Can llms.txt files Harm Your Website?
If you own a website, you’ve probably heard of llms.txt files. For those unfamiliar, these files are new and are placed in the website’s root directory to help AI models quickly understand Your Website .
But before we get into our topic, let’s ask a more important question: Does Google actually use these llms.txt files? The answer is no!
As I mentioned in a previous article about the “geo” illusion, you should be working hard to satisfy Google, not relying on AI models that depend on Google!
Google stated, “You don’t need to create new machine-readable files, AI-enhanced text files, markup files, or Markdown files to appear in Google search results (including generative AI capabilities), because Google itself doesn’t use them.”
Returning to our topic, can llms.txt harm your website? The answer is no, but it’s certainly not as beneficial as some might suggest. However, there’s no harm in creating it, but remember that it won’t affect your website’s search engine rankings, either positively or negatively.
Search engines will remain and will continue to thrive. Work hard to rank highly in search results through dedicated effort and SEO, not AI. Use AI only as a supplementary tool.
