Google issues an update on search, advising SEO experts not to bother including LLMS.txt in websites.
Google has urged SEO exports not to include LLMS.txt files on their websites as it will not affect search rankings.
The tech giant updated its guide for optimising for AI search confirming Google search does not use LLMS.txt files.
The update, which was published on Google Search Central, read: “You don’t need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, mark-up, or mark-down to appear in Google search (including its generative AI capabilities), as Google search itself doesn’t use them. Note that Google may discover, crawl, and index many kinds of files in addition to HTML on a website: this doesn’t mean that the file is treated in a special way.”
LLM.txt files are a text file at the root of a publisher site, which looks to guide AI tools and chatbots like ChatGPT to the most critical pages – highlighting the content users want seen.
However, Google has now clarified these files will neither help nor harm users efforts to build search rankings. Google search crawlers may read and index these files, but they aren’t a contributor to the rankings.
“It’s completely fine if you decide to create and maintain LLMS.txt files (or other similar files) for other services or systems that use these files. Doing so won’t harm (nor help) your visibility or rankings in Google search, as Google search ignores them,” the update stated.
This clears up the confusion around the files. LLMS.txt is a proposed standard, but without active use by Google’s Gemini, OpenAI’s ChatGPT, or Claude, the text files simply become a de-facto meaningless addition to a site.
However, if these files do become compatible with Google search rankings in future, those with consistently updated files could be in a good position to take advantage of Google’s crawlers.
