What is llms.txt?
llms.txt is a proposed convention for a markdown file at a site's root that tells an AI assistant what the site is and which pages matter.
It sits alongside robots.txt and sitemap.xml but does a different job. robots.txt grants or denies access; a sitemap lists every URL exhaustively; llms.txt is a short curated summary with editorial judgement in it.
No major engine has publicly committed to reading it, and there is no independent evidence that publishing one changes how often a site is cited. The honest case for it is that it costs one file, not that it is known to work.
Related
- robots.txtrobots.txt is a file at a site's root that tells crawlers which parts of the site they may fetch. It is a request, not an enforcement mechanism.
- Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)Generative Engine Optimization is the practice of getting a brand named and cited inside AI-generated answers, in the way SEO aimed to get a page ranked in a list of links.
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