Could the top SEO's such as Rand enter any arena?

[seoninja20]

I know the top black hat SEO's could for sure, check out this recent seomoz post: Insurance garbage ranks

In 6 months, I don't see a white hat ever achieving long term ranking in top 3 for "insurance" even with a multi million dollar backlinking budget.

[EGOL]

You need two things.... First you need smarts.  Then you need resources.  If you fail in either of those then you will be ineffective.

Two possible exceptions to the above would be replacing smarts with "dumb luck" and replacing resources with something "incredibly viral" - both of  which have a very low probability of happening.

[activitysuper]

I was just wondering if the advanced knowledge of Google's Algo within the top SEO's would in fact allow them to optimise at top end for a flat 6 months.

Let me put it another way, if they person who invented Google's algo setup a domain and started optimising for insurance do you think they could hit the target? Or do you think just the shear amount of work involved for a few people would not be achievable!

[EGOL]

Sun Tzu says that you can "know how to conquer without being able to do it".

Even if you have an advanced knowledge of the algo, in an extremely competitive space the competition is a "battle of resources" .

[activitysuper]

So basically ranking wise some industries are just not possible to enter, know matter who you are or what you know as your hampered by a lack of resource that you would need to even get the engine started.

[AlanMosley]

Depends on what you have to work with, Does the best driver win the F1 drivers chapionship? or does he need the best car?

Can the best beauty shop, make a ugly women win miss universe?

Like EGOL said you need resouces, including good content

[EGOL]

Right... those resources would be content and an ability to get social attention such as links, mentions and likes.  Those links could be earned on the merits of the content, attracted by the popularity of the brand or purchased.

Some companies spend a hideous amount of money on links.

After your pages are optimized (which requires smarts) then you need to devise a way of demonstrating the importance of your site to the search engines, which requires smarts to plan and resources to achieve.

[activitysuper]

So from your reply I take it you put a lot of weight on social signals combined with quality content as a method of ranking?

[activitysuper]

Well if the current miss Universe was once a ugly duckling it puts faith in the fact she might!

[EGOL]

For the question that you asked, yes, to rank for a term you need a good relevant page of content with very strong social signals (links, likes, etc.) to promote it.