What is llms.txt and should your website have one

llms.txt is a plain text file placed on your domain that gives AI systems a clean, structured overview of your business and your most useful pages. Instead of forcing a model to piece together your site from scattered HTML, you hand it a clear summary.

It is not a magic ranking trick. Think of it as a courtesy and a clarity tool. The easier you make your business to understand, the more accurately an AI can describe and recommend you.

A good llms.txt covers who you are, what you do, where you operate, your core services, key facts, and links to your most important pages. Short, accurate, and free of marketing fluff works best, because the goal is machine clarity.

For a service business, that usually means a one line description, a service list, your location and service area, contact details, and links to your main pages and best articles.

Support is still emerging, so llms.txt is a low cost bet rather than a guaranteed win. The effort is small and the downside is none, which is why we include one on sites we build and keep it updated automatically from the live content.

If your site already has clean structure and good schema, llms.txt is a small finishing touch. If your site is messy, fix the structure first, because that helps every engine, not just the ones reading this file.