Every few months a new file becomes the thing “every website needs for AI”. Right now that file is llms.txt. Here’s what it actually is, without the hype.
What llms.txt is
llms.txt is a proposed standard, suggested in 2024, for a Markdown file at the root of your site (yoursite.com/llms.txt). It gives language models a short, clean summary of your site and links to the most important pages, ideally as plain Markdown versions without navigation, ads and scripts.
The idea is sensible: AI tools struggle with messy HTML, so give them a tidy map.
What it isn’t
- It’s not an access control file. That’s
robots.txt. - It’s not a replacement for your XML sitemap.
- It’s not a ranking factor. No major search engine has said it uses
llms.txtto rank or cite pages.
| File | Purpose | Who reads it |
|---|---|---|
| robots.txt | Which crawlers may access what | Search and AI crawlers |
| sitemap.xml | List of URLs to index | Search engines |
| llms.txt | Curated summary for AI tools | Some AI tools and agents, optionally |
Who does use it
Some developer documentation sites publish llms.txt so coding assistants and AI agents can read their docs efficiently, and some AI tools will fetch it if you point them at it. That’s the strongest real use today: documentation that people feed into AI tools themselves.
Should you add one?
For most stores and service sites, it’s optional. It takes little time and does no harm, so a simple version is fine:
# FloatingFaez
> Full-stack developer for WordPress, WooCommerce, React and Node. Speed optimization, bug fixing and custom builds.
## Services
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## Contact
- [Book a free call](https://floatingfaez.com/book-a-call/Just don’t spend money on it while basics are missing. Fast pages, clear content and structured data do far more for AI visibility today. I cover those in how to get your products cited in AI answers.
