What are the Rules??

I recently came across the following statement: "Luck and chance have nothing to do with rankings. The search engines operate using complex mathematical algorithms. Essentially what that means is that there are sets of rules that, if obeyed, will establish your website in a top position. The rules change periodically but the driving force behind them doesn't"-Beanstalk

Would it be possible for you to clearly list the rules that need to be obeyed to date, or is it like asking you to name every species known to man?

Thanks

"Luck and chance have nothing to do with rankings". This is true to some extent but it is also misleading. Here is why:

Assume you knew all the rules and did everything right - Perfect website optimization. Odds are other websites would also be able to achieve this level of optimization. So now you and 100 other sites are all "obeying the rules" and are perfectly optimized. Who ranks on the first page?

One factor a search engine might use to determine the tie breaker would be how long a site has been in existence. If by chance your site has a longer history you may rank well. But is this not something that you could go back in time to adjust. It's just luck that you started your site before the others. And it's just luck that search engines started using that as a factor in determining ranking. And this is just one example of one factor of millions of factors.

So while it's true that there are complex mathematical algorithms behind search engine rankings no one but the search engines themselves know exactly what the factors are and how much weight is given to each. And no one knows when a new factor will be introduced into the mix. So can it really be said that luck plays no role? To me a claim like that sounds like marketing hype.