Golf Genius
How we diagnosed a Semrush project scoped to the wrong domain, traced a sitemap 403 error to a reverse proxy misconfiguration, and built a clear developer handoff roadmap for the market-leading golf tournament management platform.
Visit WebsiteChallenges Faced
Golf Genius's Semrush project was crawling the wrong domain scope entirely, the site was fully accessible on both www and non-www with no clear canonical, the sitemap was returning a 403 error rooted in infrastructure rather than code, and incomplete platform access was slowing down every fix.
A Semrush Project Scoped to the Wrong Domain
The client's Semrush project was set to crawl a subdomain rather than the root domain, mixing in three subdomains and inflating the crawl to 766 pages — when only 172 URLs actually belonged to golfgenius.com itself.
Duplicate www & Non-www Versions, No Clear Canonical
The site was fully accessible on both the www and non-www versions of the domain, with no clear signal to search engines about which version should be treated as authoritative.
A Sitemap 403 Rooted in Infrastructure, Not Code
The sitemap was returning a 403 error traced back to a reverse proxy configuration issue at the AWS DNS level — a problem no amount of theme-code editing could fix without the right infrastructure access.
Incomplete Platform Access Slowing Every Fix
Without full HubSpot and Semrush access, schema errors couldn't even be located in the available code, and robots.txt changes made in the theme weren't reflecting on the live site — symptoms of an access gap, not dead ends.
Our Strategy
A diagnosis-first approach for a complex, multi-subdomain infrastructure — fix the audit's scope before trusting its findings, trace every issue to its real root cause, and hand off a clear roadmap for what needs deeper access.
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Identified that the client's Semrush project was crawling a subdomain rather than the root domain, mixing in three subdomains and inflating the page count to 766 when only 172 URLs actually belonged to golfgenius.com
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Flagged the scoping error clearly so the audit itself could be trusted before acting on its findings
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Identified that the site was fully accessible on both www and non-www versions with no clear canonical signal, and requested GSC access to determine which version to standardize on
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Traced the sitemap's 403 error back to a reverse proxy configuration issue at the AWS DNS level, and specified exactly what access would be needed to fix it
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Identified that robots.txt changes made in the theme weren't reflecting on the live site — the same infrastructure access gap showing up a second way
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Resolved every Semrush issue possible within the access available, while clearly tracking what remained blocked
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Attempted to fix schema errors directly but couldn't locate the responsible code without further HubSpot access — flagged rather than guessed at a fix
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Received expanded HubSpot access mid-project and continued resolving issues as access came through
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Compiled a full documentation report for the client's own development team, covering crawl reports, exactly how to resolve each access-gated issue, and which issues were genuine platform limitations
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Gave the client a clear, actionable roadmap rather than a list of unresolved notices with no path forward
Results That Speak
A correctly scoped audit, root causes traced to the infrastructure level, and a clear roadmap handed to the client's own development team.
Of the Original Crawl Was Off-Domain Subdomains
Infrastructure Root Cause Identified
Canonical Domain Issues Flagged for Resolution
Full Developer Handoff Report Delivered
Before & Progress So Far
Semrush Site Audit results from the initial crawl compared to the latest snapshot as access-gated issues continue to be resolved.
Golf Genius
Golf Genius is the market-leading golf tournament management platform, used by 11,000+ golf clubs, resorts, and associations in 60+ countries to run competitions, leagues, and events. Running on a HubSpot site hosted on AWS with multiple subdomains, the platform needed a technical SEO partner comfortable diagnosing infrastructure-level issues, not just page-level ones.
Golf Genius
Golf Tournament & Event Management Software
Small Issues, Big Losses —
We Solve Both
Some technical SEO issues live in your code — others live in your infrastructure. Let our specialists tell the difference and give your development team a clear, correct roadmap either way.