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Does llms.txt work?

There is no public evidence that llms.txt makes AI assistants cite a site. It is a proposal from September 2024, not a standard, and Google says you need no AI text file to appear in its AI features. It is cheap to add, so add it as a map of your pages, but put the effort into the pages themselves.

Facts

What is llms.txt?

llms.txt is a Markdown file, usually at /llms.txt, that gives a language model a short summary of a site and a list of links to its most useful pages. The proposal also suggests offering a clean Markdown version of each page at the same address with .md added.

Does any AI assistant say it reads llms.txt?

Google is the one that has said something on the record, and it says the opposite: no AI text file is needed for its AI features. A page reaches AI Overviews and AI Mode by being indexed and eligible for a snippet. Treat any claim that llms.txt raises citations as unproven until a vendor documents it.

What does a good llms.txt look like?

A good llms.txt is short: the name, one sentence on what you do, and the pages that answer customers' questions, each with a line in the same words as the page.

# Example Dental Clinic

> Dental implants and orthodontics in Lisbon. Prices from EUR 900, free first visit.

## Services
- [Dental implants](https://example.com/dental-implant): what they are, who can have one
- [Implant price](https://example.com/dental-implant/price): what the price includes

## Optional
- [About us](https://example.com/about)

What does more for AI citations than llms.txt?

The pages people and crawlers both read do more, because that text is what an assistant quotes.

WorkEvidence it helps
A direct answer, sourced facts and numbers on the pageGEO study (KDD 2024): up to 40% more visibility
Indexed pages, readable in the server HTMLGoogle: the requirement for AI Overviews and AI Mode
llms.txtNo public evidence; cheap to add

Step by step

  1. List the pages that answer questions. Pick the pages a customer would need: offers, prices, how it works, frequent questions.
  2. Write the file. An H1 with the name, a one-sentence blockquote, then H2 groups of Markdown links, each with a short note.
  3. Publish it at /llms.txt. Serve it as plain text from the site root, and keep it in the same change as the pages it lists.
  4. Keep it in step with the pages. When a price or page changes, the line in llms.txt changes in the same deploy.

Common mistakes

  • Expecting llms.txt to bring citations on its own while the pages stay thin.
  • Putting a price or term in llms.txt that differs from the page: assistants see two versions of one fact.
  • Listing every URL of the site instead of the pages that answer questions.
  • Blocking AI crawlers in robots.txt while publishing llms.txt for them.

How easyIndex solves it

easyIndex makes llms.txt part of batch 1: your coding agent adds it over MCP with one line per page, in the same words as the audited pages, and easyIndex checks it on the live site. The plan costs US$ 30 per website a month, with a 7-day free trial.

Frequently asked questions

Is llms.txt required?

No. Nothing requires it, and Google says no AI text file is needed for its AI features.

Can llms.txt hurt my site?

Not when it says what the pages say. It hurts only when it contradicts them, for example with an old price.

Is llms.txt the same as robots.txt?

No. robots.txt tells crawlers what they may read; llms.txt only suggests what is worth reading. It cannot allow or block anything.

Should llms.txt link to Markdown copies of my pages?

The proposal suggests it, but the safer choice is that assistants read exactly what people read, so link the normal pages.

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Does llms.txt work? What it does and what it doesn't