What is llms.txt, and should your business have one?

llms.txt is a plain text file that lives at the root of your website and helps AI tools understand what your business is and which pages matter. Think of it as a sitemap written for language models instead of search crawlers. It's a newer idea, most sites don't have one yet, and that gap is the opportunity.

What problem it solves

When an AI tool looks at your site, it has to work out what you do and what's important from a pile of HTML, menus, and marketing copy. An llms.txt file cuts through that. It lays out, in clean text, who you are, what you offer, and links to your key pages, so the model gets the important stuff without digging.

What goes in it

Usually a short description of your business, your main services, and a tidy list of links to your most important pages with a line explaining each. It's readable by a person and by a machine. No code, no complexity, just a clear summary of your site in one place.

Does it work yet?

Honest answer: it's early, and not every AI tool reads it yet. But it's low-effort to add, it does no harm, and adoption is growing. It's the kind of small, forward-looking thing that costs almost nothing now and could quietly pay off as AI search keeps growing. Being early rarely hurts.

Who it's for

Any business that wants to be understood and surfaced by AI tools, which is increasingly every business. It matters most if a lot of your customers are the type to ask ChatGPT or Perplexity for a recommendation, but there's no real downside to having one either way.

The bigger picture

llms.txt on its own is a small thing. It works best as part of the whole picture: clear content, proper schema, consistent details, and a fast site. Together those make you legible to both search engines and AI. Alone, llms.txt is a nice-to-have; combined, it's part of a real edge.

Every site I build ships with an llms.txt file, alongside the schema and content that make it useful. It's all part of the get-found service.