What is llms.txt: How It Affects Your Website’s SEO in 2025

What if your high-ranking blog posts are secretly training the AI that is trying to replace you?

In 2025, AI bots such as GPTBot, ClaudeBot, and even CCBot are actively crawling the web to collect information for training large language models (LLMs). These models produce human-like writing and quite often reflect your structure, tone, and ideas, all without backlinking or giving credit.

Did you give permission firsthand? No. But unless you blocked them, you didn’t stop them either.

This is where llms.txt comes in, a new and still unofficial idea. It’s a plain text file that some believe could act like a digital bouncer for AI training bots. While the concept is gaining traction, and a few companies may choose to honor it, most crawlers still rely on robots.txt. And many unknown or shady bots don’t follow either.

In this blog, we’ll talk about what llms.txt is, what it can and can’t do, how it affects SEO (if at all), and why it matters in a future where AI tools might be the primary “search engines” with no sites and no links.

Table of Contents

What is llms.txt?

If robots.txt (will be explained in the next section) was designed with Google in mind, then llms.txt is designed with the future generation of the web, the time when bots constructed from AI will be the primary consumers of your content rather than humans.

llms.txt is a simple, public text file you can add to your site to guide how AI crawlers access your content for retrieval and use in AI-generated answers. These include bots such as GPTBot from OpenAI, ClaudeBot from Anthropic, and Bytespider from ByteDance.

They don’t index your site like search engines; they learn from it.

However, the truth is, llms.txt is not an official or widely recognized standard yet. It’s entirely voluntary. Some bots might choose to respect it, but most do not for now. That’s simply because there’s no enforcement and no global playbook in place so far.

Well, OpenAI and Google haven’t officially adopted llms.txt, but there’s growing pressure on tech companies to give content creators more control. Ignoring that now could lead to regulatory backlash later.

In the era of artificial intelligence, where it is more crucial than ever to preserve exposure, authority, and originality, llms.txt might just be your first symbolic step toward mastering your content’s future.

Perhaps you are thinking if this all sounds a lot like robots.txt. So how are they different, and why should both be important in your plan? Let’s compare them.

What is the Difference Between llms.txt and robots.txt?

Both are plain-text files placed at the root of your website and can be used to build a smarter, AI-ready site.

Look at the table below to understand how their purpose and power are completely different.

Feature	robots.txt	llms.txt
Primary Function	It regulates how search engine crawlers crawl and index your site.	Helps LLMs understand your most useful content.
Compliance Status	Well-established and widely enforced web standard.	Not official yet
Location on Website	yourdomain.com/robots.txt	yourdomain.com/llms.txt
Format	Markdown (headings, links, summaries)	Plain text with crawl directives
Level of Control	Have high support from major search engines.	It depends on whether AI bots respect the file or not.
Used By Who?	Search engine spiders.	AI crawlers may notice it, but very few are actively using it.
Affects SEO Rankings	This impacts crawling, indexing, and visibility in search engines.	It may influence AI visibility.
AI Training Control	Intended to allow or block content from being used in AI usage.	No prevention.
Recommended for	Websites that are concerned with search engine traffic.	Content creators, publishers, and brands.

So now that you actually know how llms.txt compares to its older sibling robots.txt, why wait any longer? Continue reading the next, please.

How Search Engines Work with llms.txt?

Well, right now, traditional search engines (yes, I’m talking about Google and Bing) do not read llms.txt. They use the older robots.txt protocol to determine what to crawl, index, and rank.

But let me tell you, search engines are no longer just search engines. They are becoming AI-powered answer engines, and that changes everything.

Google is now employing Gemini to produce AI summaries. Microsoft uses GPT-4 in Bing Copilot. These products are trained separately from their search index, often by crawling websites using AI-specific bots like GPTBot from OpenAI, ClaudeBot from Anthropic, and others.

Now, while there’s no official confirmation that these AI spiders scan or respect llms.txt, some site owners are starting to add it as a precaution, hoping that companies will begin honoring it as part of growing pressure around transparency and consent.

So even if Googlebot crawls and indexes your stuff, Gemini may still use a different AI crawler like Google-Extended to decide what makes it into AI-generated summaries. If you are blocking AI training via robots.txt (not llms.txt), that might keep your content out of those AI responses.

This means you could still rank highly on the page… but be kept out of the answer users see first. In the age of AI, restricting who trains on your content may soon be every bit as vital as curbing who crawls it.

