EntityMap: The MAPS Method

Human view of /entitymap.json (EntityMap v1.0), generated 2026-11-01T19:40:34Z. See also the entity map page, llms.txt and sitemap.xml.

Entity	Type	Description	Relations
`maps_method` The MAPS Method	Methodology	The MAPS Method is a marketing framework created by Grant Simmons for making a brand understood, trusted, found and usable by the people it serves, the markets it competes in and the machines that sit between them. Its core is the MAPS Framework: Meaning (understood), Authority (trusted), Presence (found) and Signals (usable). Four workstreams, Define, Prove, Distribute and Enable, turn the conditions into work, governed by Consistency, Utility and Measurement & Validation. AI visibility, SEO and GEO are applications of the method.	includes The MAPS Framework; includes Define; includes Prove; includes Distribute; includes Enable; applies Consistency; applies Utility; applies Measurement & Validation; has application AI visibility playbook; has application Product or company launch playbook; has application Rebrand or repositioning playbook; has application New market or language playbook; has application Agent readiness playbook; authored by Grant Simmons
`maps_framework` The MAPS Framework	Methodology	The theory inside The MAPS Method: four conditions, Meaning, Authority, Presence and Signals, that make a brand understood, trusted, found and usable, each checked for three readers: people, markets and machines.	part of The MAPS Method; includes Meaning; includes Authority; includes Presence; includes Signals; checked for People; checked for Markets; checked for Machines; authored by Grant Simmons
`meaning` Meaning	ProprietaryTerm	The MAPS condition that makes a brand understood: who it is for, what need it meets and what it should be known for, held the same way by the team, the market and the machines that describe it. Any confusion dilutes the brand or disqualifies it.	part of The MAPS Framework; worked by Define
`authority` Authority	ProprietaryTerm	The MAPS condition that makes a brand trusted: the proof that makes a claim credible and the experience that makes a customer try it, stay and recommend it.	part of The MAPS Framework; worked by Prove
`presence` Presence	ProprietaryTerm	The MAPS condition that makes a brand found: the deliberate availability of the brand and its proof wherever the audience looks, including where machines look on their behalf.	part of The MAPS Framework; worked by Distribute
`signals` Signals	ProprietaryTerm	The MAPS condition that makes a brand usable: the cues, kits and data that let every person and every machine on every surface access, extract, verify and act on the evidence.	part of The MAPS Framework; worked by Enable
`define` Define	ProprietaryTerm	Establish the entity, category, ICPs and needs, message architecture, journeys, markets, target prompts and key relationships.	part of The MAPS Method; precedes Prove
`prove` Prove	ProprietaryTerm	Support claims with expertise, outcomes, research, trial, customer satisfaction and independent corroboration.	part of The MAPS Method; precedes Distribute
`distribute` Distribute	ProprietaryTerm	Place the proof across every channel the audience uses: search, AI answers, paid, earned, shared, owned, reviews, partners, shelves and screens.	part of The MAPS Method; precedes Enable
`enable` Enable	ProprietaryTerm	Make the proof accessible, structured, extractable, verifiable and actionable by machines on every surface, and findable by every person on the team.	part of The MAPS Method
`consistency` Consistency	ProprietaryTerm	The same facts, words and proof wherever the brand appears; reconcile stale facts, changed products, renamed entities and conflicting third-party profiles.	part of The MAPS Method
`utility` Utility	ProprietaryTerm	Be genuinely useful after an AI answer, a competitor's ad and a friend's opinion already exist; quality is the floor.	part of The MAPS Method
`measurement_validation` Measurement & Validation	ProprietaryTerm	Baseline each pillar for people, market and machine; change one thing; retest under comparable conditions; connect visibility to business impact.	part of The MAPS Method
`people` People	ProprietaryTerm	Buyers, users, advocates and the brand's own team: the human reader each MAPS condition is checked for.	part of The MAPS Framework
`markets` Markets	ProprietaryTerm	The channels and surfaces where buyers look, and the competitors present there: the market reader each MAPS condition is checked for.	part of The MAPS Framework
`machines` Machines	ProprietaryTerm	Search engines, AI answer systems, agents, feeds and screens that read, speak, show or act for a buyer: the machine reader each MAPS condition is checked for.	part of The MAPS Framework
`playbook_ai_visibility` AI visibility playbook	CreativeWork	AI visibility is MAPS applied to the machine reader. Systems start with learned associations, fan out into related searches, choose a subset of sources, extract passages, compare claims and decide what to mention or cite. Citations are the output; the four conditions are the inputs. This playbook keeps the specificity the SEO and GEO community needs, inside the same framework the rest of marketing runs on.	application of The MAPS Method
`playbook_launch` Product or company launch playbook	CreativeWork	A launch is the one moment when Meaning is entirely yours to set. Everything that happens later, in a buyer's head, in a market and inside a model, builds on the first facts that circulate. Get them right, prove them early, and place them where the audience is before the category describes you for you.	application of The MAPS Method
`playbook_rebrand` Rebrand or repositioning playbook	CreativeWork	A rebrand is a Consistency problem at scale. The old meaning lives in customers' heads, in third-party profiles, in cached pages and in what models learned. The work is to define the new meaning precisely, prove it is real, replace the old evidence everywhere it is placed, and give machines an unbroken path from old entity to new.	application of The MAPS Method
`playbook_new_market` New market or language playbook	CreativeWork	Presence changes by market more than Meaning does. The same proof needs new corroboration, new channels and often a new vocabulary. A translated page is not a localized presence, and a US-centric source map says nothing about who answers the question in another country.	application of The MAPS Method
`playbook_agent_readiness` Agent readiness playbook	CreativeWork	Agents are the newest machine reader, and the most demanding. They need Meaning to pick you, Authority to recommend you, Presence to find you, and Signals good enough to complete a transaction without a human in the loop. Most of the work sits in Enable, but the audit comes first.	application of The MAPS Method
`grant_simmons` Grant Simmons	Person	Marketing, SEO and AI visibility strategist working at the intersection of search, information retrieval, semantics, content and marketing technology. Creator of The MAPS Method and the MAPS Framework.	created The MAPS Method; created The MAPS Framework

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