What is llms.txt and do you need one?

What it is

You may know robots.txt, which tells search crawlers what they may visit, and a sitemap, which lists your pages. llms.txt is written for AI tools instead. It holds a short description of your site and a list of links, each with a line about what is there.

It is usually written in Markdown, a simple plain-text format: a title, a one-line summary and short lists of links.

Does it actually work?

We do not know, and you should be wary of anyone who says they do. It is a proposal, not a standard, and AI companies have not all said they use it. Adding the file cannot be counted on to change what any assistant says about you.

If a tool does read it, it gets a tidy map of your site. If none does, it costs you little.

What goes in it

Your business name and what you do, in one sentence. Where you work. Contact details. A line for each service, with a link. Links to key pages such as About and booking.

If your name is easy to mix up with another company, say so plainly. Ours states that we are not connected to two firms with similar names. Only write what you would put on your public website, because the file is public.

How ours works

Westward’s llms.txt is built from the same data as our pages, so the two cannot disagree. You can read it at westwardconsulting.ai/llms.txt.

Step by step

1. Write a one-sentence description of your business, where you work and how to contact you.
2. List each service or main page with a link and one line about it.
3. Save the file as llms.txt, in plain text.
4. Put it at the top level of your domain so it opens at yourdomain.com/llms.txt.
5. Open it in a browser to check it loads. Update it when your services change.