There is no word from authority on this overlap, but the indications are that training restrictions, mainly via robots.txt, not llms.txt, might affect your visibility in AI-returned results, even if they don’t touch your traditional SEO rankings. But indirectly? A definite yes from our end, and soon from your end as well.

The Unseen Impact of llms.txt on SEO Ranking

Technically, llms.txt doesn’t tell Google how to rank you. But in the age of AI-driven search, your content doesn’t only rank. Rather, it freely lives across tools, summaries, and chat-based experiences where your llms.txt file could quietly influence your overall SEO performance. Why not just explore the indirect but powerful ways llms.txt might impact your SEO?

1. AI Visibility Boost

Search isn’t just Google anymore. AI tools like ChatGPT and Perplexity are giving users instant answers. If you allow clean, structured content access via llms.txt, your brand can be part of those answers. You are not just optimizing for ranking, getting your voice heard where attention lives now: AI summaries, zero-click results, and conversational search.

2. Prevent Misuse

AI doesn’t think like humans. It grabs what’s available even if it is outdated or messy. If you don’t control the narrative, it will fill the blanks for you. llms.txt gives LLMs the right content directly from you. That means no confusion, no hallucinations, and no wrong product info messing with your audience’s trust. Your voice, your rules.

3. Future-Proof Search

AI-first search is already here. Google’s Gemini, Bing Copilot, and even Claude use models trained outside traditional SERPs. llms.txt helps you speak their language with markdown summaries and clean page references. If SEO gave you Google rankings, llms.txt gives you AI visibility. And both matter now because users trust what AI shows first.

4. Upgrade Your SEO

Just like robots.txt told search engines what to crawl, llms.txt speaks to AI models. It’s not about replacing SEO; it is about upgrading it. When combined with AEO tactics like structured content and schema, llms.txt gives your site the edge to show up in both search results and AI-driven outputs. It’s the next layer of modern search visibility.

So yes, while llms.txt may not change your Google rankings directly, it sets the foundation for where search is headed. As AI bots become the new gatekeepers of information, respecting llms.txt could soon become the norm. And getting ahead of it today keeps your content ready for tomorrow.

Conclusion:

In our online world, where AI is widespread, it has an impact on your SEO approach. llms.txt offers you the control you need to safeguard your unique content, maintain its worth, or comply with regulations. However, to expand your audience and distribute your content, and remain visible in AI tools, permitting some access might be more beneficial. You don’t need to make a drastic decision, as you can fine-tune access and:

Allow trusted AI tools like GPTBot to enter.
Prevent unknown scrapers from accessing.
Adjust settings as AI evolves.

So yes, we can say that, when used correctly, llms.txt is not just a way to protect your content; it gives a clear picture to upcoming search engines and AI tools about what your website represents. The SEO landscape of tomorrow won’t just focus on climbing Google rankings. It’ll involve being visible where your audience poses their questions, which includes AI tools, smart assistants, and other AI platforms.

llms.txt puts the choice in your hands: Do you want your content to be part of this future, or do you prefer to stay on the sidelines? So, what’s your call? If you’re ready to open new doors, you’ll find our llms.txt Generator useful. It looks at web pages and creates a formatted llms.txt file. The best part is that it is free and fully online. So our advice would be to give this a 100% try.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Q1. How Can I Keep Track of AI Bots Visiting My Website?

You can use server logs, tools like Cloudflare, or custom scripts to monitor this. These methods let you spot visits from known AI sources by their user agents.

Q2. Do WordPress or Other CMS Platforms Support llms.txt?

Yes, you can upload it through FTP or use plugins to manage access. It works just like robots.txt in this case.

Q3. How Often Should I Check and Update My llms.txt File?

Look it over every time a new page is added to your site. The AI world changes fast, so staying current helps make sure your updated information is correctly structured and usable by LLMs.

Q4. What’s the Process to Create and Set Up an llms.txt File on My Site?

To make one, you can use an online llms.txt generator. Once you have your file, please upload it to your website’s main folder (yourdomain.com/llms.txt). Or if you want a customized version, refer to the official documentation on llmstxt.org.

Q5. Will Search Engines Punish You for Using llms.txt?

No. They don’t punish you for using llms.txt. It has no effect on how they crawl or index your site, and it works on its own, separate from SEO rules in robots.txt.