Google’s Updated Guidance Now Says It’s “Fine” To Use LLMs.txt For AI SEO

Google updated its generative AI SEO guidance to clarify that LLMs.txt files are not needed for Google Search but are fine to use for other AI services. The revision addresses community questions and removes previous discouragement of such markup.

Google updated its guidance on Generative AI SEO to lighten up on its previous guidance that discouraged the use of LLMs.txt and other forms of markup and markdown. The new guidance strikes a more balanced tone that acknowledges there are AI search surfaces other than Google’s that users may want to optimize for. LLMs.txt Guidance Google’s guidance originally recommended that LLMs.txt https://www.searchenginejournal.com/google-says-llms-txt-comparable-to-keywords-meta-tag/544804/ and other kinds of special markup are not needed in order to rank in generative AI search, which was a broad statement that likely unintentionally encompassed all generative AI search surfaces, not just Google’s. The new guidance tightens that passage to make it clear that the statement that special markup is not necessary for website optimization is limited to “Google Search including its generative AI capabilities .” Google Says Specials Markups Are Fine To Use A similar update is a change in the guidance so that it no longer discourages SEOs and site owners from using LLMs.txt and other tactics like markdown for LLMs. Now it simply states that Google doesn’t use them but that if people want to use them, then go ahead. The updated guidance now says: “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.” Guidance Is The Same But Improved Google’s updated Search Central web page https://developers.google.com/search/updates is explicitly about optimizing websites for “generative AI features on Google Search” so there was nothing technically wrong with the previous version. Yet this is an improvement because people tend to read and quote portions out of context which can give an unintended impression. This clear that up. As Google’s changelog https://developers.google.com/search/updates june-2026 notes: “Added a note to the AI optimization guide clarifying Google Search’s usage of llms.txt files. Why: To address questions from the community and clarify that while these files aren’t needed for Google Search and won’t negatively or positively impact your visibility or rankings , it’s fine if you want to maintain these files for other services or systems that use them.” Featured Image by Shutterstock/Koshiro K