Does your business need an llms.txt file? An honest answer

The short answer: most small business websites don't need one, and it won't move your rankings or AI recommendations on its own. If your platform makes it a two-minute job, add it. If it's fiddly, skip it and spend the time on the steps at the end of this guide, which matter far more.

What llms.txt is

llms.txt is a plain Markdown file at yoursite.com/llms.txt that gives AI tools a short, clean summary of your site and links to your most important pages. It was proposed by Jeremy Howard in September 2024, mainly to help AI tools read software documentation without wading through menus, ads and scripts.

The format is simple:

• A title line with your business or site name (the only required part)
• A one- or two-sentence summary in a quote block
• Optional sections listing your key pages as links, each with a short note

Here's a minimal example for a service business:

# Smith & Co Roofing

> Family-run roofing company in Leeds repairing and replacing pitched and flat roofs for homes and small businesses since 2009.

## Services
- [Roof repairs](https://smithroofing.co.uk/roof-repairs): leaks, slipped tiles, storm damage
- [Flat roofs](https://smithroofing.co.uk/flat-roofs): EPDM and GRP flat roof replacement

## Contact
- [Get a quote](https://smithroofing.co.uk/contact): free quotes within 48 hours

You can see a full one on this site at corneliusuni.com/llms.txt.

Who actually reads it

This is where the hype runs ahead of the facts:

• Google has said Google Search doesn't use llms.txt. Normal SEO and structured data are what count there.
• ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity and Gemini haven't publicly committed to reading it when answering everyday questions. Their search crawlers read your normal pages.
• Some AI coding tools and documentation platforms do use it. That's the world it was designed for.

Server-log reviews published in 2026 report that requests for llms.txt make up well under 1% of AI bot visits. In other words, the bots are mostly reading your real pages, so that's where your effort should go.

When it's worth adding

• Worth it: software and SaaS products, API and help documentation, large sites with hundreds of pages, and online courses or knowledge bases.
• Optional: agencies, e-commerce stores and service businesses. It does no harm and takes minutes on most platforms, but expect little from it.
• Skip it for now: if your site still has no clear service pages, no schema and no Google Business Profile. Fix those first.

How to add it on your platform

• WordPress: recent versions of popular SEO plugins such as Yoast and Rank Math can generate one for you. Check your plugin's settings, or upload a file named llms.txt to your site's root folder.
• Static sites, Cloudflare, Vercel or Netlify: add llms.txt to the folder that holds your index.html and redeploy.
• Shopify: you can't place files at the root directly. You'll need an app or a redirect from /llms.txt to a hosted file.
• Squarespace and Wix: root file uploads are limited, so check your platform's current options. If there isn't an easy way, skip it. You lose very little.

After adding it, open yoursite.com/llms.txt in a browser to check it loads as plain text.

What to do first instead

If your goal is to be found and recommended by AI tools, these steps matter much more than llms.txt:

1. Make sure robots.txt doesn't block AI search crawlers such as OAI-SearchBot.
2. Get indexed in both Google and Bing, and submit your sitemap to each.
3. Write one clear page per service that says what you do, for whom and where.
4. Add Organization or LocalBusiness schema with sameAs links to your profiles.
5. Get listed and reviewed on the directories and sites in your industry.

I walk through each of these in How to get your business recommended by ChatGPT.

Questions people ask