What is llms.txt? It is a plain markdown file, usually at yourdomain.com/llms.txt, that gives an agent a short description of the site and links to the pages you most want read. It is a curated index. It is not a ranking boost, and it is not access control.
Google's own guide to generative AI features in Search says you do not need special AI files, including llms.txt, to appear in Google Search. Google may crawl a file it finds. That is not the same as treating the file as a ranking input. If a tutorial tells you llms.txt will move your SEO, that tutorial is ahead of Google's documentation.
The proposal itself lives at llmstxt.org. Read that for the format. Read Google's note before you sell the file as GEO.
llms.txt, robots.txt, and the sitemap
| File | Job |
|---|---|
| robots.txt | Says which crawlers may fetch which paths. It does not describe your product |
| sitemap.xml | Lists URLs for search engines. It is an inventory, not a reading guide |
| llms.txt | A short, human-readable map for an agent that wants the useful pages first |
Bloomiro publishes /llms.txt because we want agents that look for the file to find pricing, the product explanation, and the docs-like pages without crawling the whole marketing site. We do not claim Google ranks us because the file exists.
What to put in it
Keep it boring and accurate:
- One paragraph on what the company does.
- Links to the canonical pages: what you are, pricing, how the method works, the comparisons you are willing to stand behind.
- Skip campaign URLs, tag pages, and thin changelog notes unless an agent truly needs them.
- If a page has a markdown twin, you can link that. Markdown is easier for an agent than a page built only for a visual layout.
Do not list 200 URLs. That is a sitemap with extra steps. The value is the edit: which twenty pages explain the product if someone only reads those.
What it will not do
- It will not make ChatGPT mention you. Mentions come from answers and sources. Track those with saved prompts.
- It will not unblock a bot you disallowed in robots.txt. Access and description are different. See which AI crawlers to allow.
- It will not fix a page that answers the buyer's question in paragraph twelve.
- It will not replace Search Console.
Hostinger, the spec site, and a handful of blogs rank for "what is llms.txt." Many of them blur the file into "this helps you rank." The useful article is the one that repeats Google's limit in the first screen. That is the only reason to write another one.
A practical check
Open /llms.txt on your domain. If it 404s, you do not have one. If it exists, click every link. A link to a redirected campaign is noise. Update the file when you ship a page you want quoted, the same week, not in a quarterly cleanup.
Then go measure something that can change a decision: a prompt, a citation, a query. Metrics.
