llms.txt: the honest manual

A Markdown-formatted text file at the root of your domain. It lists — for an LLM — the pages that genuinely matter, with a short description each. It is a machine-readable table of contents.

What it actually is

A Markdown-formatted text file at the root of your domain. It lists — for an LLM — the pages that genuinely matter, with a short description each. It is a machine-readable table of contents.

What it does not do

It does not force any LLM to cite your site. No major AI engine publicly commits to reading it. But several studies suggest it is read, at least by some crawlers.

Google's position (May 2026)

In May 2026, Google clarified its doctrine: llms.txt is not a determining factor for ranking in AI engines. The file may be useful to certain third-party crawlers, but Google does not use it as a ranking signal. In other words, its absence does not penalise a site — and its presence is no guarantee of being cited.

"llms.txt is an optional bonus, not a priority. What counts is content quality, Schema.org markup, and crawlability."

So — deploy it or not?

If your site is already well-structured (JSON-LD, robots.txt, sitemap, factual content), adding an llms.txt takes 20 minutes and may help some secondary AI crawlers. But do not deploy it instead of the foundations — and do not believe it replaces solid Schema.org markup.