llms.txt AI Guidance File

What This Check Does

The llms.txt standard provides a machine-readable file at /llms.txt that tells AI language models about your site, its purpose, preferred citation format, and content licensing. This emerging standard helps AI systems represent your brand accurately.

Why It Matters for AI Search

As AI models increasingly generate responses that reference web content, having explicit guidance helps ensure accurate representation. Without llms.txt, AI models may misinterpret your content, miss key pages, or fail to attribute your brand properly.

How We Evaluate

1. 1Request /llms.txt from the root domain
2. 2Verify the file is accessible and returns valid content
3. 3Parse the file for key directives: site description, preferred name, contact, licensing
4. 4Score based on completeness and correctness of directives

Optimization Tips

• Create a /llms.txt file in your site root with your company name, description, and preferred citation format
• Include licensing information so AI models know how to attribute your content
• List your most important pages to help AI models prioritize content
• Keep the file updated as your site structure changes

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