Publish /llms.txt
llms.txt is widely hyped, but Google's John Mueller said in June 2025 that no AI system currently uses it, and a 300k-domain study found no link to citations. Reported as info only, with zero weight.
Little/no measured citation lift, only thin support, or a mechanism without outcome data.
Little or no citation lift, or only thin support. Hygiene if the check still reports it.
How to fix
Nothing to fix, and we don't recommend adding llms.txt. No major AI agent has confirmed it reads the file, and Google says you don't need special AI text files for its AI features. Google's John Mueller said in June 2025 that "no AI system currently uses llms.txt". We took ours down.
- If you don't have one, leave it. Spend the time on the graded checks instead.
- If you have one, you can keep it. Serve it as plain text or Markdown: an HTML page at /llms.txt counts as no file.
- Don't pay anyone to write one to get you cited.
How to check it worked: nothing changes. The "llms.txt file" row stays Not graded either way: "You have an llms.txt. There's no evidence AI agents use it yet, so it isn't graded."
What the free check looks for
- Check /llms.txt and /llms-full.txt exist, return 200 text/markdown, and link valid URLs. Report as 'nice to have, unproven' — never weighted.
Caveats
- — Correlational studies dominate this field. AI citations churn: a small 15-prompt preprint (arXiv 2609.22655; the author sells AI-visibility tooling) saw each engine's cited URL set change by about 67% on average from one day to the next, with under 1% URL overlap across engines. Toronto (2610.15033) found only about 40% of the within-site pattern of ChatGPT citations still held two weeks later, and 14% after ten weeks. Re-verify yearly.
- — Reported in the free check as info only.
Studies and docs
2025
Across ~300k domains (10.13% adoption), no correlation with AI citation frequency; removing the variable improved the XGBoost model.
2025
Independent coverage of the SE Ranking study confirming no measurable link.
2024
Defines the proposed format; a proposal, not an adopted standard.
2026
Google: you don't need new machine-readable AI text files to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. Indexed + snippet-eligible is the bar.
2025
Google's John Mueller (Bluesky, June 17, 2025): "FWIW no AI system currently uses llms.txt."
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