(FTR, 21 nods, 53 smiles, 95K. We're pretty close.) 

I had a beta read on a few chapters and they said the word usage itself was fine. You may be fine. 


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**A few ideas.**

1. Some nods can be qualified. A half nod, a tilted head considering then nodding. I have one character 'tip her head up as if to say 'I told you.' '

But some of my nods really were just action tags for dialog. Those I think are the problems. They were deleted or changed. (To that point, they crept in through a variety of efforts to correct other issues, like playing with dialog tags!)

You might be able (if you want) to change your 'example nod' to a low chuckle. Or a knowing chuckle. 

> "He's a bit of alright, isn't he?" 
> 
> She chuckled softly in response.

2. It's got to be balance, right? Too many furrowed brows can be balanced out by changing a few of them to frowns or creased eyes. 

3. I like [this reddit thread][1] about the topic. Check that out. Perhaps as part of the process, find a simple action that each character has (like a tic, I guess?) and play with limiting the action to that character. That way, the nods do double duty, if they are limited to certain characters. 


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(And there's the actual answer, the actual heavy lifting, of going deeper, finding something more evocative about the scene, the interaction, and giving that specific instead of a smile or a nod.)


  [1]: https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/comments/390n7e/my_characters_all_nod_too_much/