While focus on keywords has been the law of the searchland, SEO professionals will have to more diligently and acutely focus on the end user - every unique end user - mulling scenarios, personalities, and motivations, which makes SEO more akin to traditional marketing, where a firm grasp of psychological concepts is as necessary as the technical acuity of keyword targeting.
This is a great article on rolling with the punches when it comes to SEO. I knew SEO would eventually become based more on marketing statistics than on search engine algorithms. But then again, there is the fact that algorithms can only reach a vanishing point of accuracy when attempting to imitate the minds of humans. Put a microscope to it and this accuracy is lost. What does that mean? I don’t know. Where there’s a will, there’s a way.