As search engine algorithms evolve, businesses must adapt to maintain visibility. Major updates from Google in October 2023 and March 2024 have significantly impacted search rankings, targeting low-quality and spam content. For businesses, this shift emphasizes the need for a robust public relations strategy.
by Karla Jo Helms
Anti-PR offers a revolutionary approach by integrating crisis management techniques and media algorithms with SEO to build credibility, enhance visibility, and achieve measurable results, transforming PR from a mere necessity into a vital component of a growth strategy. 
Google’s Algorithm Updates Target Spam and SEO Impacts
SEO experts, marketers, and growing businesses have always needed to adapt to Google’s core algorithm updates. Each update changes how search results are curated for audiences, with some updates being more impactful than others. But major updates rolled out in October 2023 and March 2024 focused on tackling low-quality or spam content, impacting rankings over the subsequent weeks or months and prompting many businesses to adjust their SEO strategies accordingly.
Some content not previously considered spam could now inadvertently fall into this category. The March update categorized spam into three types: (1)
- Scaled content abuse: This addresses the surge of mass-produced AI-generated content. Google’s policy rewards high-quality content, no matter how it is produced. The problem arises from the misuse of AI, resulting in an abundance of generic and low-quality content flooding the internet across all categories.
- Expired domain abuse: Google is penalizing domains that have new content unrelated to their previous content.
- Site reputation abuse: This has become increasingly common in the SEO world over the past two years. The changes introduced by the number one search engine aim to combat ‘parasite SEO,’ where high-authority websites are exploited to rank for competitive keywords.
This cleanup drive aims to eliminate up to 40% of low-quality websites that provide useless information and poor user experience—pages created solely to match specific search queries. Websites violating Google’s guidelines or using questionable SEO tactics will face penalties and complete removal from search results and the index. (2)
Impact of Google’s Updates: Decline in Search Engine Visibility and Revenue Loss
According to Gartner, Inc., by 2026, traditional search engine volume is expected to decrease by 25%, as search marketing loses market share to AI chatbots and other virtual agents. (3)
Google’s updates and commitment to tackling spam has led to severe consequences for some sites, including complete deindexing, which involves removing a web page or website from search engine results pages.
If Google suspects your site is adding content solely to manipulate search rankings, it may vanish from search results. For businesses, losing visibility on Google can be devastating for brand awareness, visibility, and trustworthiness.
Recent analyses show that over 800 websites have been fully deindexed from Google’s search results during the early stages of the update. The consequences of deindexing are severe for affected websites. The analysis further reveals that the more than eight hundred deindexed sites previously received over 20.7 million organic search visits per month. The deindexing is expected to lead to a monthly loss of $446,552 in displayed advertising revenue across the affected sites. (4)
In the last couple of months, several website owners and search experts noted a noticeable shift in Google search results favoring large, established brands over smaller, independent sites, a trend that appears unrelated to content quality. (5)
These updates have not only harmed smaller sites’ businesses but have also left them searching for answers as to how to move forward.
The Role of Anti-PR and SEO in Building Reputation and Visibility
During the past years the internet has been shaped by SEO, which improves visibility on Google through on-page, technical, and off-page techniques like link building, guest blogging, media mentions, directories, and social media. Even though these are familiar PR tactics, the industry has failed to adapt to harness them.
SEO has become an essential and inescapable practice for millions of businesses that depend on search engine mechanisms, but it has been abused. Some enterprising website owners have discovered that creating content designed to please Google’s algorithms can sometimes be more profitable than crafting content intended to serve human readers. Google’s latest changes aim at protecting their differentiator: the quality of their search engines.
In this context, brands that focus exclusively on SEO, without building third-party credibility, will simply not be able to achieve visibility. Anti-PR strategies emerge as strong solution to this predicament
Building Credibility, Enhancing Visibility, and Driving Results with Anti-PR:
PR is a strategic approach that uses diverse tools to build and sustain relationships between organizations and their audiences. It focuses on crafting and sharing impactful stories that foster engagement and drive action.
However, much of modern public relations is not adequately prepared for algorithm disruptions such as the recent Google updates as it relies on old techniques that do not quickly and effectively adjust to such dramatic changes. Frequently, PR firms take months with minimal progress, offering excuses, not results.
The PR industry has become disconnected from the current needs of companies, relying too heavily on past successes, and failing to deliver the results that businesses require today. There is often too much “smoke and mirrors” in PR, with insufficient focus on achieving tangible results. Anti-PR aims to change the standard by revolutionizing PR to be more results-driven and focused on measurable ROI.
Anti-PR is a crucial component that enhances a marketing campaign by building essential credibility. Incorporating a comprehensive Anti-PR program offers several advantages:
- It raises brand awareness, reducing the cost per lead, making it easier to find and close informed consumers.
- It improves marketing ROI by leveraging PR’s broad reach to publicize a company’s story and achievements.
- It boosts the value of the business by differentiating it from the competition and fostering a positive connection with customers.
- Anti-PR complements marketing by addressing emotional barriers that may hinder customer engagement. When executed effectively, it integrates seamlessly into every aspect of the strategy, removing these obstacles and allowing the marketing efforts to be more effective.
Keys to harnessing Anti-PR for Business Growth
In today’s competitive landscape, where traditional PR and marketing strategies often fall short, Anti-PR offers a dynamic approach to building credibility and driving business growth through strategic communication and media engagement. An Anti-PR campaign is a strategic plan designed to generate goodwill and increase interest and comfort in doing business with an organization, ultimately leading to more business opportunities.
Public Relations manages information flow through credible channels, offering third-party legitimacy lacking in ads. Anti-PR enhances this by integrating with marketing to leverage credible endorsements over paid ads.
An Anti-PR campaign aims to build goodwill and boost business interest, leading to more opportunities. Goodwill reflects the positive returns from customer and community relationships, driving referrals and business growth.
A news release integrates a company’s story with breaking news, offering journalists relevant details for impactful stories. In an Anti-PR campaign, this approach boosts credibility and visibility by aligning with current events, generating positive attention, and building goodwill.
Social media amplifies word-of-mouth advertising by turning conversations into widespread dialogues and enabling users to share information widely. In an Anti-PR campaign, this extends positive messaging beyond traditional methods, fostering broader and more authentic engagement, enhancing credibility, and driving favorable perceptions.
An Anti-PR approach prioritizes swift action and applies learned strategies to deliver the desired results and exposure for clients. Unlike the dramatic approach of waiting for scandals to generate press, this method treats the lack of press as a significant issue and responds proactively. By avoiding excuses and illusions, the focus is on transforming PR from a mere necessity into a key component of a growth strategy that clients and CEOs depend on and report positively to their stakeholders. The emphasis is on achieving results rather than just engaging in PR activities.
Businesses must adapt to evolving search engine algorithms to maintain visibility and effectiveness. Recent updates have emphasized the importance of quality content and penalized low-quality practices, leading to significant shifts in search rankings and visibility. Anti-PR offers a strategic solution by integrating modern PR techniques with SEO to build credibility, enhance visibility, and achieve measurable results. This approach transforms PR from a mere necessity into a vital component of a growth strategy, addressing the current needs of businesses and ensuring they remain competitive in a rapidly changing digital landscape.
Karla Jo Helms is the Chief Evangelist and Anti-PR® Strategist for JOTO PR Disruptors™. Karla Jo learned firsthand how unforgiving business can be when millions of dollars are on the line—and how the control of public opinion often determines whether one company is happily chosen, or another is brutally rejected.
