How to use this checklist
Work top to bottom — the groups are ordered by dependency, not by preference. There is no value in tuning Core Web Vitals on pages Google cannot crawl, and no value in structured data on pages that are not indexed.
Score each check pass, fail or partial. Anything failing in groups 1 and 2 is a blocker and goes into the current sprint; groups 3 to 6 are prioritised by traffic potential.
- Tools needed: Search Console, a crawler (Screaming Frog or Sitebulb), PageSpeed Insights, Rich Results Test
- Budget roughly half a day for a site under 500 URLs
- Re-run the full 42 quarterly, and groups 1–2 after every release
Group 1 — Crawling and site access (checks 1–7)
If a crawler cannot reach a page cleanly, nothing else on this list matters. Marine sites fail here more often than you would expect, usually because a booking engine or club members' area sits on a subdomain with its own rules.
Crawling and access
- 1.robots.txt exists, returns 200, and does not disallow templates you need indexed (booking, course, listing pages)
- 2.No stray Disallow: / left over from a staging environment
- 3.XML sitemap exists, is referenced in robots.txt, and contains only canonical, indexable, 200-status URLs
- 4.Sitemap regenerates automatically when pages are added — no hand-edited file drifting out of date
- 5.Crawl of the full site returns no 5xx errors and a countable, intentional set of 4xx
- 6.Redirect chains and loops eliminated; every redirect is a single 301 to a live URL
- 7.HTTPS enforced sitewide with no mixed content and a single canonical hostname (www or non-www, not both)
Group 2 — Indexation and duplication (checks 8–14)
The second most common marine failure: hundreds of near-duplicate berth, boat or destination pages competing with each other, plus filtered booking URLs multiplying into the index.
Indexation and duplication
- 8.Search Console Pages report reviewed: every 'Crawled – currently not indexed' and 'Discovered' bucket explained
- 9.Self-referencing canonical on every indexable page; no canonical pointing at the home page by default
- 10.Booking, availability and filter parameters handled — canonicalised, blocked or parameter-free by design
- 11.No noindex on money pages (charter itineraries, course intakes, berth enquiry, contact)
- 12.Pagination handled with crawlable links, not JavaScript-only 'load more'
- 13.Thin or duplicate location pages consolidated or genuinely differentiated with local content
- 14.Staging, dev and preview hostnames excluded from the index and password-protected
Group 3 — Speed, Core Web Vitals and mobile (checks 15–21)
Marine traffic skews mobile and skews to poor connectivity — boat show halls, marina offices, harbour car parks. Field data, not lab data, is the number that matters.
Performance and mobile
- 15.Core Web Vitals pass on field data (CrUX) for mobile, not just in Lighthouse
- 16.Largest Contentful Paint element identified per template and preloaded
- 17.Hero and gallery imagery served as WebP/AVIF at correct dimensions with width and height attributes
- 18.Below-fold imagery lazy-loaded; above-fold imagery never lazy-loaded
- 19.Render-blocking third-party scripts (chat, booking widgets, pixels) deferred or loaded on interaction
- 20.Tap targets, font sizes and form fields usable one-handed on a 375px viewport
- 21.No horizontal overflow on any template at 320–430px width
Group 4 — Rendering, architecture and internal links (checks 22–28)
Charter and booking sites are increasingly JavaScript applications, and that is fine — provided the content and links exist in the rendered HTML that Googlebot receives.
Rendering and architecture
- 22.Rendered HTML (URL Inspection → view crawled page) contains the main content and the primary nav links
- 23.Every important page reachable within three clicks of the home page
- 24.Internal links use descriptive, keyword-relevant anchor text — not 'read more' or 'click here'
- 25.Hub-and-spoke structure in place: service hub → service pages → location and case-study spokes
- 26.Orphan pages identified and either linked or removed
- 27.URL structure is readable, lowercase, hyphenated and stable — no dates or IDs in service URLs
- 28.Breadcrumb navigation present and matching the URL hierarchy
Group 5 — On-page, structured data and content signals (checks 29–35)
This is where marine sites bleed clicks: correct pages, ranking adequately, described so vaguely that nobody clicks them. Structured data belongs here — see our marine schema markup guide for copy-paste JSON-LD per template.
