How to Create an llms.txt File for Your Website
llms.txt is a proposed file that gives AI tools a curated map of your site. Here's what it is, what it does and doesn't do, and how to create one in a few minutes.
Key takeaways
- llms.txt is a proposed standard (from 2024) for a Markdown file listing a site's most useful content for AI tools.
- It isn't an official standard, and major AI search providers haven't confirmed using it for ranking or citation.
- It doesn't control crawling or access; robots.txt does that.
- It's quick to create and harmless, so treat it as a low-priority extra.
llms.txt is a proposed file, placed at yourdomain.com/llms.txt, that gives large language models a short, curated overview of your website in Markdown: what the site is about and links to its most useful pages. It was proposed in 2024 by Jeremy Howard as a way to help AI tools understand sites without parsing complex HTML.
What llms.txt does and doesn’t do
| It does | It doesn’t |
|---|---|
| Provide a clean summary and list of key pages | Control which bots can crawl your site (that’s robots.txt) |
| Help AI tools that choose to read it, such as some coding assistants and agents | Guarantee citations in ChatGPT or AI Overviews |
| Take a few minutes to create | Replace good SEO or structured content |
Important: llms.txt isn’t an official web standard, and Google has said it doesn’t use it for Search. Other major AI search providers haven’t confirmed using it either. Treat it as an optional extra, not a priority.
Format
A simple llms.txt contains:
- An H1 with your site or company name
- A blockquote summary
- Optional short paragraphs of context
- H2 sections with Markdown link lists
Example
“`markdown
SEOaudit.pk
Marketing news, audit guides, platform update history and glossaries for SEO, Google Ads, Meta and social media. Written by Junaid Tariq.
Audit guides
- SEO audit: step-by-step SEO audit process
- Meta ads audit: checklist for Meta ad accounts
Reference
- Glossary: marketing terms by platform
- Update history: algorithm updates by platform
About
How to create and publish it
- Write the file in a text editor and save it as
llms.txt(UTF-8) - Upload it to your site root (via hosting file manager or FTP), or use an SEO plugin that supports it
- Visit
yourdomain.com/llms.txtto check it loads as plain text - Update it when you add important sections
Some sites also publish llms-full.txt with full content in Markdown. That’s useful for documentation sites, less so for business sites.
Better uses of your time
If you only have an hour for AI visibility, spend it on answer-first content and checking AI crawler access. See the AI search visibility audit.