Shipyards & Marine · Industrial SEO

SEO For Shipbuilding — your market is a few hundred people on earth. Reach them.

A yard wins a handful of orders a year. Search volume is tiny, so traffic is a meaningless number here — and anyone selling you visitors has misunderstood your business. Shipbuilding SEO does one job: be there when a technical manager researches retrofit capability, class approvals, or a newbuild at three in the morning.

150+
Keywords ranked top 10
7+
Years in SEO & performance
3
Markets: India · UAE · Europe
50+
Client sites optimized

Currently taking on 2 new clients this quarter — I keep the roster small so the work stays senior.

No lock-in contracts30 days' notice, any time
You work with meNo account managers
Reported on enquiriesNever on traffic vanity
Honest auditsTold if you don't need me
§ 01 — Overview

What industrial SEO does for a shipyard.

SEO for shipbuilding means being visible to shipowners, technical and fleet managers, offshore and energy operators, marine contractors, and naval procurement teams. It is a small, specific, extremely valuable audience.

Start with the thing that makes this industry different from every other one on this site. Your entire market is perhaps a few hundred people on the planet. A yard wins three to six orders in a good year. Search volumes for your terms are measured in dozens, not thousands.

Which means traffic is a meaningless metric here, and anyone quoting it at you has misunderstood the business. You are not optimising for a market. You are optimising for a small number of named technical managers, and the only question that matters is whether your capability page is there when one of them goes looking. If a single retrofit contract comes from it, the programme has paid for itself many times over. That is not marketing arithmetic — it is just arithmetic.

And there is a rare opening right now. Decarbonisation regulation is creating demand faster than the industry is publishing about it. Owners are working out EEXI and CII compliance, weighing methanol and ammonia dual-fuel conversions, scheduling ballast water and scrubber retrofits — and searching for yards who can actually do the work. What they find is very little. A yard that writes plainly about retrofit capability today walks into a category with almost no competition in it.

What a managed program includes

  • Full industrial SEO audit (80+ checkpoints)
  • Technical fixes: crawl, indexation, Core Web Vitals
  • Capability data pulled out of PDF brochures
  • Class & approvals pages (DNV, LR, ABS, BV)
  • Retrofit & compliance content — EEXI, CII, dual-fuel
  • Every delivered vessel as a real reference page
  • Dock dimensions, crane capacity, berth availability
  • International SEO for owners in Greece, DACH, Gulf, Asia
  • Enquiry-level reporting — never traffic vanity
§ 02 — Why Work With Me

Measured in enquiries, not traffic charts.

In an industry where one contract can dwarf a decade of marketing spend, counting visitors is beside the point. What matters is whether the right people found the right page.

Maritime & industrial expertise

Class-led qualification, retrofit-driven demand, and the very small buyer universe that makes shipbuilding SEO unlike anything else.

Decarbonisation content

EEXI, CII, dual-fuel and retrofit work — the searches owners are running right now, and finding almost nothing.

AI-powered SEO strategy

Custom agents run audits, competitor monitoring and content operations. Senior output without agency overhead.

International SEO

Hreflang and country targeting for owners in Greece, Germany, Singapore and the Gulf — and German-language SEO written natively.

Dedicated SEO manager

The strategist and the implementer are one person. Nothing is lost between the plan and the build, because there is no handover.

Honest reporting

I will not dress up a traffic graph in a business that runs on six orders a year. You get rankings on the terms that matter, and who arrived.

§ 03 — Services

Every shipbuilding SEO service — under one strategy.

Start with the audit, or run several together as a managed program. Each exists to move one number: qualified enquiries received.

Technical SEO For Shipbuilding

Crawl, indexation and speed — plus getting dock dimensions, crane capacities and class approvals out of PDF brochures. Benefit: usually the fastest gain available.

Fix my foundations

Retrofit & Compliance SEO

EEXI, CII, dual-fuel conversion, ballast water, scrubbers. Benefit: the biggest open opportunity in maritime search — regulation is creating the demand and nobody is answering it.

Claim this category

Class & Approvals SEO

DNV, Lloyd's Register, ABS, Bureau Veritas — a page per approval scope. Benefit: you stop being screened out before anyone speaks to you.

