Network disclosure
All ten sites in this network are published by Bay Area AEO. They cover answer engine optimization in the Bay Area from ten angles and link to one another so readers can move between related topics.
Why one record comes first
Bay Area AEO describes its entity and listing cleanup service in two sentences: AI pulls facts from Google, Bing, Apple Maps, Yelp and industry directories, and the agency makes a business's name, hours, services and details consistent everywhere it looks. The word that matters is “consistent”. Consistent with what? A business that edits each platform from memory ends up with five slightly different versions of itself, and an assistant reading all five sees a business it cannot quite pin down.
The master record solves this. It is a single document, owned by one person, that every listing and every web page is checked against. It also becomes the source for the structured data in chapter 25, so the markup on the site says exactly what the listings say.
What goes in it
The record holds every fact a customer might filter on, in the exact wording to be used.
| Field | What to record | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Business name | The name customers see on the sign and the receipt | No added keywords or city names; platforms penalize them and assistants repeat them |
| Address | Street, suite or unit, city, ZIP, in one fixed format | Pick “Suite 200” or “#200” and use it everywhere |
| Phone | The main local number | One primary number; a call-tracking number only if it is used consistently |
| Website | The canonical home page address | Same protocol and form every time (https, with or without www) |
| Regular hours | Opening and closing time for each day | Include whether the phone is answered outside these hours |
| Special hours | Holidays, seasonal changes, events | Dated, and set on every platform before the date |
| Categories | Primary category and secondary categories | Matched as closely as each platform allows; see chapter 14 |
| Services | Each service by its customer-facing name | The names customers use, with one-line descriptions |
| Service area | Cities and neighborhoods served | Named places, never just “the Bay Area” |
| Conditions | Insurance, payment, dietary options, accessibility, languages | The filters customers attach to questions |
| Credentials | License numbers, certifications, memberships | Exactly as they appear in the official record |
| Descriptions | A one-sentence and a one-paragraph description | Specific: what the business does best and for whom |
| Profiles | Every listing and directory URL | So nothing is forgotten in the next update |
Getting the name right
The business name is the field most often altered and the one where alteration does the most harm. It is tempting to list a dental practice as “Smile Dental – Best Dentist San Mateo”. Google's guidelines prohibit that, competitors report it, and an assistant reading the stuffed name will either repeat it awkwardly or treat the listing as less trustworthy. Use the real name, the one on the signage and the business license. If the legal name differs from the trading name (an LLC behind a restaurant, say), record both and note which one is public.
Multi-practitioner businesses need one more decision. A law firm, a medical group or a real estate team may have listings for the firm and for individual practitioners. Record which exist, which are wanted and how each one is named, so the firm's listing and the people's listings support each other without competing.
Hours deserve their own section
Hours look simple and cause more wrong AI answers than any other field. Bay Area AEO's coffee shop page says plainly that opening times are the most common error the agency finds. A record should hold the regular weekly hours, every planned exception for the next six months, the time zone behavior around daylight saving changes if the business opens early, and a note on what the phone does outside hours.
Businesses with more than one kind of hours should record each kind. A restaurant may have dining hours, kitchen hours, happy hour and brunch. A clinic may have office hours, phone hours and telehealth hours. Most platforms now allow more than one set, and an assistant answering “where can I get brunch at 2pm on Sunday in Oakland?” uses exactly that detail.
Writing the service area
For a business that travels to customers (a plumber, a cleaner, a caterer), the service area decides which questions it can match. “Serving the greater Bay Area” matches almost none. Bay Area AEO's plumbing page lists “city-level service areas” as one of the niche signals: the cities served, listed clearly, with response time expectations. Write the list of cities, then the neighborhoods within the main ones, then any limits (“Peninsula from Daly City to Redwood City; emergency calls in San Mateo and Burlingame only”).
Keep the list honest. A business that claims thirty cities and actually serves eight will be recommended for jobs it declines, and the reviews from those mismatches do lasting harm.
Two descriptions, written once
Write a one-sentence description and a one-paragraph description, and use them as the basis for every platform's description field. They should say what the business does best, for whom, and where, in plain words a customer might use. “Family dental practice in downtown San Mateo known for gentle care with anxious patients; accepts Delta Dental PPO and most major PPO plans” is a sentence an assistant can almost lift whole. “Your trusted partner for all your dental needs” gives it nothing.
Platform limits differ (Google allows 750 characters, for example), so write the paragraph to work when cut after its first two sentences.
Conflicts the record settles
Writing the record forces small decisions that, left open, turn into inconsistent listings. Is it “St.” or “Street”? Is the suite number part of the first address line or the second? Is the public phone number the local line or the toll-free one? Does the name include “LLC” or “Inc.”? Is the business “Bay Plumbing & Rooter” or “Bay Plumbing and Rooter”? Each of these looks trivial, and each one, multiplied across a dozen platforms, produces records that a machine has to work to match.
Make each decision once and write it down. The general rule: use the form customers see on the sign, on the receipt and in the phone greeting, and use it exactly the same way everywhere. If a platform forces a different format (some split the suite into its own field), follow the platform's structure while keeping the values identical.
The same applies to how the business describes its own specialties. If the practice calls it “Invisalign” on the website, “clear aligners” on Google and “orthodontics” on Yelp, an assistant reading all three may still connect them, but the business has made the match harder than it needs to be. Pick the customer's word as the main term and use the others as supporting phrases.
Who owns it, and where it lives
One person owns the master record. Others can suggest changes, but only the owner edits it, and every edit gets a date. Keep it somewhere the whole team can read: a shared document or spreadsheet is enough. Keep the login details for each platform separately in a password manager, never in the record itself.
When a fact changes (new hours, a new service, a move), the owner updates the record first, then works through the platform list in the same order every time. Chapter 30 covers that routine.
Building it in an afternoon
Gather what exists
Pull the current details from the website, the Google profile and the most recent invoice or receipt. Note every place they differ.
Decide each fact
For each conflict, decide which version is right, with the owner. Record the decision and the date.
Add the conditions
Insurance plans, dietary options, languages, accessibility, payment methods, lead times. Ask front-desk staff what customers check before booking.
List every profile
Search the business name on Google, Bing, Apple Maps and Yelp, and in the directories for the trade. Record each URL, and mark the ones nobody has claimed.
How the rest of Part 2 uses it
With the record in hand, each of the next chapters becomes a comparison: open the platform, compare every field with the record, correct the differences. Chapter 9 covers Google, chapter 10 Bing, chapter 11 Apple Maps, chapter 12 Yelp and booking platforms, and chapter 13 the directories for each trade. Chapter 15 deals with the listings that should not exist at all.
The same record drives the website. Every service in the record should have a home on the site, every condition should be stated in text, and the structured data should carry the record's exact values. When an assistant reads the site, the listings and the markup, it should find one business described one way.
The record is also the brief
When a business hires an agency, the master record is the fastest way to brief it. Bay Area AEO's onboarding starts with a short call to learn about the business and the customers it wants more of; arriving with the record already written turns that call into a discussion of priorities.
Related chapters9. Google Business Profile · 14. Categories and attributes · 25. LocalBusiness markup · 30. Keeping facts current