Guide
Is llms.txt worth it?
Direct answer: For Google Search — including AI Overviews and AI Mode — no as a ranking or citation lever. Google’s official guide says Search ignores llms.txt; keeping one neither helps nor hurts Google visibility. Keep a short honest file if it costs nothing and other tools may read it. Do not treat it as the reason AI will mention you.
What Google says (verified)
Google’s Search Central guide on generative AI features (covered by Search Engine Land, 15 May 2026) states that AI Overviews and AI Mode are rooted in core Search ranking systems. In the mythbusting section, Google lists things you can ignore for Google Search:
- llms.txt and other “special” AI markup
- Content “chunking” for AI
- Rewriting content just for AI systems
- Seeking inauthentic brand mentions
- Overfocusing on special schema for AI
Google later clarified that maintaining llms.txt for other services is fine — it will not harm or help Google rankings because Google Search ignores the file.
What studies suggest
Vendor and industry analyses of large domain sets have reported little or no correlation between hosting llms.txt and AI citations, and AI crawlers rarely request the file. Treat those percentages as directional (many come from GEO vendors). The practical takeaway matches Google: foundational SEO and third-party corroboration matter far more.
What Trendi does
We keep /llms.txt as a free, accurate site brief. We do not sell “machine briefs” as a visibility feature. We sell Indexed / Found / Mentioned work: crawl hygiene, one query per page, citeable content, and third-party corroboration — measured with mention and link logged separately.