Here is a list of some advanced SEO trends I have noticed over the last year and even last couple months.
A word of caution though; this is not for the faint of heart or for people who do not take SEO seriously.
Google is quickly changing my friends and those who aren’t being proactive with their SEO now are going to have a rude awakening at some point.
Obviously the last few Panda updates have rocked a lot of people’s world but it seems evident that this is going to get even more dramatic.
So far in the last year I have seen a significant decrease in the values of
1. Profile Links (in fact, I’m not sure a profile link that doesn’t have unique content around it even has any juice today)
2. Article Resource Box Links (backlinks not in the body of the content)
3. Mass spun content – Obviously as this is what Panda was initially focused on and anyone who got busted for putting up computer generated garbage got what they deserved.
Over the last 2 months I have seen some other dramatic changes though.
The Google Grammar Checker
Google seems to be working on a grammar checker. I won’t go into all the details on how I’ve been testing this because it would be a 10 page thesis but I do believe some significant changes will be coming to ALL poorly spun content.
My best guess is, this is a noun/verb relationship checker. It won’t be anything too fancy as Google does not want to be the “grammar police” but it will be sufficient enough to quickly detect computer spun article.
I also believe this is one of the major reasons we have seen mass deindexing of low quality private blog networks at an a continually rising rate.
Spun Networks
I have always prided myself on producing high quality content. I don’t put out spam or garbage. It not only lowers the quality of the Internet as a whole but producing spam for the sake of a backlink is not how I want to represent myself.
Even networks that allow spinning where the content is written and spun very well at the sentence level, do not appear to be passing full link juice any more though.
I imagine there will always be some benefit to these sites. Heck, if the content is quality, you can drive a lot of traffic from them even if the SEO benefit is not really high.
These sites are not currently and probably never will be deindexed so my best guess is that it’s safe to keep posting to these places but I would suggest to significantly lower the amount of articles going out.
It’s time to be proactive, raise your standards for quality, and really check closely at the places that are accepting your articles and make sure they meet your minimum standards across the board because a few bad apples can ruin a very good thing for everyone.
Web 3.0 Sites
First of all what is Web 3.0?
Well, nobody knows because it technically isn’t out there yet. But my best guess is that it’s going to be a merging of quality SEO work along with social media and my gut is telling me that this is where a significant part of quality SEO is going. Google loves social networking (just look at how hard it is working to implement +1).
Current Web 2.0 properties such as Squidoo, Hubpages, Blogger, WordPress etc… are social media friendly, integrate well with Facebook, Twitter, Social Bookmarking sites and allow for easy and fast posting of high quality, unique content, videos, pictures etc… from anywhere including your phone.
We all know that Google loves fresh relevant content. It is what should be the backbone of ALL good SEO work. The more of it you produce, the better your results will be, both in the Search Engines and with your visitors. This is a trend that should only get stronger with time as more Panda updates continue to be released.
Now is the time to get ahead of the curve and start putting together your own tight-nit network of highend Web 2.0 properties, all developed with social media and high quality unique content in mind.
It may be more work now, but in the long run, you are going to be rewarded for it with more traffic and more profits!
Notice any trends yourself? Got questions? Enjoy the article? Leave me a comment and let me hear your thought! 
Stay Positive, Stay Focused!
Robert
I agree Robert. I truly believe that sooner or later, Google is going to come up with a final update that will solve the simple noun-verb agreement issues and therefore drop the rankings of many networks who accept garbage content.
I don’t know if they have already successfully modeled this yet but given to what happened to blog networks who accept poorly spun content (AMA and AR for example) have drastically decreased in value to a point that they are merely putting up their networks to gain money from people and not to give results because there aren’t any results to be made from them nowadays.
Great post my friend!
Thanks for the great comment Joseph. Great points on AMA and AR too!