Does AI Think LLMS.TXT is Good for GEO? Let’s Ask!

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From Claude-

I think you mean SEO (Search Engine Optimization), not GEO! But that’s a great question about LLMS.txt files.

The short answer is: LLMS.txt probably doesn’t help traditional SEO much, but it might help with “AEO” (AI Engine Optimization) – getting your content surfaced in AI-generated responses.

Here’s the breakdown:

For traditional search engines (Google, Bing): LLMS.txt files likely have minimal to no direct impact on rankings. Search engines primarily rely on traditional signals like content quality, backlinks, site structure, meta tags, and user engagement metrics. They don’t specifically look for or reward LLMS.txt files.

For AI systems and chatbots: This is where LLMS.txt could matter. The file is designed to help AI systems understand what content on your site is most important and how it should be used. Some potential benefits:

  • When AI systems crawl your site (via web search tools or during training), LLMS.txt can guide them to your most valuable content
  • It can specify preferred context about your site, products, or services
  • It may influence how your content appears in AI-generated summaries or recommendations

The reality: LLMS.txt is still relatively new and adoption is limited. We don’t have clear data yet on how much various AI systems actually use these files when generating responses. It’s more of a forward-looking optimization strategy than a proven ranking factor.

If you’re considering adding one, it probably won’t hurt and could provide some benefit as AI-powered search becomes more prevalent, but I wouldn’t expect dramatic SEO improvements from it alone.

From ChatGPT-

Short answer: not really (yet) — having an llms.txt file won’t meaningfully help AI discover your site, and it’s not a proven GEO lever today.

Here’s the clear breakdown 👇

What llms.txt actually is

llms.txt is a proposed convention, inspired by robots.txt, meant to:

  • Tell LLMs which parts of a site are good for AI consumption
  • Point to preferred docs, APIs, or canonical content
  • Reduce junk ingestion (login pages, infinite lists, etc.)

It’s about guidance, not discovery.

Does it help AI “notice” your site?

No — discovery still happens elsewhere.

LLMs and AI search systems primarily learn about sites via:

  • Crawling the public web
  • Links and citations from other sites
  • Training data pipelines
  • Search indexes
  • User-shared URLs
  • Structured data and feeds

llms.txt is only read after a crawler already knows your site exists.

Think of it like:

“Once you’re in the room, here’s what to pay attention to”
—not “Hey, come to my party.”

Is it good for GEO (Generative Engine Optimization)?

Right now: neutral to mildly future-positive, not a ranking factor.

What it might help with (long-term):

  • Cleaner ingestion of your best content
  • Fewer hallucinations caused by low-value pages
  • Better alignment of summaries / citations if models adopt it

What it does not do:

  • Increase inclusion in LLM answers
  • Improve authority or trust signals
  • Replace backlinks, mentions, or strong content
  • Act like SEO metadata or schema

There’s no evidence that OpenAI, Google, Anthropic, etc. currently use llms.txt as a signal for:

  • Ranking
  • Citation likelihood
  • Training priority

Should you add one anyway?

Yes — but only if you already have strong fundamentals.

It’s:

  • Low effort
  • Low risk
  • Slight future upside

But it’s icing, not cake.

What actually helps GEO today (much more)

If your goal is “show up in AI answers,” prioritize:

  1. Clear, quotable content
    • Concise explanations
    • Definitions
    • Lists, steps, comparisons
  2. Entity clarity
    • Who you are
    • What you do
    • What you’re known for
      (About pages matter more than people think)
  3. Authoritative mentions
    • Being cited on other trusted sites
    • PR, blogs, docs, GitHub, forums
  4. Structured + crawlable content
    • Good HTML
    • Logical headings
    • No JS-only walls
  5. Consistency across the web
    • Same descriptions, claims, terminology

Bottom line

  • llms.txt does not help AI discover your site
  • It does not currently improve GEO
  • It may help later, once standards solidify
  • It’s fine to add, but don’t expect results from it alone

If you want, tell me:

  • what kind of site this is (docs, SaaS, blog, marketplace)
  • what you want AIs to say about you

…and I’ll give you a GEO-first checklist that actually moves the needle.

From Gemini-

The short answer is: Yes, absolutely. Having an llms.txt file is becoming the “New SEO” (often called GEO or Generative Engine Optimization). Just as robots.txt tells search engines how to crawl your site, llms.txt tells Large Language Models how to understand it.

Why it matters for GEO

Traditional SEO focuses on keywords and backlinks to rank in a list of blue links. GEO focuses on LLM-friendliness—making it easy for an AI to ingest your data so it can accurately cite you in a chat response.

1. Improved Information Density

LLMs have “context windows” (a limit on how much text they can process at once). A standard webpage is cluttered with headers, footers, ads, and JavaScript. An llms.txt file provides a Markdown-formatted summary of your site, allowing the AI to grab the “meat” of your content without the digital noise.

2. Higher Citation Accuracy

When an AI tool (like Perplexity, Gemini, or SearchGPT) “browses” the web to answer a prompt, it looks for clear, structured data. By providing a curated map of your most important pages in llms.txt, you increase the odds that the AI:

  • Finds the correct information.
  • Summarizes it accurately.
  • Attributes the source back to your URL.

3. Efficiency for AI Crawlers

AI companies are increasingly looking for ways to reduce “compute” costs. Providing a lightweight file that points to specific /library or /docs paths makes it much cheaper and faster for their models to index your brand.

How to structure your llms.txt

The file should live in your root directory (e.g., yourdomain.com/llms.txt). It generally follows a simple Markdown structure:

  • H1 Header: Your site name and a brief description.
  • A “Summary” section: The core value proposition of your site.
  • Categorized Links: Lists of URLs with brief descriptions of what is on those pages.

Pro Tip: You can also create an llms-full.txt for deeper, more technical documentation that you want the AI to “read” in its entirety.

Is it a “Magic Bullet”?

Not quite. While having the file helps with discoverability and clarity, the AI still evaluates the quality of your actual content. Think of llms.txt as a high-quality “Table of Contents” for a book; it helps the reader find the right chapter, but the chapter itself still needs to be well-written.

Would you like me to help you draft a custom llms.txt template based on your website’s specific content?