What is llms.txt, and does your business need one?

llms.txt is a proposed convention for a plain-text file, placed at yoursite.com/llms.txt, that summarizes what your website is about and links to its most useful pages, so AI tools can find the right information quickly. It is not an official web standard, and Google has said its search features don't use it. For most small businesses it is optional: cheap to add, harmless, but unlikely to change how you show up anywhere on its own.

Here is where the idea came from, what goes in the file, what Google has actually said, and how to decide whether it's worth 15 minutes of your time.

Where llms.txt came from

The idea was proposed by Jeremy Howard in September 2024 and is documented at llmstxt.org. The reasoning is straightforward. AI assistants and agents increasingly read websites to answer questions, but web pages are built for people, wrapped in menus, scripts and layout. The proposal suggests giving AI tools a short, clean summary in one predictable place, much as robots.txt and sitemap.xml sit in predictable places for search engine crawlers.

It is worth being precise about its status. llms.txt is a proposal published by its author, not a standard agreed by a standards body, and no AI company is obliged to read it. The proposal's own site says it has been used most heavily for software documentation, where coding tools follow it to find technical references. Several AI companies publish one for their developer docs, including Anthropic and OpenAI.

What goes in an llms.txt file

The file is written in Markdown, the same simple formatting used in many notes apps. According to the proposal, it contains, in order:

1. A heading with the name of your business or site. This is the only required part.
2. A short summary in a quote block, with the key facts someone needs to understand the rest.
3. Optionally, a few paragraphs or lists with more detail.
4. Optionally, sections with lists of links to pages where more detail lives, each with a short note.

For a local business, a simple version might look like this (the business is made up):

# Example Dental Studio

> Family and cosmetic dental practice in Springfield. Open Monday to Saturday. New patients welcome; most insurance plans accepted.

## Services

- [Checkups and cleaning](https://www.example.com/checkups): what is included and typical cost without insurance

- [Teeth whitening](https://www.example.com/whitening): in-office and take-home options

## Practical information

- [Book an appointment](https://www.example.com/book)

- [Hours, location and parking](https://www.example.com/contact)

The proposal also suggests offering clean Markdown copies of important pages, but that is a separate step and much less common outside documentation sites.

What Google says

Google has been unusually direct about this. Its guide to optimizing for generative AI features in Google Search lists llms.txt files among the things you can ignore, saying:

"You don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, markup, or Markdown to appear in Google Search (including its generative AI capabilities), as Google Search itself doesn't use them."

The same guide adds that it's fine to create these files for other services that use them, and that doing so "will neither harm nor help your site's visibility or rankings in Google Search." Google's separate page on AI features and your website makes the same point about AI Overviews and AI Mode: there are no additional requirements or special optimizations needed beyond being indexed and eligible to appear with a snippet.

Google's John Mueller has been similarly skeptical in public, saying of its usefulness, "it's purely speculative for now," as Search Engine Journal reported in June 2026.

There is one wrinkle. Chrome's Lighthouse auditing tool now includes an llms.txt check in its agentic browsing category. It describes llms.txt as an emerging convention, treats a missing file as not applicable, and only flags a site if the server returns an error when the file is requested. In other words, not having one is fine. Having a broken one is the thing to avoid.

So, does your business need one?

Honestly, probably not, in the sense that nothing bad happens without it. But it can still be worth adding if all of these are true:

• It takes you, or whoever runs your site, a few minutes to create and upload.
• Someone will keep it accurate when your services, hours or pages change.
• You treat it as a small extra for AI tools that choose to read it, not as a marketing channel.

Skip it, or put it at the bottom of the list, if your website still has basic gaps. The things that help people and AI tools understand your business are the same things that help customers: clear service pages, published hours and service areas, accurate contact details, answers to common questions in plain language, and a site search engines can crawl. For local businesses, Google's AI optimization guide also points to Google Business Profiles as a way to help your business appear in both AI responses and regular search results. Our small business website checklist covers those basics.

How to add one

1. Write the file using the structure above: business name, a one- or two-sentence summary, then links to your key pages with a short note on each.
2. Save it as plain text named exactly llms.txt.
3. Upload it to the root of your site so it opens at https://yourdomain.com/llms.txt. How you do this depends on your website platform; some let you add files directly, others need a developer or support request.
4. Open that address in your browser to confirm it loads as text, not an error page.
5. Add it to the list of things you update when your site changes.

If you'd rather not write it by hand, our free llms.txt generator can help you put one together. Review and edit what it produces before you publish it.

Mistakes to avoid

• Stuffing it with keywords. It's a summary for a reader, not a place for every search phrase you'd like to rank for.
• Saying things your website doesn't. Prices, guarantees or claims that appear only in llms.txt will confuse anyone comparing the two. Keep the file consistent with your pages.
• Including anything private. The file is public. Don't list internal pages, staff-only links or anything you wouldn't publish on your site.
• Letting it go stale. An out-of-date summary is worse than none.
• Expecting results. Nobody can promise that adding the file will get your business mentioned by an AI assistant. Be wary of anyone who does.

Common questions

Does llms.txt help my Google ranking?

No. Google's guidance says Google Search doesn't use llms.txt files, and that creating one will neither harm nor help your site's visibility or rankings in Google Search.

Is llms.txt the same as robots.txt?

No. robots.txt tells automated crawlers which parts of your site they may access. llms.txt is a summary with links, meant to help an AI tool find useful information about your site. It doesn't grant or block access to anything.

Where Presora fits

Presora builds and hosts small business websites designed around the basics that matter more than any single file: clear service pages, contact details, forms and booking. If you just want an llms.txt file for your current site, the generator is free to use whether or not you use Presora.