The MAPS Method
The MAPS Method Audit

Where is your AI visibility constraint?

Score each statement from 0 to 4. This is a directional baseline, not a scientific benchmark. The purpose is to identify where the next hour of work is more likely to matter.

Meaning
Our category, offering and audience are stated explicitly on key pages.
We have a defined prompt universe mapped to audiences and journey stages.
The important relationships between brand, products, people, topics and markets are clear.
AI systems generally describe the brand accurately and without entity confusion.
Authority
Priority claims are backed by specific first-party evidence and documented outcomes.
Relevant experts, authors and reviewers are visible and credibly represented.
Independent sources corroborate the category, capabilities and reputation we want associated with the brand.
We know which authority gaps separate us from stronger competitors.
Presence
We are visible across the core and fan-out searches that surround priority prompts.
We appear in the third-party source environments our audience and AI systems use.
We have mapped competitor source gaps and chosen which ones are strategically worth closing.
Presence has been assessed by market, platform and source type where those differences matter.
Signals
Priority pages are crawlable, indexable, render correctly and are internally discoverable.
Pages use clear structure, explicit entities and extractable answer/evidence blocks.
Structured data and entity identifiers reinforce facts that are already correct on the page.
Authorship, dates, provenance and transactional facts are sufficiently clear for verification and use.

0 = missing, 1 = weak/inconsistent, 2 = present but incomplete, 3 = strong, 4 = defensible and consistently maintained.

Interpret the result

The total score matters less than the shape.

Meaning

If this is weak, define the entity, audience, journey, prompt universe and relationships before doing more distribution.

Authority

If this is weak, build proof and corroboration. More pages will not compensate for weak evidence.

Presence

If this is weak, map the source ecosystem and fan-outs around priority decisions, then close meaningful gaps.

Signals

If this is weak, remove technical and structural friction so systems can access, resolve and use the evidence you already have.

Need a deeper MAPS audit?

The full version adds prompt baselines, competitor source analysis, entity/fact reconciliation and an implementation backlog.

Talk to Grant