Niche signal worksheet

Owner

Project lead

Cadence

Once, before the content stage

Time box

One hour

Output

Signal matrix for the niche

Why each niche needs its own signals

The five general AEO signals apply to every business: consistent listings, specific reviews, an answer-ready website, structured data and trusted mentions. But the details an assistant needs in order to recommend a dentist are different from the details it needs to recommend a brewery. A patient asks about insurance and nervousness; a visitor asks about dogs, food trucks and what is on tap. Bay Area AEO tailors its work to how each niche's customers ask AI for help, and it publishes a set of niche-specific signals for each of the forty niches it covers across four industries.

This worksheet is the bridge between those published signals and the procedures in this playbook. It takes a few minutes per niche and saves hours of guessing in the content stage.

The forty niches and their signals

The table lists each niche with the signals Bay Area AEO names beyond the two that every niche shares (consistent listings and specific reviews, which run through the listings and review procedures).

Procedure

1. Find the niche

   Locate the business in the table. A business that spans two niches, such as a bakery that also caters, takes both rows.

2. Copy the signals

   Write each signal as a row in a blank matrix with three more columns: what to publish, where it must appear and the evidence to file.

3. Fill the placements

   For each signal, name the page, listing or directory where it belongs. Most signals need at least one page and one listing.

4. Assign procedures

   Tag each row with the SOP that will deliver it: a service page, an FAQ, a listing, structured data or outreach.

5. Add panel questions

   Write at least one prompt-panel question that tests each signal, such as a question that names the condition the signal answers.

6. Put it on the board

   Add the rows to the 90-day board in the stage where their procedure runs.

How to read a signal

Most signals fall into four families, and knowing the family tells you which procedure delivers it. Detail signals, such as menu specifics, treatment pages or loan program pages, become service pages and FAQs. Credential signals, such as license verification, board certification or NMLS consistency, become fact-sheet fields that every listing and bio repeats. Logistics signals, such as early hours, booking clarity or a regular truck schedule, become listing fields and structured data. Outside signals, such as editorial coverage, tourism placement or partner mentions, go on the press and guides target list.

Four niches have full procedures in this section because their signals need the most coordination: restaurants, dentists, plumbers and law firms. Their matrices show how a finished worksheet looks.