One day everyone tries to adjust the content according to SEO standards, the next day artificial intelligence changes how people find information online. There is a new quite questionable term called llms.txt we would need to have a closer look at.
Some advocates say llms.txt can make content easier for AI systems to reference. But should you really spend time implementing it?
The short answer is: maybe, but the results are inconsistent. llms.txt is a simple text file that can be considered a hint for AI crawlers, but many tools do not rely on it. If your goal is brand mentions and you can keep a small file up to date, give it a try. If you need trackable conversions right now, focus on SEO, content, and landing pages.
Getting to know llms.txt
The logic behind llms.txt is similar to SEO. Think of it as a trigger for AI systems.
More people use ChatGPT, Perplexity, and similar tools for research instead of traditional Google searches. These new user patterns start shaping the overall new reality of the search. When AI systems mention your company or expertise, that’s valuable exposure you can’t get through regular advertising.
llms.txt is a plain-text file, working similar to robots.txt logic. It’s intended to point AI scrapers at your key pages, though adoption is uneven. The file contains the key information on your pages in a clean, structured format that AI can easily understand and reference. Some companies publish a small page of facts that is
machine-readable and link to it in llms.txt, while others simplify key marketing pages with clean HTML, clear headings, and structured data so that artificial intelligence tools can extract accurate summaries without guesswork.
Sounds straightforward on paper, but the business implications are more complex.
What can it bring to your business?
The pitch is simple: Format key pages in llms.txt so AI tools are more likely to cite your content. In plain terms—when users ask an AI system about your industry or services, well-structured content helps the system recognize and mention your business. That’s worth something, especially since this type of exposure doesn’t cost anything beyond setup time and knowing AI agents are soon becoming a daily use for everyone.
Content accessibility opens up another aspect. Traditional websites require AI systems to navigate multiple pages, analyse complex layouts, and understand context across different sections. A well-structured llms.txt file promises that artificial intelligence has instant access to the key information without a complex examination.
This approach also can validate your content strategy. As AI systems become more sophisticated at understanding and citing sources, having your information ready positions you ahead of competitors who ignore this development.
The skeptic’s perspective has grounds
As mentioned in the beginning – seems like llms.txt is still something business leaders are not aligned on. The opposite view on it is: just because you create a file does not mean that artificial intelligence systems will respect it. These systems are designed to scan and analyse web content regardless of your or anyone’s preferences.
Technical experts express skepticism. Yet current AI models can conduct the so-called examination without relying on supporting text files—they’re designed to succeed across a wide range of websites.
If we look at the leading companies in the industry, we’ll find no information that any major AI company has officially adopted llms.txt as a requirement. Usually we tend to rely on the opinion of leaders and this leads to the understanding that the entire concept remains experimental, driven merely by individual website owners.
From a business resource perspective, creating and maintaining llms.txt files takes time. For companies with hundreds of pages or frequently updated content, keeping these files current becomes another task on an already long to-do list. If AI meant to help companies to save resources and speed up the processes – it looks like a questionable technological tuning.
Implementation challenges and user experiences
For the last decade good user experience has become one the most important to attract customers. AI is saving companies money to invest in research and adjust products and websites to better understand users and make the experience of buying the product or service as user-friendly and human as possible.
One odd side effect: some tools may link to the text file instead of your page. If you try llms.txt, keep it short and link back to the canonical pages. Users clicking these citations land on unformatted text instead of your professionally designed website which will surely create a bad user experience. The visitor leaves confused and unlikely to return.
Another problem is related to file size. Large llms.txt files can reach enormous sizes, especially in the case of websites with a large amount of content. Artificial intelligence systems can only process parts of large files. This contradicts the goal of providing complete information.
Moving on to GDPR and the EU case, security considerations are to consider as well. Some websites remove authentication requirements to make content more accessible to artificial intelligence agents which goes against the rules and might create a bad reputation.
How to get started with llms.txt?
If you’ve worked with SEO and robots.txt before, you already know the drill: keep your content clean, focused, and engaging. Increase its value – make it unique and original, add links where necessary and try to use social media to cite your articles – that will help you to create easy to crawl content, which will be visible and higher in search results.
Same goes for llms.txt – a well-written description of your core services provides more value than a massive file containing every blog post you’ve ever published.
If you decided to try applying llms.txt file – start simple:
- Collect your most important business information;
- Be original – try not to use ChatGPT to write the descriptions, but create something on your own, so it has more value and doesn’t sound too complicated or technical;
- Start checking the progress – there are tools which can help you to track if your content appears on AI systems and how often (such as Asva.ai or Originality.ai.)
This can help you test the tool and add up to your marketing statistics. This way you can also form your opinion if llms.txt is actually useful for your own business.
It all depends on your primary business goals. If brand awareness and thought leadership is what matters, experimenting with llms.txt makes sense.
If precise customer acquisition and conversion tracking are priorities, traditional methods such as SEO and marketing channels can still work best.
Testing the Innovation
LLMs.txt offers an exciting opportunity. It joins the new wave of tools that are easy to implement and allow direct result tracking. You can look at it as an interesting experiment that can potentially become a part of your marketing strategy.
You need to be clear regarding rules and regulations, but llms.txt is still relatively easy to implement. Considering the growing market potential in the field of AI agents, such visibility can improve your ROI and potentially attract more customers.
If we view these step-by-step changes as part of a long-term digital journey that awaits us in the coming decades, it can work as a gradual shift, even if you are not a technically savvy individual. If, on the contrary, you see that basic marketing methods still suit you best, focus on what works. The future holds many technological novelties, but that doesn’t mean you need to implement them all.
Companies that succeed with new technologies tend to test them early on but implement them cautiously. llms.txt could become the next necessary web standard or join the list of forgotten internet experiments. Understanding this concept will help you make an informed decision about where to invest your time and resources in marketing.
