SMACK HAPPY BLOG

Optimize Your Website Like a UX Pro: A Step-by-Step Guide

Mastering Search Engine Optimization (SEO) will help you generate more targeted traffic. But, it’s not enough to just optimize for search engines alone. Thousands of people could flock to your website, but do they stay? And if they remain, are they having a good time?

SEO That Sizzles

What is the first thing you do when you need new SEO ideas? Our guess: Google. Yes, maybe you reach out to a referral network or a trusted colleague, but at some point, we’re willing to bet that there’s some search going on within that discovery process.

Around 93% of online experiences begin with a search engine. (SEJ) That equates to an estimated 63,000 searches per second. (Search Engine Land)

The point is that when anyone encounters a problem, challenge, or choice—they probably google it. So how do you gain a competitive edge and improve your search rankings to take advantage of even 1% of those search results? To start:

Pause searching for the top SEO tips,
Bookmark the intro 101 advice for another day, and
Put on that technical thinking cap.

Dani Iera

I started my digital life in 2007, writing and managing content for lifestyle publications covering motorcycles, golf, and winter sports. The team I worked alongside went on to become executive producers, podcasters, cinematographers, and senior designers. That environment taught me to move fast, stay curious, and figure things out as I go. It's where I discovered that digital publishing, marketing, and web design are all parts of the same puzzle, and I've been rearranging the pieces ever since.

For over fifteen years, I've worked as an extension of my clients' marketing teams across industries ranging from executive recruitment and telecom to healthcare, legal services, and nonprofits. The specific sector changes; the job doesn't. Say what you mean, make it easy to find, and build something that actually works for the people using it.

I'm a refined yinzer, a proud RMU alumna (Go Colonials), and my son's biggest fan. I think in systems, celebrate neurodivergent thinking, and practice festina lente, which is a fancy way of saying I believe in doing things right instead of doing them fast. I'm also the person most likely to disappear into a Sleep Token rabbit hole when I should be doing something else.

Everything I know about doing good work comes down to one Pittsburgh proverb: don't be a jagoff.