Show my approvals

Project & Reference Page Optimization

Every delivered vessel as a real page — type, dimensions, class, propulsion, yard number, and what was hard about it. Benefit: your best proof, finally readable.

Build my references

On-Page SEO For Shipbuilding

Capability pages rebuilt around vessel type, dock capacity, and what you can actually take on. Benefit: pages a technical manager can shortlist from.

Optimize my pages

Off-Page SEO For Shipbuilding

Authority from maritime trade press, class societies and industry bodies. Benefit: one strong link lifts every capability page at once.

Build authority

SEO Audit For Shipbuilding

80+ checkpoints across technical, content, class, international and authority, ranked by impact. Benefit: you learn which fix produces an enquiry first.

Get my free audit

SEO Consulting For Shipbuilding

For yards with a marketing team already in place — strategy, training, monthly advisory. Benefit: your team works the priorities that matter.

Book a consult

SEO Content Strategy For Shipbuilding

Compliance explainers, fuel-pathway comparisons, drydock planning guidance — what a technical manager reads while deciding. Benefit: you enter the decision early.

Plan my content

Keyword Research For Shipbuilding

Vessel type, capability, class, and compliance intent. Low volume, extremely high value — the opposite of how keyword research is usually done. Benefit: effort where the orders are.

Map my keywords

Link Building For Shipbuilding

Earned coverage from maritime publications and industry bodies. No networks, no bought placements. Benefit: credibility in an industry built on it.

Earn real links

Digital PR For Shipbuilding

Deliveries, dock investments, class approvals, retrofit milestones — news the maritime press will run. Benefit: authority a competitor cannot buy.

Launch a PR campaign

Schema & Core Web Vitals

Structured data plus LCP and INP on sites heavy with vessel and dock photography. Benefit: a manager on poor connectivity at a port office still reaches you.

Speed up my site

Competitor SEO Analysis

Which yards surface on your vessel types and retrofit terms, with which pages and links. Benefit: you contest the handful of searches that matter.

Analyze my rivals

International & Enterprise SEO

Hreflang and country targeting for owners in Greece, Germany, Singapore and the Gulf, across several yards. Benefit: reach at a fraction of a delegation's cost.

Go international
§ 04 — Process

How the work runs — discovery through continuous optimization.

01

SEO discovery

Your yard, docks, tonnage, class approvals, vessel types, retrofit capability, markets, and what a good enquiry looks like.

02

Website audit

80+ checkpoints across technical, on-page, content and authority, delivered as a ranked action list.

03

Technical SEO audit

Crawl, indexation, speed, schema — usually where the capability brochure turns out to be invisible.

04

Competitor analysis

Which yards outrank you on your vessel types and on retrofit terms, and with what.

05

Keyword research

Low volume, high value. Vessel type, capability, class, compliance — ranked by distance from a contract.

06

Class & approvals pages

DNV, Lloyd's Register, ABS, Bureau Veritas — the filter an owner applies before anything else.

07

Retrofit & compliance content

EEXI, CII, dual-fuel, ballast water, scrubbers. The category nobody has claimed yet.

08

Capability page optimization

Dock dimensions, crane capacity, tonnage, berth availability — and a clear enquiry route.

09

Reference pages

Every delivered vessel as a page. Your track record turned from a photo grid into evidence.

10

Link building

Maritime trade press, class societies and industry bodies — authority in an industry that runs on it.

11

Performance tracking

Rankings on the terms that matter, and which companies are landing on which pages.

12

Monthly reporting

A plain-language report and a call. No traffic theatre in a business that runs on six orders a year.

§ 05 — Benefits

What your business actually gains.

More qualified B2B leads

Owners and technical managers with a vessel and a deadline.

Higher Google rankings

On the few dozen terms your actual buyers type.

Retrofit & compliance work

Regulation-driven demand in a category nobody has claimed.

Class approvals visible

You stop being screened out before the conversation starts.

More marine enquiries

From owners and operators who had never heard of the yard.

Government & offshore leads

Visible during the quiet prequalification nobody sees.

International opportunities

Owners abroad researching before they ever travel.

