Hi,
I understand that the fundamentals of SEO require you to have relevant keywords in your webpage titles, keyword metatags, in your content, and that the webpage needs to be search engine friendly. Your website's structure as viewed from your site map also plays a part, as would the number of content-relevant pages you have. Relevant back links from "good" or authority sites that are ranked high and have good page rank also helps.
However to get to the first position in Google also depends on how much competition you have, the google ranking algorithm (which keeps changing), page rank, how long your site has been in operation (hence the use of old or expired domains) and probably a few more other factors. I figure it is possible to get to number one but can you stay there forever....that's the question and the challenge.
Cheerio