METHOD / ENTRY 17
A field-by-field guide to Bay Area AEO's monthly report: mentions, descriptions, competitors and cited sources, recorded for each question on each platform.
Bay Area AEO's FAQ lists what a client sees each month: how often the business is mentioned, how it is described, which competitors appear and which sources the AI cites. Each answer to each question on each platform produces one row with those four fields. This entry is a reader's data dictionary for that row.
| Field | What it records | What it tells the owner |
|---|---|---|
| Question | The panel question, word for word | Which customer need the row is about |
| Platform | ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, Claude, Google AI Overviews or another assistant | Where customers would see this answer |
| Mentioned | Whether the business is named, counted across the panel as a frequency | Overall visibility |
| Description | How the answer describes the business | Whether AI has the facts right |
| Competitors | Other businesses named in the same answer | Who holds the spots |
| Sources | Pages and listings the assistant cites | Where the work should go next |
Frequency is the field owners look at first. A business named in one answer is visible to the customers who asked that one question on that one platform. Counted across the panel and the platforms, frequency shows how much of the customer conversation includes the business. It is the number that moves as listing fixes take hold in the first weeks and as content and mentions build over the following months.
The description field records what the assistant says about the business. It matters because a mention carries the assistant's framing. An answer that says a dental practice "takes Delta Dental and is known for gentle care" sends a different patient through the door than one that names the practice with no detail. Bay Area AEO's stated goal is for a business to be in the answer "described accurately, with a reason to choose you," and this field is where accuracy and reason are checked.
An AI answer usually names two or three businesses. The competitors field records who the others are. Over several months it shows which rivals hold steady, which appear only on certain platforms, and which slip when the client's signals improve. It also helps the owner read the market: a competitor that appears everywhere often has the listings and reviews, and the mentions, that the client is building.
Cited sources are the working field. When Perplexity lists a Yelp page, a neighborhood guide and a business's own FAQ as the basis of its answer, the client learns exactly which documents the assistant trusts for that question. Those documents become the to-do list: a listing to correct, a guide to pitch, a page to write. The Top Business Awards US listing names this field when it describes the agency's reports of "which sources are cited."
The first two fields identify the row. The question field holds the panel question exactly as written, so the same row can be found again next month. The platform field records which assistant answered. Keeping the platform separate lets the owner see that a business is named by Perplexity and Gemini but missing from ChatGPT, or the other way round, and then look at the sources field to see why. Over time, the two identifying fields make the report a grid: every question down one side, every platform across the top.
The fields are most useful side by side. A rising mention frequency with an accurate description and a shift in sources toward the client's own pages is a clear sign that the work is reaching the answers. The before and after answers entry explains how two months of rows are compared, and the methodology entry explains how the rows are produced.