AI SEO Basics
A plain text file, not a ranking trick.
What llms.txt Is, and Whether It Helps a Local Business
llms.txt is a plain text file you put at the root of your website that tells anything reading your site, human or machine, what your business does, where you work, your hours, and which pages answer the questions your buyers actually ask. Here is what the file is, a worked example for an HVAC company, where to put it, and how our free check reports whether yours already exists.
What the file is, and who actually reads it
A short plain text file, not a page design, and no promise about who opens it.
llms.txt lives at yourdomain.com/llms.txt. It is plain text, the same way robots.txt is plain text, not a page built with your website's design or a form someone fills out. It states in plain sentences what your business does, the services or trades you offer, the towns or neighborhoods you actually work in, your hours, and links to the specific pages on your site that answer a buyer's exact question, like who installs a furnace in your town or who does emergency garage door repair after hours.
It sits next to robots.txt, not in place of it. robots.txt tells a crawler what it is allowed to fetch from your site. llms.txt tells that crawler, once it is let in, what your business is, in plain language, instead of leaving it to guess from a homepage built to look good to a person, not to be read by a program.
We want to be straight about who reads it. Some assistants and crawlers fetch llms.txt when it exists. We cannot tell you that ChatGPT, Gemini or Perplexity reads it every time, or how much weight it carries when they do. No one can promise that, including us. ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity mostly answer local questions with live web search and cite the pages they read, so the page that names your town and answers the exact question still carries the weight. llms.txt is a low cost way to hand a machine reader the short version of your business instead of making it dig for that through your homepage design. It does not hurt to have one. It does not guarantee anything either.
One thing worth checking first. robots.txt can block the crawlers those assistants use, OpenAI's GPTBot and OAI-SearchBot, Anthropic's ClaudeBot, Perplexity's PerplexityBot, and Google-Extended. If your robots.txt blocks them, they cannot reach your pages or your llms.txt file at all, no matter how well either one is written. Our free check reports this along with everything else.
A worked example
Here is what one could look like for an HVAC company in Schaumburg. Swap in your own services, towns and hours.
# Schaumburg Comfort Heating & Air
> Family owned HVAC company serving Schaumburg, Illinois and the towns around it. Furnace repair, AC installation and repair, and maintenance plans.
## Services
- Furnace repair and replacement
- Air conditioning installation and repair
- Duct cleaning
- Maintenance plans
- Emergency HVAC service
## Areas served
Schaumburg, Hoffman Estates, Elk Grove Village, Hanover Park, Streamwood, Roselle
## Hours
Monday to Friday, 7am to 7pm. Saturday, 8am to 2pm. Emergency line answered any time.
## Pages
- Furnace repair in Schaumburg: https://example.com/furnace-repair-schaumburg/
- AC installation cost: https://example.com/ac-installation-cost/
- Service area: https://example.com/service-area/
- Contact and hours: https://example.com/contact/Notice what is missing. No claims about being the best, no made up review counts, no keyword stuffing. Just the business, the services, the towns, the hours, and links to the pages that actually answer a buyer's question. That is the whole file.
Where to put it and what to include
One file, at the root of your domain, kept current.
The file goes at the root of your domain, not buried in a folder, so it is yourdomain.com/llms.txt, the same address pattern as yourdomain.com/robots.txt. Whoever manages your website, a host, a developer, a platform's file manager, can add one plain text file there in a few minutes. It is text, not code.
- Your business name and what you do in one line
- The services or trades you actually offer, named plainly
- Every town, city or area you serve, named by name
- Your hours, including any emergency or after hours line
- Links to the specific pages that answer a buyer's exact question, not just a link to your homepage
Update it when your services or your service area changes. A file that still lists a town you stopped covering, or leaves out a service you added last year, is worse than not having one at all.
How our free check reports on it
We read your site before we ask anything.
Our free check at /ai-check/ loads your home page, your robots.txt and your llms.txt first, so it can tell you plainly whether robots.txt blocks the crawlers those assistants use and whether llms.txt exists at all. Then it writes six questions a local buyer would ask for your trade and your town, asks them on ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity with live web search, and reports whether your business gets named, who gets named instead, and which directories got quoted. There is no email gate and no sign in, the result page can be shared, and an emailed copy is optional. It runs in English or Spanish, see the Spanish home.
Since July 2026, OpenAI has licensed Yelp reviews, ratings and business details into ChatGPT's answers. Our check covers your site's own crawler access and llms.txt file. For the fuller walkthrough of what else can change an answer, see our guide to getting recommended by ChatGPT and the AI search optimization checklist.
Common questions
Straight answers, no promises we cannot keep.
Does adding llms.txt guarantee my business gets named by ChatGPT?
No. Some assistants and crawlers fetch llms.txt when it exists, but no one can promise what an AI assistant will say, and answers change over time. llms.txt is a low cost way to hand a machine reader a plain description of your business. It does not replace pages that answer buyer questions with your town named.
What is the difference between llms.txt and robots.txt?
robots.txt tells crawlers what they are allowed to fetch from your site. llms.txt describes what your business actually does, once a crawler is let in. You want both, and robots.txt has to allow the crawler first or llms.txt never gets read.
Do I need a developer to add llms.txt?
You need whoever manages your website to add one plain text file at the root of your domain, at yourdomain.com/llms.txt. It is text, not code, so most hosts can add it in a few minutes.
How do I know if my business already has one?
Our free check reads your site, including robots.txt and llms.txt, and reports plainly whether llms.txt exists. You can also type yourdomain.com/llms.txt into a browser and see if a file loads.
Questions owners ask
Short answers, no promises.
Does adding llms.txt guarantee my business gets named by ChatGPT?
No. Some assistants and crawlers fetch llms.txt when it exists, but no one can promise what an AI assistant will say, and answers change over time. llms.txt is a low cost way to hand a machine reader a plain description of your business. It does not replace pages that answer buyer questions with your town named.
What is the difference between llms.txt and robots.txt?
robots.txt tells crawlers what they are allowed to fetch from your site. llms.txt describes what your business actually does, once a crawler is let in. You want both, and robots.txt has to allow the crawler first or llms.txt never gets read.
Do I need a developer to add llms.txt?
You need whoever manages your website to add one plain text file at the root of your domain, at yourdomain.com/llms.txt. It is text, not code, so most hosts can add it in a few minutes.
How do I know if my business already has an llms.txt file?
Our free check at conectamedia.app/ai-check/ reads your site, including robots.txt and llms.txt, and reports plainly whether llms.txt exists. You can also type yourdomain.com/llms.txt into a browser and see if a file loads.
See where your business stands
Run the check, then decide what to fix.
Run the free check and we will tell you plainly whether llms.txt exists on your site, whether robots.txt blocks the crawlers those assistants use, and whether ChatGPT, Gemini and Perplexity name your business for six real buyer questions in your trade and your town. If the check turns up gaps, our AI visibility pilot fixes them, business data assistants can read, crawler access corrected, listings made consistent, for $397 once, as of September 2026, with a before and after re-run on day 14. See pricing for what is included, or browse the rest of the AI SEO hub.