Google says LLMS.txt files won’t harm or help your search rankings

Google updated its AI Search optimization guide to clarify that LLMS.txt files have no impact on search rankings. Google Search does not use these files, and they neither harm nor help visibility or rankings.

SEO https://searchengineland.com/library/seo » Google says LLMS.txt files won’t harm or help your search rankings Google clearly also states that Google Search does not use LLMS.txt files. Google has updated its guide to optimizing for AI Search https://developers.google.com/search/docs/fundamentals/ai-optimization-guide mythbusting to clarify that having LLMS.txt files on your site won’t harm or help your search rankings in Google. Google also made it clear that Google Search does not use LLMS.txt files. What Google wrote. I bolded the portion that is new, where Google wrote that Google Search does not use AI text files, markup or Markdown files. - “You don’t need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, markup, or Markdown 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 https://developers.google.com/search/docs/crawling-indexing/indexable-file-types in addition to HTML on a website: this doesn’t mean that the file is treated in a special way.” Google also added a new note that reads: - “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.” Here is a screenshot of this section: Dig deeper. Meet llms.txt, a proposed standard for AI website content crawling https://searchengineland.com/llms-txt-proposed-standard-453676 llms.txt isn’t robots.txt: It’s a treasure map for AI https://searchengineland.com/llms-txt-isnt-robots-txt-its-a-treasure-map-for-ai-456586 Does llms.txt matter? We tracked 10 sites to find out https://searchengineland.com/does-llms-txt-matter-467740 Google adds llms.txt check to Chrome Lighthouse https://searchengineland.com/google-llms-txt-chrome-lighthouse-478246 Why we care. There has been a lot of confusion around how Google Search handles LLMS.txt files and Markdown files, as well as other AI files. In short, Google Search may discover, crawl and index them but those files are not used in any special way for Google Search. It is not going to help you and it won’t hurt you for having them on your web site. Search Engine Land is owned by Semrush. We remain committed to providing high-quality coverage of marketing topics. Unless otherwise noted, this page’s content was written by either an employee or a paid contractor of Semrush Inc.