On-page and structured data
- 29.Unique title under 60 characters on every indexable page, with the primary keyword front-loaded
- 30.Unique meta description under 160 characters written as ad copy, not a summary
- 31.One H1 per page, matching search intent; logical H2/H3 hierarchy beneath it
- 32.Organization schema site-wide with a stable @id, referenced by page-level entities
- 33.Correct entity type per template: LocalBusiness, Product/Offer, BoatTrip, Course/CourseInstance, SportsEvent
- 34.FAQPage schema only where the answers are visible on the page
- 35.All structured data passes the Rich Results Test and validator.schema.org with zero errors
Group 6 — Local, international and measurement (checks 36–42)
The final group is what turns technical hygiene into attributable enquiries — and for marinas and schools, local consistency is a bigger lever than anything above it.
Local, international and measurement
- 36.NAP (name, address, phone) identical across the site, Google Business Profile and marine directories
- 37.Google Business Profile claimed, categorised correctly, and linked to the right landing page
- 38.Location pages carry genuine local content: conditions, access, berth or venue detail — not swapped town names
- 39.hreflang correct and reciprocal if you serve multiple languages or markets
- 40.Search Console and Bing Webmaster Tools verified, with sitemaps submitted and no unresolved manual actions
- 41.Analytics installed once, consent-gated, with enquiry, booking and call events firing correctly
- 42.Rank tracking live for the target keyword clusters, reported on a fixed weekly cadence
What to fix first
Nobody ships 42 fixes in one sprint. Sequence by blocker, then by reach: anything preventing crawling or indexing goes first, then whatever affects every template at once (site speed, schema in the layout), then page-level work on your highest-value templates.
The audit is only worth what the roadmap that follows it is worth. Every finding should carry an owner, an effort estimate and an expected effect — otherwise it is a document, not a project.
- Week 1: group 1 and 2 blockers, plus measurement so you can see the effect
- Weeks 2–4: sitewide performance and structured data in the layout
- Weeks 5–8: template-level on-page work on booking, course and location pages
- Ongoing: quarterly re-audit and weekly rank reporting
Run all 42 checks in order, treat groups 1 and 2 as blockers, and turn the results into a sequenced roadmap with owners and effort — a scored checklist plus a plan beats a 200-page audit PDF every time.
Frequently asked questions
What is a marine technical SEO audit?
It is a structured review of whether search engines can crawl, index, render and understand a marine website — marinas, charter fleets, brokerages, sailing schools and clubs. It covers crawling, indexation, Core Web Vitals, mobile usability, rendering, structured data, local consistency and measurement, and ends in a prioritised fix roadmap.
How long does a technical SEO audit take?
For a marine site under 500 URLs, roughly half a day to run the 42 checks and two to three days to turn the findings into a sequenced roadmap with effort estimates. Larger multi-location or multi-language sites take longer, mostly in the indexation and hreflang groups.
How often should we re-run it?
Run the full 42 quarterly, and re-run groups 1 and 2 — crawling and indexation — after every significant release, template change or CMS migration. Those two groups are where a single deployment can silently deindex a section of the site.
Do I need paid tools to run this checklist?
No. Search Console, PageSpeed Insights, the Rich Results Test and the free tier of a crawler will get you through all 42 checks. Paid crawlers and rank trackers make it faster and make ongoing monitoring practical, but they are not required for a first pass.
What is the difference between a technical audit and an SEO strategy?
The audit tells you what is broken; the strategy tells you what to build. A technical audit removes the constraints stopping existing pages from performing, while the keyword and content strategy decides which new pages should exist at all. Most marine sites need the audit first, because content investment on an uncrawlable site is wasted.
Does technical SEO matter if we get bookings from OTAs and directories?
Yes, and arguably more. Direct bookings avoid the platform commission, and technical health is what makes your own pages competitive against the aggregators for the same searches. Directories also cite your site, so a fast, well-structured site converts that referred traffic better.
Want the 42 points run on your site?
We run this audit as a fixed-scope engagement: all 42 checks scored, structured data written, and a sequenced roadmap with effort estimates you can hand to any developer.
See the marine technical SEO audit service