What Is llms.txt, and How Do You Build One?

llms.txt is a simple markdown file that summarizes a website’s structure and key pages for AI models — it sits at the site’s root, and you can think of it as robots.txt’s cousin, the one facing AI. But robots.txt is an access rule, while llms.txt is an information map: it doesn’t block anyone, it just gives a short, organized answer to “what is this site about, which pages matter.” The goal is to help AI models summarize your site more accurately and point users to the right page.

How Is It Different From robots.txt?

llms.txt is one piece of a broader GEO guide — not a magic fix on its own, but a cheap and correct preparation step. Confusing it with robots.txt is a common mistake: both sit at the site’s root, both are “written for machines.” But their functions are the exact opposite.

• robots.txt is an access rule. It tells bots which folders they can and can’t enter; its intent is to restrict.
• llms.txt is an information map. It doesn’t block anything — it just offers an organized summary answering “what does this site do, which pages matter, how do I reach them.”

So you can add llms.txt without touching robots.txt at all — the two don’t conflict, and neither replaces the other.

How to Build an llms.txt File (WordPress Example)

If you’re new to GEO, I’d recommend starting with What Is GEO, and How Does It Differ From SEO — that’s where I lay out the broader framework. Here I’m going straight to practice: there are two ways to build an llms.txt file.

Writing it by hand: a simple markdown file — a title, a one-sentence summary, then links to your key pages, usually grouped under headings like “Main Pages,” “Services,” “Contact.” For a small, mostly static site, this is a 15-20 minute job.

Automatic generation (WordPress + Rank Math): as a site grows and page count climbs, updating the file by hand becomes unsustainable. SEO plugins like Rank Math can generate llms.txt dynamically — every page you publish gets added to the list automatically, no manual file uploads needed.

Whichever method you pick, the same three things need to be in there: a short description of what the site does, links to priority pages, and a way to contact or book you. Don’t write a long explanation — llms.txt is a summary, not documentation.

What Information Should Go Into It?

Every page link needs a one-line description underneath, and the quality of that description determines the quality of the whole file. In a WordPress + Rank Math setup, that description is usually pulled from the post_excerpt field — meaning if you leave the “excerpt” box empty when publishing a page, the corresponding line in llms.txt comes out empty or meaningless too.

In practice, the workflow looks like this: fill in the excerpt field by hand, short and clear, every time you publish a new page or post — a sentence that sums up what the page is about and naturally includes the keyword. That one sentence does double duty: it feeds llms.txt, and it’s also used as the meta description fallback in search results.

If you want a longer, hand-written introduction (“who this site is, what it offers”-style paragraph), Rank Math has a separate field for that: the extra content box (llms_extra_content) under General Settings. The excerpt is short and page-specific; this field provides broader, site-wide context.

Does It Actually Work? An Honest Assessment

I won’t oversell this: the evidence that llms.txt is actually read and used by AI engines is limited. No major AI company — not OpenAI, not Anthropic, not Google — has said “yes, we officially support llms.txt.” The format started as one company’s proposal and spread through community adoption; it’s not an official standard.

My framework is this: don’t treat llms.txt as a guaranteed ranking or citation boost. Think of it as a near-zero-cost “nice to have” preparation step. If AI engines start taking it more seriously someday, you’re already set up; if they never do, you haven’t lost anything — the file doesn’t hurt your ranking or cause any other harm.

One signal of where this space is heading: in July 2026, Google introduced a new proposal called “Open Knowledge Format” (OKF). OKF takes llms.txt’s idea a step further, adding five “trust signals” — provenance, trust, freshness, lifecycle, and attestation (v0.2, July 25-26, 2026). It’s a candidate that could eventually replace llms.txt. Both are early-stage right now; I’m tracking both, but I don’t attach a “you’ll be invisible to AI without this” meaning to either one. If you’re curious how your company shows up in ChatGPT, see How Does Your Website Show Up in ChatGPT.

How It’s Set Up on oguzerol.com

On my own site, I don’t write llms.txt by hand — I use Rank Math’s dynamic generation feature. Every page or post I publish gets added to the list automatically, and the description line comes from post_excerpt. The one thing that requires discipline: not leaving the excerpt box empty when publishing a new page. When I do leave it empty, that line either stays blank or turns into a nonsensical auto-generated summary.

There’s also a longer, hand-written paragraph introducing the site as a whole — it goes into Rank Math’s extra content field under General Settings. It works like a fixed block at the top of the file that says “who this site is, what it does.”

Total setup time was under half a day, and maintenance is close to zero — writing the excerpt when publishing a new page was already something I had to do; llms.txt is just a free byproduct on top of that.

You Can Ask Me to Do This

You can ask me to do this for you: usually a 2-hour to 2-week job, done remotely, billed hourly. It falls under my AI search visibility service — automated setup on WordPress usually takes a few hours; a manually built file for a large multi-page site can take up to a few days.

Frequently Asked Questions

Am I invisible to AI without llms.txt?

No. AI engines can crawl and understand your site without llms.txt — a missing file doesn’t zero out your visibility. llms.txt is a facilitator, not a prerequisite.

How do I set up llms.txt on WordPress?

The most practical route is turning on the dynamic generation feature of an SEO plugin like Rank Math — you don’t need to upload a file by hand, every page you publish gets added to the list automatically. The only thing you need to do is fill in the excerpt field when publishing a page or post.

Do I need to change robots.txt?

No, the two work independently. Adding llms.txt doesn’t override or change any rule in robots.txt.

Which AI engines actually read llms.txt?

There’s no definitive list — no major AI company has announced official support. In practice, some tools and crawlers do recognize the format, but I can’t guarantee it.

Will OKF replace llms.txt?

Not clear yet — both are early-stage. OKF carries a richer set of trust signals. I’m tracking both and implementing both, since they’re cheap steps that don’t harm your site either way.