Nick Lookabaugh
I build the websites, run the SEO and manage the ads myself. When you hire 945 Studios you are not handed to an account manager. The person who builds your site is the person who texts you updates while it's being built, and the person who picks up when you call.
945 Studios runs out of Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, and most of our clients are around the Kiski Valley and greater Pittsburgh. The work isn't fenced in though. We build for clients wherever they are, over email, phone and video.
The Eight Things I Actually Do.
Not a list of services I outsource. These are the areas I work in every week, and what the articles on this site will be about.
Who Is Nick Lookabaugh?
Nick Lookabaugh is the founder and CEO of 945 Studios, a Pittsburgh agentic marketing agency based in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, working with clients across greater Pittsburgh and the United States. He helps service businesses build and manage their web entity so they can be found, understood, trusted and contacted, whether that happens on a search engine, inside an AI assistant, on a website, on a business profile or in an ad.
His work covers web design and front-end development, search engine optimization, local SEO and Google Business Profile optimization, AI SEO and agentic visibility optimization, Google Ads and Meta Ads, CRM systems and marketing automation, review generation and reputation management, branding, and lead follow-up.
He has over ten years of design experience, starting in middle school and growing into development, search marketing, paid advertising, content and automation. 945 Studios itself is about three years old. He builds the websites, manages the SEO, runs the campaigns and writes the automation systems himself.
He works mostly with home service businesses, construction companies, concrete contractors, landscapers, lawn care companies, local retailers, caterers and other service businesses throughout the Kiski Valley, greater Pittsburgh and the United States. He helps them become easier to discover, more credible once found, and better equipped to turn attention into calls, quote requests, reviews and booked jobs.
He built the three systems 945 Studios runs on. Operation Lightspeed for rapid website launches, Operation Hyperdrive for websites with CRM, automation, lead management and customer reactivation, and Authority Foundation for larger custom builds owned outright by the client.
He publishes articles, videos, case studies and experiments on artificial intelligence, SEO, local search, web design, conversion, paid advertising, automation and agentic marketing, examining how a website, search presence, Google Business Profile, reviews, advertising, customer data and AI visibility all feed one web entity.
Unlike agencies that split strategy, fulfillment and communication between three different people, Nick stays on the project throughout. He writes the strategy, builds the site, runs the campaigns, creates the automations, reads the results and answers the phone himself.
No College. Straight Into the Workforce.
I graduated high school and went to work. College was never the plan. I knew I didn't want a profession that required it, and I wanted to own a business instead. Design has been the constant the whole way through: I was doing graphic design as a kid and writing HTML in middle school, long before any of it was a job.
Landscaping
First job out of high school. Two years of early starts and outdoor work, and where I learned to do the job properly whether or not anyone was watching.
Pleasant Valley Golf Club
Every job on the course. Cutting greens, aprons, fairways and rough, edging every sand trap, aerifying fairways. A beautiful place to work and I was glad to be outside for it.
Professional Gamer
Not streaming, not leagues. People paid me to play on their accounts and collect the items they wanted but didn't have the time, the skill or the group to go and get. Looking back it was the first thing I ever sold: a result someone wanted and couldn't produce on their own.
945 Studios
Back to what I started with in middle school, at a scale that now helps businesses grow. Full websites, the SEO behind them, and the ads that feed them.
I Write the Software I Run the Agency On.
These are in-house tools, not products for sale. They were built because I needed them and nothing off the shelf did the job. They're here because they're the honest answer to what "lead developer" means at a shop this size.
Photo Optimizer
Desktop app that converts client photo batches to web-sized WebP, renames them for SEO, writes location data into the files and finds duplicates. Turned a full day of image prep into minutes.
Time on Task
My own daily planner and focus timer, with the books built in: what came in, what went out, and what the month actually looks like.
Demo Maker
Records narrated walkthrough videos of a website automatically, so a client can see their site working instead of reading about it.