Better Core Web Vitals

Vessel photography that no longer costs you the port-office visitor.

Better brand visibility

Credibility in an industry where reputation is the whole currency.

Higher ROI

One contract can dwarf a decade of marketing spend. The maths is simple.

§ 06 — Who I Serve

Built for every kind of yard and marine business.

A naval procurement officer and a yacht buyer search nothing alike. The playbook adapts to what you build.

Commercial shipbuilders

Newbuild yards across tankers, bulkers and container vessels.

Naval shipbuilders

Defence yards where prequalification happens long before tender.

Offshore vessel builders

OSVs and offshore support for energy and wind.

Cargo ship builders

Bulk and general cargo tonnage for commercial owners.

Cruise & passenger

Passenger vessels with long cycles and complex outfitting.

Ship repair & drydock

Repair yards competing on slot availability and location.

Retrofit & conversion yards

The growth story: EEXI, CII, dual-fuel, ballast water, scrubbers.

Marine engineering

Engineering and design houses serving owners and yards.

Boat manufacturers

Workboats, patrol craft and commercial small craft.

Yacht builders

Superyacht and leisure yards with a very different buyer.

Maritime equipment

Propulsion, deck and marine systems suppliers.

Multi-yard groups

Groups running several yards and service lines.

§ 07 — Results

Representative engagements — problem, solution, result.

Clients are anonymized, and outcomes are described directionally rather than dressed up with figures I cannot show you. Referenced detail is available on a call.

Repair yard · Retrofit & compliance content

Problem: The yard could do ballast water and scrubber retrofits and had never written a word about it. Owners facing compliance deadlines were searching for exactly that and finding nothing.
Solution: Published clear retrofit capability content — what the work involves, dock requirements, timelines, class implications.
Result: Rankings in a category with almost no competition, and enquiries from technical managers at owners the yard had never worked with.

Commercial yard · References & technical SEO

Problem: Forty years of delivered vessels displayed as a photo gallery. Dock dimensions, tonnage and class approvals lived in a brochure PDF. The proof was there; Google could read none of it.
Solution: A page per delivered vessel, capability data onto real pages, indexation fixed.
Result: The track record became searchable, and enquiries began arriving referencing specific reference vessels.

Marine engineering · International SEO

Problem: New business came almost entirely from an existing network and two conferences a year. Owners in other markets never encountered the company at all.
Solution: Hreflang and country targeting, keyword research inside target markets, and capability content written for the technical manager rather than the brochure.
Result: Rankings established abroad, with enquiries beginning to arrive from owners outside the founder's network.

§ 08 — What Clients Say

Feedback from marine businesses.

Shared with permission, names withheld. References available during your consultation.

"Every agency we spoke to promised us traffic. We don't want traffic. There are maybe two hundred people on earth who can give us an order, and we needed those two hundred to find one page."

— Commercial Director, commercial shipyard

"We'd been doing ballast water retrofits for years and never written about it. Owners were searching for it and finding our competitors' silence instead of ours."

— Yard Manager, ship repair & drydock

"Forty years of vessels, sitting in a photo gallery. It was the strongest thing we owned and Google couldn't read a single word of it."

— Marketing Head, marine engineering company

§ 09 — The Bigger Picture

Why search matters even when the market is tiny.

A few hundred buyers

You are not optimising for a market. You are optimising for a small number of named technical managers. One of them finding the right page can change a year.

Traffic is the wrong metric

Low volume, enormous value. Anyone quoting visitor counts at a shipyard has misunderstood what they are selling into.

Regulation is creating demand

EEXI, CII, dual-fuel, ballast water. Owners are searching for yards who can do the work and finding very little. The category is open, right now.

Class is the filter

DNV, Lloyd's Register, ABS, Bureau Veritas. An owner checks approvals before anything else. Bury them in a PDF and you are screened out silently.

Tenders start long before the tender

Prequalification and shortlisting happen quietly, months ahead. Being credible during that period is what gets a yard onto the invited list.

Relationships have a limit

They get you into the room with people you already know. Search gets you into the room with the ones you don't — which is where growth actually lives.

