AI search
What Is llms.txt?
llms.txt is a proposed markdown file, placed at a website's root, that gives large language models a short summary of the site and links to its most useful pages. llms.txt is a community proposal, not an official web standard.
What llms.txt means in plain English
Websites are built for people and browsers, with menus, scripts and ads that make them slow for an AI model to read. llms.txt, proposed by Jeremy Howard in September 2024, offers a shortcut: one markdown file at /llms.txt that names the site, summarizes it and lists links to the pages an AI tool should read first.
The proposal also suggests publishing clean markdown copies of important pages at the same address with .md added. Its own site calls it a proposal that is open for community input, so treat llms.txt as a convention some sites follow, not a rule that search engines or AI companies have agreed to honor.
The llms.txt file format
- An H1 heading with the name of the site or project, which is the only required part.
- A blockquote with a short summary of what the site offers.
- Optional paragraphs or lists that give extra context, with no further headings.
- H2 sections containing markdown lists of links, each with an optional note after a colon.
- An H2 section titled Optional for secondary links an AI tool can skip when it needs less context.
Does llms.txt matter for a business website
For Google, no. Google's guidance on AI Overviews and AI Mode says you do not need to create new machine-readable files or AI text files to appear in those features. The clearest use of llms.txt today is on developer documentation sites, where people point coding assistants at a tidy index of the docs.
Adding one is cheap and harmless if the basics are already right. It will not fix pages that are blocked from crawling, missing from the index or thin on useful text, and it should never become a second copy of your content that quietly falls out of date.
How to check llms.txt on your own site
- Visit yourdomain.com/llms.txt to see whether your CMS or a plugin has already created one.
- If a file exists, confirm every link in it returns a live page rather than an error or a redirect.
- Check that the summary matches your current services, prices and locations.
- Avoid listing pages in llms.txt that robots.txt blocks, since the two files would then contradict each other.
Copy this llms.txt template
# Northside Plumbing
> Licensed plumbing company serving Springfield, Chatham and Rochester, Illinois. Emergency repairs, drain cleaning and water heater installation for homes and small businesses.
Phone: +1-217-555-0142. Hours: Monday to Saturday, 7am to 7pm.
## Services
- [Drain cleaning](https://www.example.com/services/drain-cleaning): sinks, toilets and main sewer lines
- [Water heater installation](https://www.example.com/services/water-heaters): tank and tankless models
- [Emergency plumbing](https://www.example.com/services/emergency): burst pipes and leaks, 24 hours a day
## Company
- [Service areas](https://www.example.com/areas): towns we cover and any travel fees
- [Pricing](https://www.example.com/pricing): call-out fee and typical job prices
## Optional
- [Blog](https://www.example.com/blog): maintenance guides and seasonal tipsHow to check an llms.txt file is valid and served correctly
- Open yourdomain.com/llms.txt in Chrome and confirm it shows plain text, not your site's 404 page or a styled HTML page.
- Press F12, open the Network tab, reload, click the llms.txt row and check that Status Code is 200 and the Content-Type header is plain text or markdown.
- Check the first line is a single # heading with your business name, followed by a line starting with > that sums up what you do.
- Check every link sits under a ## heading as a list item written as [Page name](https://...), with any note after a colon.
- Set a calendar reminder to review the file whenever your services, prices or locations change.
What good looks like: The file returns 200 as plain text, opens with an H1 and a blockquote summary, and lists only live, canonical pages. The format follows the llmstxt.org proposal; no search engine requires the file.
Free tool: The llms.txt proposal
Questions to ask your web developer
“Will llms.txt be generated from the CMS or written by hand?”
A good answer: Generated from the same page data as the XML sitemap, or owned by a named person who reviews it on a schedule, so links and summaries never drift out of date.
“What do you expect llms.txt to change for us?”
A good answer: A modest answer: it may help AI tools and coding assistants find key pages, but Google does not need it and no assistant has promised to read it. It is a small task, not a ranking project.
llms.txt: common questions
Does Google use llms.txt?
Google has not said it uses llms.txt. Its documentation for AI Overviews and AI Mode says site owners do not need AI text files or special markup to appear there. Normal SEO basics, such as crawlable and indexed pages with useful text, are what Google asks for.
Is llms.txt the same as robots.txt?
No. robots.txt tells crawlers which parts of a site they may fetch, and well-behaved crawlers follow it. llms.txt neither grants nor blocks access. llms.txt is a suggested reading list and summary that an AI tool may choose to use or ignore.
Should a small business add an llms.txt file?
It is optional. A small business gains more from clear service pages, accurate contact details and a working XML sitemap. If your platform can generate llms.txt automatically, keeping a short, accurate version costs little, but do not expect it to change rankings or AI citations by itself.
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