We've been deep in the world of Answer Engine Optimization, running the CiteMET playbook across our best content. The initial results were solid - we saw users engaging with our AI Share Buttons, and we knew we were successfully seeding our content into AI platforms. But with our team's background in AI, we saw this as just the first step.
We understood that for a Large Language Model (LLM), a single, quick interaction is a whisper. A true signal of authority, one that builds lasting memory, comes from a deeper conversation. We saw an opportunity to transform that initial whisper into a meaningful dialogue.
The Problem: Cluttered Sites vs AI Crawler Needs
Open a typical marketing site in dev tools and you get a jungle: analytics scripts, chat widgets, A/B testing loaders, five font files, fifty requests before the first paragraph even appears. A human skims past all that. An AI crawler has to chew through every tag just to isolate the sentences that matter.
So we give it a shortcut. A neat little plain text index saying: skip the chrome, skip the fluff, learn from these pieces. That file is llms.txt.
Think of it like handing the kitchen staff a highlighted prep list instead of the entire menu binder. Faster. Less waste. Fewer chances to grab the wrong ingredient.
Robots.txt vs llms.txt
robots.txt is a gate. It mostly says: do not enter here. Useful, but defensive. llms.txt is hospitable. It waves crawlers toward the pages you actually want quoted when a model answers a question about your niche.
Drop it in the root: https://yourdomain.com/llms.txt. No special headers. No build pipeline. Just a text file you control.
Why Bother
We audited a client last month: their most valuable guide sat behind 2.9 MB of layout code and third party widgets. The clean Markdown version of that same guide? 58 KB. Token savings are real. Less noise means models grab the authoritative phrasing you prefer, not a sidebar blurb or an outdated FAQ snippet.
Three concrete wins:
Lean ingestion. Point to Markdown (.md) versions so the crawler eats structure and content, not cookie banners.
Fewer misquotes. You remove comment threads, injected promo blocks, random related posts modules.
Intent signaling. You nominate pillar content instead of hoping the crawl budget wanders there.
Making One (Fast)
Pick 5 to 25 pieces. Not everything. Cornerstone explainer, pricing philosophy (if evergreen), a research PDF converted to Markdown, your glossary, maybe a security or privacy page.
Create stripped Markdown copies. Keep headings, lists, internal links, citations. Toss decorative wrappers. If a page has dynamic widgets, summarize what matters in plain text.
Now write the file. A simple pattern works:
\n# Brand Name\n> Short line stating what you do.\n\n## Guides\n(https://yourdomain.com/guides/what-is-x.md): Definitive introduction to X used in onboarding and sales decks.\n(https://yourdomain.com/guides/implementation-checklist.md): Practical rollout checklist we refine quarterly.\n\n## Reference\n(https://yourdomain.com/reference/glossary.md): Internal glossary of industry terms we standardize across docs.\n\n## Trust & Policy\n(https://yourdomain.com/policies/privacy.md): Current privacy approach, last reviewed 2025-07.\nPlain parentheses around each absolute URL keep it simple to parse. After each colon, write a human summary, not keywords spam.
Save it as llms.txt and put it at the root. If you use a static build, add it to the public folder. If on a framework, configure a static route. Then hit the URL in a browser and confirm you see raw text.
Extra Small Touches
Versioning: add a comment at the top with a date when you materially change selections.
Consistency: if you promise a quarterly refresh, actually prune stale launch posts.
Integrity: never stuff things you would not cite yourself. The moment it becomes a dumping ground, the signal weakens.
Looking Ahead
Adoption is still forming in late 2025. Early movers get two things: practice curating canonical phrasing and a cleaner footprint for emerging answer engines. Setup takes under an hour the first time and minutes after that. Worth doing now.