§ 10 — The Difference

Without vs. with professional SEO.

AreaWithout professional SEOWith professional SEO
The metricTraffic charts nobody can bankEnquiries from named owners
Retrofit workCapability nobody knows you haveRanking on a category no one contests
Class approvalsBuried in a brochure PDFA page each, clearing the filter
Track recordA photo gallery Google can't readEvery vessel a reference page
New businessThe founder's network, and conferencesOwners who've never heard of you
TendersYou hear about it when it's publishedVisible during quiet prequalification
ReportingVanity dashboardsWho arrived, on what, and why
Free · No Email Wall

The 80-point SEO audit — run on your site, by me.

Not a template with your email address as the price. I look at your actual site and tell you what is broken, whether your class approvals and retrofit capability are findable at all, and what the next 90 days should look like. If it turns out you do not need me, I will tell you that instead.

§ 11 — Engagement Models

Three ways to work together.

Cost follows your yard, your markets, and the competition in them. The written quote comes after the free audit.

Starter SEO

Audit-led foundations for yards taking search seriously for the first time.

  • Full 80+ checkpoint SEO audit
  • Technical fixes implemented
  • Capability data out of PDF brochures
  • Class & approvals pages
  • Monthly performance report
Request Starter Quote

Enterprise SEO

Several yards, multiple service lines, multiple markets.

  • Group-wide optimization at scale
  • Multi-market international SEO
  • Dedicated digital PR campaigns
  • Conversion optimization program
  • Quarterly strategy workshops
Request Enterprise Quote
§ 12 — FAQ

Questions shipyards ask most.

What is SEO for shipbuilding?
It is the work of getting a shipyard found on Google by the very small number of people who commission, repair or retrofit vessels — shipowners, technical managers, offshore operators, marine contractors and naval procurement. It covers technical health, capability and project pages, class and compliance content, and the links pointing in. The goal is enquiries, not traffic.
Our market is tiny. Does SEO even make sense?
It makes more sense here than almost anywhere, but not for the reason agencies usually give. You are not optimising for a market — you are optimising for perhaps a few hundred people on the planet who can actually place an order. Search volume is irrelevant. If the technical manager of one owner finds your retrofit capability page and it leads to a single contract, the programme has paid for itself many times over. Anyone selling you "more visitors" has misunderstood your business.
Why do shipbuilding companies need SEO?
Because owners and technical managers research quietly before they approach anyone. They shortlist yards on capability, class approvals, dock dimensions and track record, then contact two or three. Relationships still matter enormously in this industry — but relationships get you into the room with people you already know. Search gets you into the room with people who have never heard of you.
Can SEO generate marine industry leads?
Yes, and the ones it generates are serious. Nobody searches "methanol dual-fuel retrofit yard" or "chemical tanker newbuild capability" casually. They have a vessel, a compliance deadline, or a fleet decision. The enquiries are few and very large.
How long does SEO take?
Technical fixes usually show in 4 to 8 weeks. Capability and retrofit pages climbing takes 3 to 6 months. Given that shipbuilding decisions run over months or years anyway, the work you do now meets the owner who begins researching next quarter.
How much does shipbuilding SEO cost?
It depends on your yard, your markets, and the competition in them. Every engagement starts with an audit and a fixed scope, then a monthly retainer. The written quote follows the free audit, not before anyone has looked at the site.
Which keywords should a shipyard target?
Vessel type, capability, dock dimensions, class approvals, and — most importantly right now — compliance and retrofit work. "EEXI compliance retrofit," "ballast water treatment system installation," "methanol dual-fuel conversion," "scrubber retrofit yard." These are low-volume, extremely high-intent, and largely uncontested because almost nobody has written about them.
Why does decarbonisation matter for our SEO?
Because regulation is creating demand faster than the industry is publishing about it. Owners are working out how to comply with EEXI and CII, whether to convert to dual-fuel methanol or ammonia, and who can actually do the work. They are searching for answers — and finding very little. A yard that publishes clearly on retrofit capability walks into a category with almost no competition. This is the single biggest open opportunity in maritime SEO today.
How do class societies affect our visibility?
They are the filter. An owner checks DNV, Lloyd's Register, ABS or Bureau Veritas approvals before they look at anything else, because a yard without the right class approvals cannot do the work. If your approvals live in a PDF instead of on a page, you are being screened out silently by owners who would have qualified you.
What is technical SEO?
The foundations: whether Google can crawl your site, index it, and load it fast. Shipyards fail this routinely — capability data, dock dimensions, crane capacities and class approvals sit in PDF brochures, and the reference list is a gallery of photographs with almost no text.
Do you optimize shipbuilding project pages?
Yes, and the reference list is usually the most wasted asset on a shipyard site. Every delivered vessel should be a page: type, dimensions, class, propulsion, yard number, and what was difficult about it. That is a body of proof, and right now most yards have it as a photo grid Google cannot read.
Can SEO help with government and naval tenders?
Indirectly, and it matters more than people assume. Prequalification and shortlisting happen long before a tender is published, and procurement teams research capability quietly. Being visible and credible during that period is what gets a yard onto the invited list.
Can SEO help us reach international buyers?
Yes, and shipping is inherently international. Owners in Greece, Germany, Singapore and the Gulf research online before they travel. Hreflang, country targeting, and research inside the target market reach them for a fraction of what a delegation or an exhibition costs.
How important are Core Web Vitals?
Important, and yard sites are heavy offenders — huge photography of vessels and docks. A technical manager checking capability from a ship or a port office on poor connectivity will not wait, and Google factors the same scores into rankings.
What is an SEO audit?
A structured review of everything blocking your visibility — technical, content, class and compliance, competitors and authority — ranked by impact. Mine runs 80+ checkpoints and ends with the single fix most likely to produce an enquiry, so you know where to start before committing budget.
How is ROI measured?
Honestly, and differently from other industries. Enquiries are few, so counting them monthly tells you little. What gets tracked is whether the right pages rank for the exact terms your buyers use, whether the right companies are landing on them, and whether real enquiries arrive. In a business where one contract can dwarf a decade of marketing spend, that is the only sensible way to measure.
Ready to grow?