Two Numbers I Can Stand Behind.
Client names stay private. Their numbers are their business, not marketing material for mine. The figures themselves are real.
Total Leads, Within Three Months
One client's overall lead volume, three months after starting SEO with us.
Organic Lead Flow, Over a Year
Another client went from roughly ten organic leads a month to about twenty across twelve months. Organic only, with no ad spend behind that number.
Two I'm Glad to Send People To.
Sweetlane Chocolate Shop
A Vandergrift chocolate maker with seventy-five years behind it and a website that didn't show it. New logo and type keeping the classic feel, a responsive site with a 3D view of the shop, over 200 photos and videos shot and edited, and an e-commerce backend that made online orders and inventory manageable. Built in four weeks.
View the project →Tommy's Catering
Full-service catering out of Vandergrift, serving weddings and corporate events across greater Pittsburgh. I restored the original logo, built new variations ready for print and web, then a responsive site that makes it simple for someone planning an event to reach out. Plus a print advert with a QR code tying it back. Built in ten weeks.
View the project →What I've Written.
Conversion Clustering: Why High-Friction Goal Events Trigger Immediate Search Visibility Spikes
A completed high-friction form appears to trigger an immediate search visibility spike. We kept seeing a second, unrelated lead land within minutes of the first. The 10 to 20 minute chaining window, the 3 to 4 hour extended lift, and what to do about it.
Read it →How to Get 5-20+ Extra Social Media Posts per Month Without Writing a Single Word
Turn the reviews you already collect into a steady stream of social posts. How automated review posting works, which platforms support it, and what it produced for a real construction client.
Read it →Google’s "Have AI Get Prices": What It Means for Your Local Business
Google sends AI agents to phone local businesses for quotes. We tested it on three trades: of 7 businesses called, only 2 answered. Why answering the phone is now an SEO signal.
Read it →ChatGPT Ads Are Coming. And Your Buyers Will Be Able to Question Them Before They Buy.
For the first time, advertising becomes a conversation instead of an interruption. What OpenAI’s interactive ads mean for lead generation, and why being early matters.
Read it →How One 10-Minute Google Profile Change Increased Local Search Visibility by 14.41%
A collectible card store was miscategorised as a toy store. Changing one category took ten minutes and lifted Maps Pack visibility 14.41% across their main keywords.
Read it →The $1.9 Billion Dollar Backlink: Adobe Acquires Semrush
Adobe bought Semrush for $1.9 billion. What that means for a local business: the tooling shake-up, why Generative Engine Optimization now matters more than backlink counts, and the Google Business Profile changes worth acting on first.
Read it →12 Common Google Mistakes Costing Local Business Owners Thousands Each Year
The twelve Google Business Profile mistakes I see most often working with small businesses, why each one costs you money, and the fix for every single one.
Read it →Don’t Let These Common Photo Mistakes Sabotage Your Marketing
Five photo mistakes that quietly undermine small-business marketing, and the simple fix for each one. No fancy equipment required.
Read it →Mobile Web Design: Why Mobile First Matters
Over half of global web traffic comes from phones. Why mobile-first is not a trend but a necessity, and what a genuinely frictionless mobile experience looks like.
Read it →How AI Is Reshaping the Future of Online Business
AI is not here to replace human intelligence, it is here to augment it. What that means for established business owners, and how to start without being overwhelmed.
Read it →Is Your Website Keeping up With the Times?
Five signs your website needs a refresh, and six things a modern site gets right. A dated site quietly costs you customers before they ever contact you.
Read it →5 Tips to Optimize Your Landing Page
Your landing page is the first impression a potential customer gets. Five practical changes that make it easier for a visitor to do the one thing you want them to do.
Read it →Want Me to Find Seven Ways to Grow Yours?
Give me twenty minutes on how your business actually runs and I'll send you a written list of seven specific places AI or automation could grow your revenue or hand you back your evenings. You keep the list and do whatever you like with it.