wainman, associate director, insights and analytics at We Communications: “Google's decision to slash SEO keyword tracking from the top 100 to just the top 10 is going to shake things up for many PR and digital teams. With way less visibility into lower ranking keywords, tracking smaller gains will become much harder, making it tougher to showcase campaign progress or earned media value.

“This change puts Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) in the spotlight. As AI tools like Google AI Overviews, ChatGPT and Perplexity are becoming the default for discovery, traditional SEO tools and tracking alone won't cut it. As GEO means structuring content so AI actually cites you, it's less about rankings and more about being the trusted source. PR teams will need to blend media tracking, LLM monitoring and SEO to build brand authority wherever AI looks for answers.

“Between this SEO shake-up and Google embedding more Gemini features directly into its Chrome browser, getting cited by AI tools will be a major driver for a brand's digital reputation. I think this latest SEO update is a natural evolution for our client's comms strategy, where optimising and diversifying their content for AI discovery naturally elevates the quality of the content, rather than gaming it purely for old school SEO rankings.”

Charlotte Linfield, director at Archetype UK: "The impact of these changes is a reminder that PR teams shouldn’t rely on SEO data as their only measure of success. For digital PR specialists, rankings and visibility metrics like backlinks have been a vital way to show how coverage supports wider marketing efforts, so the disruption will be felt most strongly there. 

"But, with Google organic traffic (zero-clicks search) decreasing and audiences finding information through social platforms, newsletters and AI tools, it makes less sense than ever to treat SEO as the central metric.

"That does not mean SEO is irrelevant, but it does change its purpose. Rather than focusing on rankings alone, PR teams should see SEO insights as one part of a wider measurement mix. Brand sentiment, social listening and owned analytics remain just as important in showing how stories land.

"Meanwhile, SEO platforms are adapting to track visibility within AI summaries as well as traditional results. For PRs, this underlines the importance of creating trusted, high-quality content that lives on high-ranking authoritative websites; emphasising the need for earned placements resonates across both search and new discovery channels."

Errol Jayawardene, head of digital at Red Lorry Yellow Lorry: "The power is in the algorithms. Google and OpenAI can change them at will, and PRs need to adapt. 

"But, that's always been the case. If Google is now throttling the top 100 links, then it's just the latest in a series of changes. The bigger change for PRs is the shift to an AI-driven world where clicks on your hard-earned content may not happen. 

"Only higher domain sites, niche titles and publications with strong communities and loyalty are likely to see regular organic traffic, so who you target matters more than ever."

Claire Snook, digital comms manager at Ambitious: "The changes make it much harder to track the full impact of our earned media and backlink strategies. We need to shift how we measure success. We’ve relied on these tools to show the value of the coverage we’ve created in driving search visibility, especially for long-tail keywords. 

"These have been the linchpins for many years now in building brands online. But with reduced access to deeper ranking data, we’ll need to rethink reporting frameworks and focus more on metrics like clicks, engagement, and referral traffic.

"From a strategic point of view, we need to change how PR campaigns are planned and pitched if we want to continue getting great results for our clients. We must have greater emphasis on securing coverage from high-authority domains that rank well organically. The content we create has to align with user intent as well as be able to perform in AI-driven search environments.

"It's been said for a long time, but PRs and SEOs must collaborate more closely. Teams have to ensure campaigns are not only newsworthy but also search-optimised. PRs and SEOs who aren’t doing this will find they drop behind competitors that can build on this combined work. We must evolve. The tools will adapt, but our strategies have to take the lead."

Ben Eaglestone, SEO and insights specialist at Energy PR: "In the short term, it means some odd graphs and inaccurate reporting. But long term, I think it’s an opportunity to refresh our digital PR reporting altogether.

"If historical search data was this inflated by crawlers (up to 50% of impressions), can we really trust in it moving forward? And if keyword rank tracking beyond position 20 is suddenly a real struggle, plus everything happening with AI search, should we really continue to focus on it as a key metric? I don’t think so.

"Instead, I think this could be the final push we need to start measuring the digital PR metrics that actually matter. And to me, there’s one metric that stands out above the rest: Branded search." 

Eagleston offers 4 reason why Energy PR are "huge fans" of branded search: 

1. It’s a great measure of brand visibility and awareness, as generally more branded search = a better-known, stronger brand

2. It demonstrates a level of audience engagement that many other metrics can’t match, as it reflects people who’ve actively searched for your brand

3. It isn’t as susceptible to wider trends and issues in search, like these recent SEO rank tracking changes

4. It measures the impact of both digital and traditional PR, as a branded search is the final action – it doesn’t matter whether they encountered you online or offline

David Clare, director at Fire On The Hill: "The update is only a problem if your KPIs are built on vanity metrics. If measurement is aligned with business goals, there’s little to worry about. Website traffic hasn’t been a core focus for us in years. We still track it, but what really matters is the experience; that means dwell time, pages per visit, user journeys, and, yes, of course, leads.

"With tools that can track IP addresses, and therefore company info, this becomes extremely powerful. For example, even if someone doesn’t submit a form, we can still arm the client’s sales team with a list of prospects and details on the pages they visited and how long for. That’s far more valuable than claiming a ranking in positions 11-100, which, let’s be honest, was always grasping at straws.

"Yes, the change is bad news for traffic volume, and it comes on top of drops already driven by LLMs. But it’s not a major issue; if a brand is investing properly in both SEO and GEO, then the brand is being seen, the message is landing, and the leads are coming in (just through slightly different routes). And, anyway, the old adage still stands: the best place to hide a dead body is on page two of Google.”