The thing that makes it smell like a fraud is that they can only improve a client's score if few others use SEO as well, and if a client is moved to the front p

The thing that makes it smell like a fraud is that they can only improve a client's score if few others use SEO as well, and if a client is moved to the front page for some keyword, someone else has to drop off the front page. So imagine a world where everyone uses SEO, what then? How could you ever move to the front page, if everyone else on it is using SEO as well? Cheat? Use better SEO? Who would win on an SEO arms race? Certainly not users, and I would imagine the search companies becoming even more annoyed about it.