- Owner
- Whoever signs off the stage
- Cadence
- Each quarter, and after any move or rebrand
- Time box
- One hour to review
- Output
- Signed control sheet
How to use the sheet
This is the sheet a project lead prints and carries into the quarterly review. It mirrors the five AEO signals Bay Area AEO builds for clients: consistent listings, specific reviews, an answer-ready website, structured data and trusted mentions. Two more blocks cover the plumbing underneath (whether AI crawlers can read the site) and the measurement on top (whether anyone can tell what changed).
A box gets ticked when its evidence is in the shared folder, and the reviewer initials it. If the reviewer cannot find the evidence in two minutes, the box stays empty and the item goes on next month's board. That rule keeps the sheet honest without turning it into an essay.
Block 1: consistent listings
The business name, hours and address read the same on Google and Bing, on Apple Maps and on Yelp.
Block 2: specific reviews
Customers describe what the business does best, in their own words.
Block 3: answer-ready website
Clear pages that answer the exact questions people ask AI.
Block 4: structured data
Schema markup tells AI the services, service area and hours.
Block 5: trusted mentions
Local press and neighborhood guides name the business, and so do the directories assistants trust.
Block 6: crawler access
None of the five signals reaches an assistant if its crawler is turned away at the door.
Block 7: measurement
Bay Area AEO builds a list of the real questions a business's customers ask AI, such as "best family dentist in San Mateo," and runs them across every major AI platform each month. The client sees how often they are mentioned, how they are described, which competitors appear and which sources the AI cites.
Sign-off
Seven blocks fully ticked means the business has every input an assistant looks for. Partial blocks go straight onto the next 90-day board with the procedure that fixes them; the sidebar links each block to its SOP. The sheet prints on two pages with the navigation hidden, so it can be signed by hand and scanned into the folder.
Evidence key
Each block has a typical piece of evidence. Listings: the field match sheets and the change log. Reviews: the request log and a screenshot of recent replies. Website: the published URLs and a passage test sheet per page. Structured data: the validator result saved as a PDF or screenshot with the date. Mentions: the target list and outreach log, with links to anything published. Access: a copy of robots.txt and a note from whoever manages the firewall or CDN. Measurement: this month's capture sheet. If the evidence for a box is something else, write what it is beside the box so the next reviewer knows where to look.
Businesses with several locations
Print one sheet per location for blocks 1 and 3, because listings and service-area pages are location-specific, and one shared sheet for the other blocks. A three-location practice in the Tri-Valley would sign three listing blocks, for Pleasanton, Dublin and Livermore, and one sheet for the rest. Location sheets roll up to the shared sheet only when every location's block is complete.
Who signs the sheet
The reviewer should be someone who did not do the work in that block. In a small business that may be the owner checking the office manager's listings, and the office manager checking the writer's pages. The second pair of eyes catches the errors the person doing the work stopped seeing.
File the signed sheet in the quarter's folder, beside the 90-day board it was reviewed against.