We tested Norfolk homepages at a median SEO score of 100. That's where the work starts.

Credit where it's due. Links a search engine can't follow appear on only 2 of the 42 homepages we tested, 5% against 21% in our 31-city sample. Links with no name run 21% against 46%. Vague link text runs 24% against 32%. A search description shows on 86% against 82%, about the same. A score like that is a checklist, though, and it doesn't measure rankings, content or how many other firms want the same search. If a vendor shows you a perfect audit as if it were an achievement, ask what it plans to do next month.

Two basics are worth finishing. A single H1 appears on 21 of 42, 50% against 61%, which is the clearest place these pages trail the sample. Business markup is on 45% against 45%, dead even, and markup of any kind on 71% against 78%. So plenty of homepages haven't told a search engine in its own format what kind of business they are. It's a small job. We can't promise it moves you up, but we'd do it anyway because it's cheap and true.

After that, the map. Norfolk has 6,518 business establishments. Virginia Beach and Chesapeake are next-door neighbors and Portsmouth sits close by, so a firm should be plain about which cities it really serves. A page per service and per city, with something true to say about each, is the work. A restaurant might write about festival weekends. A plumber or handyman might write for landlords and renters, since most occupied homes here are rented. Content like this is slow, and SEO starts at $575 a month, depending on competition and scope. The Norfolk report has the numbers.