llms.txt Explained: A Simple Guide for Business Websites

Short answer

llms.txt is a plain text (Markdown) file placed at the root of a website, like example.com/llms.txt. It gives AI tools a short, clean summary of the business and links to the most useful pages, so they can understand the site without reading every page.

Where did llms.txt come from?

It was proposed in 2024 as a simple standard to help large language models read websites. It is not an official rule like robots.txt, and not every AI company says it uses it. But it is cheap to add and can help AI tools and agents find your key facts.

What to put in it

A title with your business name.
A one-paragraph summary: what you do, where, and for whom.
Your key facts: phone, areas served, hours, starting prices.
Links to main service pages with a one-line description each.
Links to FAQ, contact and policy pages.

llms.txt vs robots.txt vs sitemap.xml

robots.txt tells crawlers what they may or may not crawl. sitemap.xml lists all your pages for search engines. llms.txt is a human-readable summary meant to help AI tools understand you quickly. They work together.

Common mistakes

Making it a long list of every page.
Using sales language instead of facts.
Letting prices and phone numbers go out of date.
Linking to pages that are blocked by robots.txt.

Our approach

Every website we build gets an llms.txt file and, for larger sites, an llms-full.txt with more detail. We update them when services, prices or contact details change.

FAQs

Will llms.txt improve my Google ranking?

Not directly. It is aimed at AI tools. Clear facts and structure help AI understanding, which supports AI visibility.

Is it safe to add?

Yes. Only include information that is already public on your website.

How long should it be?

Short. A page or two of clean text is enough for most businesses.