Source: https://oguzerol.com/en/what-is-llms-txt-and-how-do-you-build-one/ GEO / AEO # What Is llms.txt, and How Do You Build One? [Oğuz Erol](https://oguzerol.com/en/about-me/) | 7 min read | Published: 3 August 2026 | Updated: 13 October 2026 ## Quick summary What is llms.txt, and how does it differ from robots.txt? Automatic setup with Rank Math on WordPress, what to put in it — an honest walkthrough. 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](https://oguzerol.com/en/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](https://oguzerol.com/en/what-is-geo/) — 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. If you’re curious how your company shows up in ChatGPT, see [How Does Your Website Show Up in ChatGPT](https://oguzerol.com/en/how-your-website-shows-up-in-chatgpt/). New proposals in this area are to be expected; until one is written down in an official source and confirmed to be supported by a platform, I don’t present it as the new standard. ## How It’s Set Up on oguzerol.com This site is not on WordPress; it runs on Astro. I don’t write llms.txt by hand: a page file called `src/pages/llms.txt.ts` generates the file from the content collection whenever the site is built. It lists service pages first, then posts, most recently updated first; each line has the title, the address and the page’s `excerpt` field, or its `description` if there is no excerpt. The intro block at the top and the sitemap link are written into the code, and pages marked noindex are left out. The one thing that takes discipline: not leaving the excerpt empty when adding a page. If it is empty the line falls back to the description, and if that is weak, the llms.txt line is weak too. The file is regenerated on every build, so there is no manual updating, but it is only current once the site has been built and published. The cost is just the excerpt I fill in when writing a page anyway; llms.txt is 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](https://oguzerol.com/en/ai-search-visibility-geo-aeo/) — 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. If you would like a first look at your own site, the free [analysis tool](https://oguzerol.com/en/analysis/) scans your address and reports the technical and content signals a machine can measure (it does not measure whether AI answers mention you). If you would rather go through the findings together and turn them into a prioritised to-do list, the [Visibility Session](https://oguzerol.com/en/visibility-session/) is a paid, two-hour one-to-one working session. ## 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. [Back to top ↑](https://oguzerol.com/en/what-is-llms-txt-and-how-do-you-build-one/#icerik) ## You may also find these useful [What Is GEO: How It Differs From SEOGEO is the work of getting your content used as a source in ChatGPT and Google AI answers. How it differs from SEO, what Google says, and what to do.](https://oguzerol.com/en/what-is-geo/)[GEO Guide: Visibility in AI SearchWhat actually helps with GEO and visibility in AI search, Google's official position, and a reading order for 20 articles: understand, apply, measure.](https://oguzerol.com/en/geo-guide/)[How Your Website Shows Up in ChatGPTWhere does ChatGPT learn about a company, when does it search live, and what should you fix today to boost visibility? A step-by-step, no-hype guide.](https://oguzerol.com/en/how-your-website-shows-up-in-chatgpt/) [Browse all articles →](https://oguzerol.com/en/articles/)