Can a new website can beat the big giants out there?

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

• 
  Moeez Bin Hamid: Hello People,
  
  I am back with some interesting findings, and would like to know your thoughts on it.
  I am starting an online store, for that I was searching for the right keyword, so that I can choose the domain name accordingly. I found one keyword(sorry, won't be sharing it), my tool said it's hard to rank for that keyword. I used two different tools to check if it's indeed hard to rank for that keyword. Both tools gave the same results.
  
  Top ten results on Google, though most of them have like million of links, but they are not optimized for that keyword. Keyword doesn't appear in the title, nor in the content and neither in the meta description. Not in H1 tags, bold, italic etc
  
  And some domain doesn't even have the backlink anchor text for that keyword. So I thought I can fight and rank for this keyword, as I will be having this keyword in my domain name. Sorry, can't share keyword. ;
  
  First result for that keyword has 299 page-links from 46 domains and 7 domains linking to that website with same anchor text. Results down there have like million of page-links. last 2 results on page have fewer page-links like 60 and 80. But again no keyword anchor text for them. ;
  
  So as per my knowledge of SEO, I can beat them, though they have plenty links, but they are not optimized nor they have good off page optimization for that keyword (but still they are ranking). ;
  I would like to know your thoughts on whether a new website can beat the big giants out there?
  
  By the way most of the websites in the results are http - mine will be https. ;
  
  Thank you for your time, ;
  I look forward to your replies,
  Best Regards,
  Moez
• 
  Jann Grond: How the hack can we know. There's probably a reason that no one targeted this keyword yet.
• 
  Moeez Bin Hamid: SEO experts will know :) Yes, that can be the reason. The .com domain for that keyword is not active and is not optimized either for that keyword or it's domain name. So just wondering if I stand a chance to beat those giants with million of backlinks. ;
• 
  Jann Grond: They might also tell you that keyword domains don't really help anymore. If you tell is for exampke they have 500 links, we don't know anything about the quality.
• 
  Moeez Bin Hamid: I am a SEO consultant my self. So trust me when I say keyword domains help. most of your links should be that of your domain link - and of your brand name. If you using that many anchor text for your main keyword, you will get penalized. But if your domain name is the keyword you are using, then you won't be penalized as you are using your brand to link back. That is why keyword domains help. ;
• 
  Moeez Bin Hamid: Yup, quality matters. So what do you think if a giant hasn't done the on-page optimization for specific keyword but is still ranking for that keyword, can we beat him? He is not even linking back with that keyword. ;