Search engine optimization has changed dramatically as what seemed rather simple to do with even the self-taught person at home can no longer be done by hundreds of backlinks and using old practices.

Matt Cutts and the Google team has changed the game for only the digital marketing and SEO agencies who know what they are doing amidst the Google Panda and Penguin updates to be the “players” in the SEO game today.

Those agencies that are still on the first page are certainly capable of getting their clients there because they have understood how to adapt to these changes. Google is not one to be fooled with their team working to fine tune how rankings and search is updated and maintained.

Below are a few key trends of top SEO media trends to consider:

1) Google+:

While their popularity hasn’t seemed to gain the popular word on the streets as Facebook or Twitter, the social network has continued to gain in large numbers. This year saw the addition of many new features on their network. What is more noteworthy is the traction that Google has and gives more authority to Google+ business pages, Google Local pages and others that have taken the extra effort to setup and use their network.

2) Press Releases.

Recently Google has changed the goal posts with regard to press releases, these can still be used for digital PR but be careful how you use them for SEO, either use no-follow in your backlinks or neutral anchor text, like the SEO and link building company name or URL.

3) Larger investment in Organic Search Engine Marketing.

Their are numbers across the Web that share that about 90% of what SEO web administrators focus their budgets on is PPC campaigns, even though true sales have shown to come through organic search results. PPC is geared for quick results but investment in SEO is geared for long-term and apparently most want quick fixes. In 2014, the trends are that more than the 10% budget amounts will be increased to see the longer term results.