# Darren Shaw and Russ Jeffery outline how to make local pages AI‑ready

Digest AI · Marketing & Small Business · published 2026-09-21T12:00:25Z

Canonical: https://digestai.news/story/darren-shaw-and-russ-jeffery-outline-how-to-make-local-pages-aiready

## Summary

In a SEJ Live session, Whitespark founder Darren Shaw and Duda’s Russ Jeffery explained the technical foundations needed for a local business page to appear in AI‑driven search answers. They stress that crawlers must be able to reach the page – fixing robots.txt, noindex tags, security headers and Cloudflare settings that may block AI bots. Both note that many small‑business sites unintentionally leave Cloudflare’s default AI‑crawler block on, which can nullify any content work.

The panel also warned that newer AI models, unlike Google’s JavaScript rendering, often read only the raw HTML. They recommend serving key information via server‑side rendered HTML, using platforms such as WordPress, Next.js, Duda or Wix that provide this out of the box. Keeping schema markup and Google Business Profile data in sync is essential; stale URLs or outdated schema can feed incorrect facts to AI. Shaw suggests mapping every business data point to schema and writing explicit brand‑named statements, while Jeffery adds that FAQ or Q&A schema is helpful but not critical for AI citation.

## Key points

- Ensure crawlers can access pages by fixing robots.txt, noindex tags, and Cloudflare AI blocker settings.
- Serve important content via server‑side rendered HTML; avoid client‑side JavaScript that hides text from AI crawlers.
- Keep schema and business data (address, phone, pricing) synced with the site and Google Business Profile to prevent stale info.

## Why it matters

AI‑driven search results rely on accessible, accurate page content; without proper crawling and up‑to‑date data, local businesses lose visibility and potential customers.

## Sources

1. [How To Build Local Pages AI Systems Can Find And Trust via @sejournal, @lorenbaker](https://searchenginejournal.com/how-to-build-local-pages-ai-systems-can-find-and-trust/588097) (Search Engine Journal, 2026-09-21)

## Cite

Digest AI, "Darren Shaw and Russ Jeffery outline how to make local pages AI‑ready", 21 September 2026, https://digestai.news/story/darren-shaw-and-russ-jeffery-outline-how-to-make-local-pages-aiready

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