SEO is like Counting Cards in Poker

What SEO Experts actually do.

The last one "What I really do" is pretty accurate.

If you are one for metaphors, the one I like to use is comparing SEO to counting cards in Poker. During a poker game it is basically considered cheating to be counting cards.

However I should also note that all the professional poker players are counting cards. All of them. So it isn't really cheating, it is something lots of people do in order to calculate their odds of winning.

It is what makes them the pros compared to the common rabble who cannot do the math in their head.

So that last image with the charts and the keywords, that is pretty accurate. Half of my job is basically figuring out what keywords are the mathematically best ones to use, how I should be using them, how the competitors are using them (including what they are doing right/wrong), and then using my knowledge of the numbers to help the client achieve better results in Google search rankings by emphasizing the keywords that will benefit the client the most.

Another good metaphor is the game CLUE.

Now if you've ever played Clue, there are a number of ways to deduce the answers in the game.

#1. By asking for the weapon, the room, the suspect and seeing which cards other people show you.

That is the normal way to play, as explained in the rulebook.

However if you are a smart cookie, you should be keeping track of several other things.

#2. Every time someone says pass, you should be noting that the person does NOT having any of those 3 cards. You can do this even when it is not your turn.

#3. When someone shows a card to someone else, you make a note of it that the person showing had 1 of the 3 cards which was called.

#4. If the person showing previously passed on specific cards and just showed a card when 1 or 2 of those cards was just called, you should be able to narrow down which card they just showed to 1 or 2 cards.

#5. Keep an eye out for cards that people always pass on. That is a strong indicator it might be the murder weapon, the room or the murderer.

#6. Some players (like my sister) will sometimes call their own cards near the start of the game just to confuse other players. Don't be fooled by this.

And so forth. I have more ways to deduce who has what.

Basically multiple levels of deduction is another way of looking at SEO in order to achieve better results.

It also helps if you are like me and have over 200 websites at your disposal with which to produce results.