llms.txt
llms.txt is a text file in the root directory of your website that gives AI models an ordered overview of your most important pages, in markdown. The idea was proposed in 2024 by Jeremy Howard and is comparable to what robots.txt and a sitemap do for search engines: not your content itself, but a signpost to it.
- 2 min read
What goes in an llms.txt?
A short description of what your organisation does, followed by grouped links to your most important pages with one sentence of explanation per link. Think of your services, your knowledge base, your cases and your contact details. The file lives at yourdomain.nl/llms.txt.
Some SEO plugins generate it automatically from your posts and pages. That works, but a hand-compiled version is almost always better: you choose for yourself what matters instead of listing everything.
Does llms.txt really work?
Honest answer: that is not proven yet. None of the major AI providers has officially confirmed that they read the file, and it is not a standard the way robots.txt is. Anyone who tells you llms.txt gets you into ChatGPT is selling you something.
Why it can still make sense: it takes half an hour, it does no harm, and it forces you to write down what your organisation does in one paragraph and which pages really matter. That exercise alone sharpens your site. If it does get picked up later, you are ready.
What you had better do first
Before you start on llms.txt, there are things with more effect:
- Check that AI crawlers are let in: GPTBot, OAI-SearchBot, PerplexityBot, Google-Extended and Anthropic’s crawler in your robots.txt.
- Remove a crawl-delay if there is one; it slows crawlers to one page per so many seconds.
- Put your organisation details in Structured data: name, address, phone number, services and social profiles.
- Start every important page with an answer instead of an introduction.
Those four demonstrably affect how machines read your site. llms.txt is the dessert, not the main course.
Do you want to know whether AI crawlers can get into your site at all and whether your details are correct? That falls under technical SEO. Also read about GEO and AI Overviews.
Frequently asked questions
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Wat is het verschil tussen llms.txt en robots.txt?
Robots.txt is een vastgelegde standaard die crawlers vertelt welke delen van je site ze wel en niet mogen bezoeken. llms.txt is een voorstel dat AI-modellen een overzicht geeft van je belangrijkste pagina’s, zonder iets toe te staan of te blokkeren. Robots.txt regelt toegang, llms.txt is een wegwijzer.
Hoe maak je een llms.txt-bestand?
Maak een tekstbestand in markdown met bovenaan de naam van je organisatie en een korte omschrijving van wat je doet. Daaronder zet je kopjes zoals diensten, kennisbank en contact, met per kopje links naar je belangrijkste pagina’s en één zin uitleg per link. Zet het bestand in de hoofdmap van je website, zodat het op jouwdomein.nl/llms.txt staat.
Heeft llms.txt invloed op je ranking in Google?
Nee, Google gebruikt llms.txt niet om pagina’s te rangschikken. Het bestand is bedoeld voor AI-modellen, en ook daar is niet bevestigd dat het gelezen wordt. Wil je beter scoren in Google, begin dan bij technical SEO.
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