Another article had some interesting insight in the evolution on SEO strategy. The article below goes into much more detail, but the gist of it is that having a site that functions well for the end user will get an SEO boost over a site that focuses solely on keywords. Also social media plays a much bigger part now. Using social media to share relevant content that is useful to the reader, will drive traffic to your website. Share blog posts across social media platforms to increase your visibility.
source: http://searchenginewatch.com/article/2319176/From-Old-School-to-New-School-SEO-in-Transition
I had previously sent some news about a company called Anglo Rank being targeted by Google for their sale of backlinks in a link network. Google has ultimately penalized all sites that used their service.