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llms.txt: what it is and whether your site needs one
llms.txt is a short Markdown file at the root of your site that points AI systems to your most important pages. It is cheap to add. It is also not a ranking switch, and this page says why.
What llms.txt is
The llms.txt proposal was published by Jeremy Howard in September 2024. It suggests a Markdown file at /llms.txt that gives language models a curated reading path: your site's name, a one-line summary, and lists of links to the pages that matter, each with a short note. robots.txt says what crawlers may fetch; a sitemap lists every indexable URL; llms.txt says which pages are worth reading and what each one covers.
The format
| Part | Required? | What goes in it |
|---|---|---|
| H1 with the site or business name | Yes, the only required part | # Business Name |
| Blockquote summary | Optional | > What you do, where, for whom |
| Plain-text details | Optional | Any Markdown except headings |
| H2 link sections | Optional | - [Page name](url): note |
| "Optional" H2 section | Optional | Secondary links an agent can skip |
A short example:
# Lakeside Plumbing
> Licensed residential and commercial plumbing in Madison, WI. Emergency service, water heaters, drain cleaning.
## Services
- [Water heater installation](https://example.com/water-heaters): tank and tankless, models we install, typical timeline
- [Drain cleaning](https://example.com/drain-cleaning): what is included, service area
## Company
- [About](https://example.com/about): license number, years in business
- [Contact](https://example.com/contact): phone, hours, address
## Optional
- [Blog](https://example.com/blog)
(A made-up example business, for format only.)
Paste your website. Starter $39/mo · Pro $129/mo. Refund within 14 days if it misses.
Audit my siteDoes it help? What the platforms say
- Google: "You don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, or markup to appear in these features" (AI Overviews and AI Mode).
- Chrome Lighthouse has an llms.txt audit, but it only flags a server error when the file is requested; a missing file returns 404 and the audit is marked not applicable, because the file is optional.
- The proposal page notes that OpenAI and Google publish llms.txt files for their own developer docs. It does not say any major assistant reads llms.txt when answering.
Our honest read: llms.txt will not move you into AI answers on its own. It is a clean, five-minute addition that summarizes your business accurately for any tool that does read it, and writing it forces you to decide which pages actually answer buyers' questions. That second effect is the useful one.
Common mistakes
- Dumping the sitemap into it. The point is curation: your 10 to 50 most useful pages with notes, not every URL.
- Links that 404 or redirect off-site. Every link should be on your domain and return 200.
- Marketing copy in the notes. Write what the page contains ("prices for tank and tankless installs"), not slogans.
- Expecting it to block AI. llms.txt does not keep crawlers out; that is robots.txt's job. See AI crawlers.
- Serving it with the wrong headers or behind a login. It should be a public plain-text file at the root.
What we write for you
Every audit includes fixes/llms.txt, built from your real pages: H1 name, a one-line summary from what your site states, and sections linking to your services or products, pricing, about and contact pages, each with a factual note. Before delivery a script checks that every link is on your domain and returns 200. If a fact for the summary is missing (say, your service area), it is marked [CHECK] rather than guessed.
Adding it: upload the file to your site root so it opens at https://yourdomain.com/llms.txt. On most hosts that is a file upload; on some builders it needs a redirect or a plugin, and the report notes which applies if we can tell from your site.
Why we built this: we run our own software products and measure, in our own analytics, where signups come from. Over 34 days, visitors arriving from ChatGPT produced 46 signups on one product, 27 on a second and 15 on a third; Gemini sent 11. ChatGPT visitors converted from visit to signup at about 31% (internal analytics, November 2026). That is a small channel next to Google, but it converts, and we wanted the same checks for every site we run. This audit is those checks, written up for your site.
Questions
Where does llms.txt go?
At the root of your domain, /llms.txt. The proposal also allows subpaths such as /docs/llms.txt for a section.
What is llms-full.txt?
A companion idea: the full text of your key pages in one Markdown file. Useful for documentation sites; most business sites do not need it.
Is llms.txt the same as robots.txt?
No. robots.txt controls crawling; llms.txt only suggests what to read.
Paste your website. Starter $39/mo · Pro $129/mo. Refund within 14 days if it misses.
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Sources (checked 2026-11-09): llmstxt.org/ · developers.google.com/search/docs/appearance/ai-features · developer.chrome.com/docs/lighthouse/agentic-browsing/llms-txt