Unlocking the Power of llms.txt: Making Your Website AI-Friendly

In the evolving landscape of artificial intelligence, ensuring that your website communicates effectively with Large Language Models (LLMs) is becoming increasingly important. AI agents and scrapers want to learn as much about your website as quickly as possible as they do deep research or try to gather facts. The more you can be doing to help the AI understand where to go for content and what it will find, the more likely the AI is to use your site as a reputable reference. One emerging standard facilitating this interaction is the llms.txt file. But what exactly is llms.txt, and how can it benefit your website? Let’s break it down.

What is llms.txt?

Originally proposed in 2024, llms.txt is a lightweight, standardized file designed to help AI systems better understand the structure and purpose of your website. When placed at the root of your domain (for example, yourwebsite.com/llms.txt), it acts as a clear signal to LLMs about who you are, what you offer, and which parts of your site are most important.

Think of it as a simple guide for AI... something that tells it, “Here’s what matters on this site.”

The earliest examples of why this was important was for technical documentation. AI systems are very bad at taking in that level and scale of information at once and understanding how to use it. When AI systems come across a page in HTML, they end up wasting so much time trying to fight through the CSS, Javascript, etc. that they never end up getting to the information that matters. This is a problem! The llms.txt file helps to solve this by telling the AI system what they are looking at in language that they can understand.

This all sounds nice, but why does it matter to me?

As LLMs become a primary way people search for and consume information, how your website appears in AI-generated answers matters. If your site isn’t easily understood by the AI systems, you risk being misrepresented—or worse, not included in AI responses at all.

Adding an llms.txt file is a low-effort, high-impact way to ensure your content is recognized and used appropriately.

Developers started catching on, and before long coding tools such as Cursor were making these assets even more accessible since they were so effective.

What Goes Into an llms.txt File?

The beauty of llms.txt is its simplicity. Rather than technical markup or dense metadata, it includes clear, human-readable information about your site:

-A short description of your site’s purpose

-Links to core pages like documentation, tutorials, or FAQs

-Optional sections like community forums or pricing pages

That’s it. No code. No complex formatting. Just a helpful summary for AI to latch onto.

New From ChatRank: Auto-Generated llms.txt with Site Optimization

To make all of this even easier, we’re excited to introduce a brand-new feature inside ChatRank: Site Optimization.

This tool scans your website, identifies your most important content, and automatically creates a smart llms.txt file tailored to your site. It's built to save you time and make sure your content shows up the right way in AI-generated answers.

You can customize the file if you want. You can add or remove links, rewrite descriptions, provide additional context, and so much more. I highly suggest trying that if you are interested in learning more. There are excellent forums and stories of others that have had success doing it. But, I will say that most users find the automatic version is perfectly fine and ready to go out of the box.

We at ChatRank think about this a lot, and we have implemented these files on our websites and those of our sibling companies.

Stay Ahead of the Curve

AI is already reshaping how people find and interact with online content. The sooner your site becomes AI-friendly, the better positioned you'll be to reach new audiences.

llms.txt is a simple but powerful step toward that future. With ChatRank’s Site Optimization tool, it's never been easier to get started.

Want to make your website AI-ready? Sign up for ChatRank today and try the Site Optimization tool to generate your own llms.txt file. Results and impact can be felt almost immediately.