“The launch of Google Instant is likely to significantly affect traffic to specific keywords, which means that search professionals now have a number of essential new parameters to consider, particularly when considering keyword research” says a press release an SEO agency sent out this morning.

Maybe it is just me, but when I read that I hear a tone of panic.

Google Instant, launched yesterday, shows results as you type search terms, apparently making search faster by allowing you to scan results as you type. Some fear that this will kill SEO and hurt the paid search industry by delivering hard-to-predict results based on the very varied ways we search. There’s a lot of debate on this out there already, but, how will it affect PR?

For those already considering organic SEO as part of the PR process (see Wadd’s SlideShare on the subject here) Google Instant will affect how write press releases, blogs and other web content.

As clients move to integrate PR and SEO to drive both the brand and sales, the PR industry should watch closely to see how SEO best practises change with this major announcement from the biggest search engine.