GEO guides
What Is llms.txt, and Does It Help AI Index Your Website?
Compare llms.txt with robots.txt and sitemaps, understand Google's guidance, and decide which website improvements deserve attention first.
llms.txt is a proposal for providing website information to language models and agents in Markdown. It can summarize a site, explain how to use its material, and link to more detailed resources. Whether to add it depends on the tools you want to support and whether they use that file.
For Google's generative search features, its official guidance explicitly says that Google Search does not use llms.txt. Publishing one does not provide special Google Search eligibility.
What an llms.txt file contains
The current proposal describes a Markdown file with a site name and optional summary, guidance, and links to detailed resources. It also discusses offering Markdown versions of pages for agents that use them.
A file can sit at the site root or within a subpath to describe material under that path. A concise directory can be useful for a site with substantial documentation, API references, or tutorials. Its practical effect depends on the consuming tool reading it.
Compare it with robots.txt and sitemaps
These files can coexist because they address different tasks.
| File | Main purpose | What it does not establish by itself |
|---|---|---|
| robots.txt | Communicate crawling permissions to compliant crawlers | A page has been indexed or cited |
| Sitemap | Supply page URLs to search systems that support it | Every listed page will be indexed |
| llms.txt | Organize site information for tools or agents using it | Every AI product will read or recommend the site |
Use the distinction to diagnose the right problem. Review crawling rules for blocked access, links and URLs for page discovery, and the resource guide for useful navigation through documentation.
Publishing a file is different from being cited
A file opening successfully establishes accessibility. A logged request establishes retrieval by a client. A tool answering a question from the file establishes that the supplied material was available in that particular use.
Search indexing, source links in answers, and model training involve other processes. OpenAI's bot documentation distinguishes OAI-SearchBot for search, GPTBot for potential training use, and ChatGPT-User for user-triggered visits. Interpret observations according to their purpose.
For a broader troubleshooting workflow, read our ChatGPT website visibility guide.
What a business website should check first
Make the business facts on the homepage and service pages clear. Confirm that important pages are publicly accessible and that navigation and contact information work. A directory file cannot fill gaps in the actual explanation of your service.
If a tool you intend to support uses llms.txt, prepare the file from accurate website information. Keep descriptions aligned with the pages, remove broken links, and review it when the business changes. Avoid including capabilities the company does not offer.
Bring the decision back to your own pages
The decision to maintain llms.txt is a question of intended use and maintenance effort. Deciding which website content needs attention requires examining the pages themselves.
Open GEO Console starts with a free public-homepage check. Its paid deep analysis then helps organize website findings into page changes and content examples. If your team needs a concrete editing plan, examining the main business pages gives you a clearer next step than repeatedly adding files whose intended use remains uncertain.