Blood and Treasure Make Good SEO: How To Use Your Region’s History
For every wondrous or tragic event in North American history, there’s a future generation who wants to return to it and live what was lived then.
Marketing has been relevant throughout history, but not everyone knows that history is relevant in modern marketing. When we provide SEO services for marinas, certain keyword phrases are commonly important: “boat rentals near me.” “Best boat storage.” “Things to do on Lake so-and-so.”
When you get beyond the standard “low-hanging fruit” search engine terms to layer into your marina’s website, dominating a crowded local market requires creativity. Adding regionally nuanced web pages and blog posts to your site strengthens page authority and brings increased visibility.
All it takes is a little blood and treasure.
The closing scene of 2002’s Gangs of New York depicts the grown-over history of today’s New York City.
The concept of local history in marina marketing
Every marina exists in an area rich with lore. See the New York City (fictional but historical) scene above. The land you walk on today has been tilled and molded and grown over many times before. It may be the war fought on your river’s banks, it may be the whimsical eccentric fur trader named Old Mimsy who murdered his partner at your lake, and now people wonder why your marina location is at a place called Mimsy’s Bluff. Even the man-made reservoir built in the 1960s – with presumably no inherent legend – probably has a story or two about a ghost child who wanders across the lake at night.
Let’s talk real-world examples: Marinas on Florida’s eastern coast within three linked counties are known to exist on the Treasure Coast, a tourist destination called so because a Spanish fleet shipwrecked here in 1715 and dumped a bunch of gold and silver in the surf. Visitors today still occasionally find a washed-up coin.
Silver recovered from the 1715 treasure fleet
Photo: Wikipedia
Move up the coast and places like Sullivan’s Island near Charleston have prolific Revolutionary War history. Any marina on the Great Lakes is near hundreds of fabled shipwrecks, titans of industry, and the history of fur, fishing, coal, and steel. Head to the northeast and modern sophisticated marinas in coastal ports were once havens for the richest whaling industry in America.
Visitors search for this lore digitally on their phones and laptops, and then they want to visit.
How you factor into your marina’s regional lore
One of Lake Superior’s most famous shipwrecks, the Edmund Fitzgerald.
Photo: Great Lakes Shipwreck Museum
When boaters visit your lake, river, or coast, they make plans. They’ll eat breakfast here, shop here, and then? Maybe they’ll look up “Lake Superior shipwrecks” as a touristy curiosity. In this example, there is literally a Lake Superior boat cruise company with a page about Lake Superior shipwrecks on the first page of the search results. They have executed this strategy admirably.
The person who researches local lore and legends on the water may wish to know more from an authority. Be that authority, and tie in your marina’s proximity to historic legend. You’re not just a 180-slip marina with pump-out services, you’re a historic destination on shorelines awash with stories bursting to come alive again.
How you can execute marina marketing with history
A marina manager who has a sound writer on the team is ahead of the curve: This approach requires writing page copy for your website. Modes of narrative that can live on your website forever include:
- Blog posts
- Website pages
- Image galleries of historic local attractions
Most marina managers are not utilizing industry-standard keyword analysis tools like Moz or Ahrefs. The crude but inexpensive way to gauge visitor interest is to type a common “long-tail” keyword phrase and see what kind of traffic it already has. For example, inland Pennsylvania is not a region known for booming marina business. A very small but popular lake is Lake Nockamixon in Bucks County. Type in “History of Lake Nockamixon” and one sees that several local newspapers have covered it, along with a personal blog, a local school district, and Wikipedia. There are indeed boat rental services surrounding Lake Nockamixon, and a savvy business owner might see this gap of information and create a “history of Lake Nockamixon” page on their “boat rental” website page.
Forget the SEO: History is fun
You’re here for the marketing – we get it. But the land and water you work on is embedded with so many voices that came before. On a journey to grow your business, you may enter down a side trail, an unpaved path:
A journey to honor legacies that inform what is today.
The Hammer and Nail Marketing team are experts in providing effective SEO services. If you’re thinking about growing your marketing in 2025 and would like to discuss a unique plan for your marina, check out our SEO page for marinas or message us. We’d love to talk.
Article by Hammer and Nail Marketing
WHAT IS HAMMER & NAIL?
Hammer and Nail Marketing is a boutique marketing firm that helps small to mid-sized marina groups and marinas get noticed by boaters. If you’d like to focus on operating your marina without the additional responsibility of marketing, get in touch with us.
We’re boaters ourselves from a background of operating a family-run marina. From a group of experts who know the water, let Hammer and Nail Marketing help you be the waterfront your local boaters see every time they cast off.
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR NEWSLETTER
No spam, we promise! Just the latest marina marketing tips.
0 Comments