Sector
SEO for marine businesses around Portsmouth Harbour: be found by the owner on the pontoon
Portsmouth Harbour, the Solent and Chichester Harbour hold more boats per mile than almost anywhere in Europe, and every one of them needs an engineer, a rigger, a surveyor or a yard at some point. The owner searches from the pontoon, from the club bar or from home in Emsworth, by the make of the engine and the name of the water. Most marine firms here have a site that lists services and a profile nobody set up. That gap is the opportunity.
How the boat owner searches
By the make, by the water, by the season
By the make
Yanmar service, Volvo Penta engineer, Yamaha outboard repair, Raymarine installer. The page that names the make and shows the certification wins; a page that says "all engines" does not.
One page per make you are certified for.
By the water
Portsmouth Harbour, Gosport, Haslar, Port Solent, Hayling, Chichester Harbour, the Solent. Owners search by the water they keep the boat on, not the town they live in.
The waters named on the profile's service area and the areas page.
By the season
Antifouling and engine servicing in spring, rigging checks before the season, lift-out and winterising from September, surveys whenever a boat changes hands.
Pages and profile posts timed to the season; ads only in the peaks.
What we do for a marine firm
The routine, tide by tide
The same six things every month, with the marine specifics: the makes, the waters, the directories boat owners actually use, and a season that decides when each page goes live.
- The profile with the yard or the mobile service area, the marine categories, and photographs of the boats and the work
- A page per make and per service, with the certifications as text and the lead times stated
- The waters named: Portsmouth Harbour, Gosport, Port Solent, Hayling, Chichester Harbour, the Solent
- The directories: harbour authority listings, marina service lists, RYA, BMTA, class associations
- Reviews asked for at the handover on the pontoon, with the boat named in them
- Search Console read monthly for the make and service searches, and the next page written for the one that is growing
Questions marine businesses ask us
Boat owners find us through the marina. Why do we need Google?
The marina sends the boats already berthed there. Google sends the owner in Emsworth with an outboard that will not start, the new owner in Southsea searching "boat survey Portsmouth", the visiting yacht searching "rigger near Gosport" from the pontoon. Those people search, and the marina notice board cannot reach them.
Which searches matter for a marine business?
The service plus a make or a place: outboard service Portsmouth, Volvo Penta engineer Solent, rigging Gosport, antifouling Hayling, RYA courses Portsmouth, boat transport Hampshire. The audit lists yours and who holds them: usually a directory, a national chain and one local firm with a decent site.
Our yard is in Gosport. Portsmouth or Gosport on the profile?
The address is where the yard is. The service area and the pages cover the harbour as a whole, because boat owners search by the water, not the council boundary: Portsmouth Harbour, the Solent, Chichester Harbour, Hayling.
How seasonal is it?
Very. Searches for engine servicing and antifouling peak from February to April, the charters and courses from May, the winter storage and lift-out from September. The pages and the profile posts are timed to the season, and the ads, if any, run only in the peaks.
Do the marina and harbour directories matter?
Yes, and more than for most trades: the harbour authority listings, the marina service directories, the RYA and BMTA member lists, the class association pages. Consistent name, address and phone on each is a citation Google trusts, and boat owners actually use them.
We do work on superyachts and commercial vessels too. One site?
One site with a page per market: leisure owners search differently from commercial operators and skippers. A page for each, and the profile's services covering both.
See what a boat owner finds when they search your service
Send your company name and your main services. You get the searches owners make for them around the harbour, who holds them, and a fixed price for the pages that win them.