SMACK HAPPY BLOG

Your SEO Foundation: 5 (Plus 3) Fixes We Shared on LinkedIn Live

Nicole Hanusek, CEO & Founder of Smack Happy Design, and web-designer-turned-WordPress-wizard Heather Bauer sat down for a behind-the-scenes look at how a few quick, cost-effective tweaks can make your website irresistible to search engines. During our latest LinkedIn Live, we unpacked the exact five-step “SEO foundation” that helped one Bay Area business owner reinvent her…

Nicole Hanusek, CEO & Founder of Smack Happy Design, and web-designer-turned-WordPress-wizard Heather Bauer sat down for a behind-the-scenes look at how a few quick, cost-effective tweaks can make your website irresistible to search engines.

During our latest LinkedIn Live, we unpacked the exact five-step “SEO foundation” that helped one Bay Area business owner reinvent her online presence—and book two new consults in the very first week after the changes. Meta tags? Check. Inter-site links? Done. Google Business Profile? Optimized. Below is a condensed recap (plus three bonus tips we didn’t have time for on air).

SEO Foundation Recap

1. Speak Clearly to Bots and Humans

Give every page a single H1, plus conversational meta titles and descriptions (“Denver Managed IT Services—fast, friendly 24/7 support”). Skip the keyword?stuffing—clarity wins.

2. Make Content Useful, Not Fluffy

Google rewards problem?solving content. One well?researched article a month crushes four thin posts. Update or trash anything that isn’t serving today’s reader.

3. Link Like a Pro

Internal links map your site for visitors and crawlers. Credible outbound links build authority.

4. Chase Speed—Especially on Mobile

Run GTmetrix or PageSpeed Insights. Compress oversized images, eliminate unused scripts, and ask a dev friend to minify code if needed.

5. Treat Your Google Business Profile as Prime Local Real Estate

Add service keywords to your business name (“Notta Surf Computer Services | Denver Managed IT”) and fill every field—services, hours, photos, FAQs.

Bonus Tips

6. Structured Data Mark?Up

Add FAQ, How?To, or Product schema so your snippets pop.

7. Accessibility Helps SEO, Too

Alt?text and proper heading hierarchy improve both usability and crawlability.

8. Measure & Iterate

Use Google Search Console. Review Core Web Vitals and keyword shifts quarterly—small, steady tweaks beat once?a?year overhauls.

Watch the replay:


Download the free SEO Foundation Checklist!

Need a sanity check? Drop your website link to us in the comments—we’ll flag your quickest wins.

Small tweaks, big visibility—let’s get your site pulling its weight.

Dani Iera

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.