AEO guide / llms.txt

What is llms.txt?

llms.txt is a short plain-text file, written in markdown, that sits at the root of a website (example.com/llms.txt). It tells AI models in a few lines who you are and which of your pages are most worth reading. Think of it as a hand-picked reading list for ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Perplexity, instead of leaving them to work it out from your menus and footers.

It was proposed in September 2024 by Jeremy Howard of Answer.AI, and the format is documented at llmstxt.org. It's a proposal, not an official web standard.

Does llms.txt actually help?

Be realistic about it. No major answer engine has published documentation saying it uses llms.txt to choose which sources to cite, so it won't move your visibility on its own. What it does is give any model or AI agent that reads it a clean summary and an accurate list of your key pages, with no navigation, cookie banners or scripts in the way. It takes about ten minutes to write and costs nothing to host, so it's a cheap way to describe yourself accurately. Opening your site to AI crawlers in robots.txt and adding structured data matter more; our answer engine optimization guide covers those.

llms.txt vs robots.txt vs sitemap.xml

• robots.txt says which crawlers may visit which paths. It controls access.
• sitemap.xml lists every page you want indexed. It aims to be complete.
• llms.txt picks out the handful of pages that explain your business best, with a one-line note on each. It's curated, not complete, and it doesn't block or allow anything.

The llms.txt format

The proposal defines a simple structure, in this order:

1. An H1 with the name of the site or company: # Example Co. This is the only required part.
2. A blockquote with a short summary: > Example Co makes…
3. Optional paragraphs or bullet points with extra context.
4. One or more H2 sections, each a list of markdown links in the form - [Page name](url): short note.
5. An optional section headed ## Optional for links a model can skip if it's short on space.

Some documentation sites also publish an llms-full.txt with the full text of their docs in one file. That's a separate convention and mostly useful for developer documentation, not for a typical business site.

llms.txt examples

The right links depend on what kind of business you are. These are the sections Xcite pre-fills when it writes an llms.txt for a site it has scanned.

Online shop

Point to your main categories, then the policies buyers ask AI about: shipping and returns. Don't link to pricing or docs pages a shop doesn't have.

# Example Store

> Example Store sells outdoor and camping gear online, with delivery across the UK.

## Key pages

- [Home](https://example.com/): outdoor and camping gear.
- [Tents](https://example.com/tents): main product range.
- [Sleeping bags](https://example.com/sleeping-bags): main product range.
- [Shipping](https://example.com/shipping): delivery options, costs and times.
- [Returns](https://example.com/returns): returns and refund policy.
- [About](https://example.com/about): who we are.
- [Contact](https://example.com/contact): customer service.

Software (SaaS)

# Example App

> Example App is scheduling software for dental clinics.

## Key pages

- [Home](https://example.com/): online booking for dental clinics.
- [Pricing](https://example.com/pricing): plans and what each includes.
- [Docs](https://example.com/docs): product documentation.
- [About](https://example.com/about): company background.
- [Contact](https://example.com/contact): sales and support.

Local business

# Example Plumbing

> Example Plumbing is an emergency and domestic plumber serving Leeds.

## Key pages

- [Home](https://example.com/): plumbing services in Leeds.
- [Services](https://example.com/services): what we offer.
- [About](https://example.com/about): who we are.
- [Contact](https://example.com/contact): address, phone and opening hours.

You can also see the live file for this site at x-cite.app/llms.txt.

How to create and publish one

1. Write the H1 with the name people actually call your business, not your domain.
2. Write a one-sentence summary that says what you do and for whom. This is the line most likely to be quoted, so keep it factual.
3. List 3 to 10 key pages as markdown links, each with a short note.
4. Upload it as a plain-text file named llms.txt at the root of your domain, next to robots.txt.
5. Open example.com/llms.txt in a browser and check you see the raw text, not a styled web page.

What Xcite checks in your llms.txt

When you run a free audit, Xcite fetches /llms.txt from your site and checks:

• It's a real text file. Many sites return their normal web page or a "page not found" template at /llms.txt. We count that as missing, because a model gets HTML, not your summary.
• A title heading starting with #.
• A summary line starting with >.
• At least three curated links in markdown format.

If all of that is in place, the check passes and nothing appears in your action feed. If one part is missing, you get a short list of what to add. If there's no file at all, Xcite writes one for you using your real brand name, description and the pages it found on your site, matched to your type of business.

If your firewall blocks our request for /llms.txt, we show "Could not verify" and you lose no points. We only report the file as missing when your server genuinely says it doesn't exist.

Common mistakes

• Uploading it to a subfolder. It has to be at the root: example.com/llms.txt.
• Pasting your whole sitemap. Pick the pages that explain you best.
• Using marketing slogans in the summary instead of saying plainly what you do.
• Linking to pages that redirect or no longer exist.
• Writing it once and forgetting it after your site changes.