AI Crawls Reshape Local Search: A Two Part Podcast Series | Pt. 1

What if the most rigorous AEO research in the industry came from a website builder? In Part 1 of this two-part series, Chris Raulf sits down with

Shawn Davis, Head of Content and Communications at Duda, will break down the research that should be on every agency owner's desk right now.
Shawn's team analyzed 858,000 paid websites and nearly 70 million AI crawler visits in a single month, and what they found is changing how local businesses think about AI search. AI-crawled sites generate 3.2x more human traffic, 2.7x more form submissions, and 2.5x more click-to-call events than sites the AI engines ignore. This isn't anecdotal evidence or vibes-based AEO content. This is a statistical analysis of a dataset with nearly a million sites.

In this episode, Chris and Shawn cover the origin story behind the study, why SMBs were completely missing from the AEO conversation until now, the methodology that makes this research defensible, and the headline numbers that belong in every agency proposal. Part 2 drops next week.

TIMESTAMPS
00:01 — Welcome and intro: the headlines that started the conversation
03:11 — Who is Shawn Davis, and what does Duda actually do?
03:50 — Why a two-part series? Setting up the conversation
05:57 — The White Spark stat that stopped the team cold
07:31 — Why SMBs and agencies have been missing from the AEO conversation
10:42 — The "best mechanic for a hybrid vehicle" live test
12:02 — Is AEO just SEO done correctly with AI in mind?
13:54 — Introducing Micro SEO Strategies℠ from Boulder SEO Marketing
15:32 — Section 2: methodology and why scale mattered
16:25 — Building the list of site properties tested
20:21 — What is Duda, and how does it differ from Wix or Squarespace?
21:22 — Why AI crawler activity is a defensible proxy for citation
23:02 — The honest research moments and what surprised the team
25:14 — Why most SMB sites had fewer than two key optimizations
27:06 — The headline finding that belongs in every agency proposal
27:48 — The bonus discovery: AEO makes sites better for humans, too
29:47 — Chris shares Boulder SEO Marketing's own AI lead attribution data
31:05 — Shawn's one-sentence answer for agencies fielding the AEO question
31:27 — What's coming in Part 2

RESOURCES AND LINKS
Duda's AEO Research Study: https://bit.ly/48eQ9Q2
Search Engine Journal coverage by Roger Montti: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/68-million-ai-crawler-visits-show-what-drives-ai-search-visibility/572386/
Duda: https://www.duda.co
Connect with Shawn on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnfdavis/

ABOUT THE AI SEO INSIGHTER PODCAST
Hosted by Chris Raulf, AI SEO and GEO expert and founder of Boulder SEO Marketing. This is where we cut through the AI hype and talk to people who are getting real results.
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Chris Raulf: https://chrisraulf.com
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Видео AI Crawls Reshape Local Search: A Two Part Podcast Series | Pt. 1 канала Chris Raulf