I still strongly feel that the best way to achieve excellent SEO is through building human-accessible pages. How is your site on a screen reader? If its easy to navigate by braille keyboard or voice output, then it probably is well enough that Google should be able to make sense of it.
Better yet, make it so that your CODE is readable and understandable easily by someone who doesn't have perfect vision.
If you achieve this and create great, relevant content, then Google will snap it up and the customers will appear. No other tricks needed.
10 people targeting the same keyword. Only 10 spots on page one of the SERPS, if the on site content and site is well built, then who gets the top spot?
The machine isn't clever enough yet to get the perfect answer, and till it is, humans and marketers will continue the manipulation of visibility in pursuit of traffic and revenue. It's sad, but it's a fact.
Better yet, make it so that your CODE is readable and understandable easily by someone who doesn't have perfect vision.
If you achieve this and create great, relevant content, then Google will snap it up and the customers will appear. No other tricks needed.