• you are trying out a new pair of shoes, it doesn't fit well, and you think "that's where [company name] loses a fair percentage of sales"
• you also give out an exact percentage (with 0.01% accuracy) of conversion loss due to a particular shoe usability issue from the top of your head
• you enter any shop (grocery, retail, etc.) and your first thought is a list of suggestions for improvement of the inventory layout to "increase shop usability and conversion rate"

• you are reading a book and you can't help thinking on how the author could improve the book layout, make it easy to scan (or read)
• you enter a site you haven't seen before and you try hard to supress the urge to send its webmaster a list of suggestions for website usability
• you do send a comprehensive usability report to a site's webmaster on your first visit

• you don't really do SEO, do not issue press releases, don't post on various forums or attend SESs, but still new clients keep ringing and ringing and..
• you are choosing your clients by interrogating them on why they need a usable site, you raise your fees, and you are still overrun with clients
• various website development companies (SEO, web design, copywriting, etc.) tell you they will be sending their clients your way, you ask them to refer the clients to some other usability consultant or company

• you don't need to oursource SEO, web design and copywriting services, because you have already taught your client what and how to do everything
• you spend more time educating your clients, than actually doing what you do
• you sometimes think you should start a website usability training program, backed up by hundreds of existing testimonials from your previous clients

• you start paying some bills (maybe even all the bills), and your spouse does no longer refer to your job as 'fiddling with web sites'
• your spouse, instead, labels your work as 'web site voodoo magic' for making money out of thin air (this isn't so, but it seems so to the spouse)
• your family members, your friends, your friends' friends refer you to their favourite web sites and ask for comments

• your web site usability testing people refer to you as no less than an inquisitor
• there is a rumour going on in your town of an enthusiast, paying well to interrogate people in front of the monitors
• your client's web designer and marketer retire after they read your site usability report and learn the results of your usability testing session

• everyone keeps sending you a link to a little cute "You know you are a usability expert when.." list
• you already have a complete contact list to forward this link to
• you chuckle as you can actually relate to (almost) every item on the list

So, you know you are a SEO, when:

• you are talking to your friend, and you notice that he/she has unnatural keyword density, which will scare away other people (you)
• you immediately think up several words or phrases you'd insert in the sentence instead
• you speak thoroughly choosing words that are most relevant to the person you are speaking and the topic

• when reading a hardcover book, you think how the author screwed up on a keyword/viral title and chapter titles
• in a shop, you walk by the products and notice how certain labels lack most relevant (or most popular) keywords
• you also think that adding various long tail words should help

• you are absolutely sure that there's a second universe (which is online)
• sometimes, when you talk to your friends, you feel like you are talking to aliens (from the Real Life planet), while feeling like another alient (from the SEO planet)
• you are also aware of other planets, such as Graphic Design, Usability, Accessibility, Marketing, etc.

• one part of your SEO skills is to explain to clients what SEO is and what it can do for their business
• you are still accustomed to people not trusting you, because they are not ready to accept the challenge of investing a sufficient sum and trusting a complete stranger
• you are thinking of running your own websites, instead of bringing thousands of profits for pennies for others

• whenever you notice something interesting in your life, you immediately get a title to a post about it (or maybe even the post), while regretting you don't have a blog in the niche to write about it
• you are always thinking of starting up another website in yet another niche
• you do buy domains and start new websites occasionally

• you know where the Google name has come from
• you have your own opinion about Google
• you even have several gripes with Google

• you got used to the blank look you get, when you tell people what you do
• you are very well aware of other people having inaccurate (so say the least) point of view on SEO
• you are one of those, who feel unfairly accused of spamming (since you do SEO), when all you do is pure white hat

• you can relate to most of the points above
• you can add at least a couple of points to the list
• you are currently thinking whether to link to it or not, while ending up writing a list yourself in hope to get more natural links

Read more signs of being a SEO or a Google Geek at SEO Refugee.

To learn more about how SEO can change one's life, let's hear from Steve, Bill, Ammon, Danny and Crew and Lee.