Be the yard they find at three in the morning.

The free audit shows whether your class approvals and retrofit capability are findable at all, what is broken technically, and what the next 90 days should look like. No commitment. And if your site turns out to be in decent shape, I will say so rather than invent work.

Locations Served

SEO for shipbuilding across Europe.

Delivered remotely, with keyword research done inside each target market and German-language SEO written natively for DACH owners and operators.

SEO For Shipbuilding in GermanySEO For Shipbuilding in AustriaSEO For Shipbuilding in SwitzerlandSEO For Shipbuilding in the United KingdomSEO For Shipbuilding in IrelandSEO For Shipbuilding in FranceSEO For Shipbuilding in the NetherlandsSEO For Shipbuilding in BelgiumSEO For Shipbuilding in LuxembourgSEO For Shipbuilding in SpainSEO For Shipbuilding in PortugalSEO For Shipbuilding in ItalySEO For Shipbuilding in GreeceSEO For Shipbuilding in MaltaSEO For Shipbuilding in CyprusSEO For Shipbuilding in DenmarkSEO For Shipbuilding in SwedenSEO For Shipbuilding in NorwaySEO For Shipbuilding in FinlandSEO For Shipbuilding in IcelandSEO For Shipbuilding in PolandSEO For Shipbuilding in the Czech RepublicSEO For Shipbuilding in SlovakiaSEO For Shipbuilding in HungarySEO For Shipbuilding in SloveniaSEO For Shipbuilding in CroatiaSEO For Shipbuilding in RomaniaSEO For Shipbuilding in BulgariaSEO For Shipbuilding in SerbiaSEO For Shipbuilding in Bosnia and HerzegovinaSEO For Shipbuilding in North MacedoniaSEO For Shipbuilding in AlbaniaSEO For Shipbuilding in MontenegroSEO For Shipbuilding in EstoniaSEO For Shipbuilding in LatviaSEO For Shipbuilding in LithuaniaSEO For Shipbuilding in UkraineSEO For Shipbuilding in Moldova

Highlighted locations link to a dedicated guide — more country guides are published regularly.

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