To get to the top, or to stay in the top? I started to think about it since i found a good niche and developed a unique website and in about 3 months, competitors appeared. Before i thought that it was really hard to get to the top, but when ur in the top, it's all good. But hell no, i think now that its equal, people always come up with a better idea than you. What about you? -sry for my english mistakes kk?-
Getting to the top is easier. Staying on top is harder because you're not as hungry and as motivated as you used to be.
If you competitors will build links and add new content related to keyword as anchor text faster than you=drop in serps, thats all.
In my opinion, getting to the top of the search engines is the hard part, but once you have got there it is much easier to do maintenance work to stay there.