Large language models are increasingly becoming a primary way people discover and interact with information online. While traditional SEO focused on ranking in Google’s search results, a new frontier is emerging: making your content discoverable and usable by AI systems. Here’s how to optimize your website for the age of AI agents and LLM-powered search.
Understanding the llm.txt Standard
The llm.txt file is becoming the robots.txt of the AI era. Inspired by the simplicity of humans.txt and the functionality of robots.txt, this convention provides a machine-readable way to tell LLMs what your site is about and where to find important information.
What Goes in Your llm.txt File
Your llm.txt file should live at the root of your domain (e.g., https://yoursite.com/llm.txt) and contain:
A clear site description. Start with a concise explanation of what your site does. LLMs need context, so be direct: “We are a B2B SaaS company providing inventory management software” works better than vague marketing speak.
Key page URLs with descriptions. List your most important pages with brief explanations of what each contains. Think of this as a curated sitemap for AI consumption:
# Product Documentation
https://yoursite.com/docs - Complete API documentation and integration guides
# Pricing Information
https://yoursite.com/pricing - Current pricing tiers and feature comparison
# Blog
https://yoursite.com/blog - Technical articles on inventory management best practicesContact and support information. Make it easy for LLMs to direct users to help resources or contact methods.
Your preferred markdown files. If you maintain markdown versions of key documentation, link to them. LLMs process markdown beautifully, and providing clean, structured versions of your content improves the quality of responses about your site.
Best Practices
Keep your llm.txt file current. An outdated llm.txt is worse than none at all, as it might direct users to deprecated resources or incorrect information.
Be selective. You don’t need to list every page. Focus on pages that answer common questions about your product, service, or content. Think about what an AI assistant would most need to know to accurately represent your site.
Use clear, descriptive language. Avoid jargon or internal terminology that won’t mean anything to an LLM. Write as if explaining your site to an intelligent colleague who’s never heard of you.
Making Your Content LLM-Friendly
Structure Matters More Than Ever
LLMs excel at processing well-structured content. This means:
Use semantic HTML properly. Headings should follow a logical hierarchy (h1, h2, h3), lists should actually be lists, and navigation should be marked up as navigation. LLMs use these structural cues to understand your content’s organization. Camieo can audit your website and find which pages have incorrect heading order.
Write in clear sections. Break up long-form content with descriptive headings that could stand alone as questions. “How to integrate our API” is better than “Integration” because LLMs often extract sections to answer specific queries.
Front-load important information. Put key facts and takeaways early in your content. When LLMs cite your content, they often pull from the beginning of sections.
Optimize for Citation and Attribution
When an LLM cites your content, you want the attribution to be accurate and valuable:
Include author information and dates. LLMs are increasingly time-aware and will prefer recent content when appropriate. Clear timestamps help them assess relevance.
Add schema markup. Use structured data (JSON-LD) to explicitly mark up articles, products, FAQs, and other content types. This gives LLMs unambiguous information about what they’re reading.
Create quotable, standalone statements. LLMs often extract specific sentences or paragraphs. Writing in clear, complete thoughts that make sense out of context increases the chances your content will be cited accurately.
Maintain a Clear Information Hierarchy
Think about how an AI might need to navigate your site:
Create comprehensive FAQ pages. These are gold for LLMs because they map questions directly to answers. Update them regularly based on actual user questions.
Maintain changelog and updates pages. For product sites, clear documentation of changes helps LLMs provide accurate, current information rather than hallucinating outdated details.
Build topic clusters. Group related content together with clear internal linking. This helps LLMs understand relationships between concepts on your site.
Other Technical Considerations
API Documentation
If you offer an API, make it LLM-friendly:
- Provide OpenAPI specifications
- Include working code examples in multiple languages
- Document error responses thoroughly
- Keep a clear versioning system
LLMs are increasingly being used to help developers integrate with APIs, so clear documentation pays double dividends.
Accessibility Equals AI-Readability
Here’s a happy convergence: making your site accessible to humans with disabilities also makes it more accessible to LLMs. Both benefit from:
- Proper alt text on images
- Descriptive link text (not “click here”)
- Clear, simple language
- Logical tab order and navigation
- Proper form labels
Performance and Crawlability
While LLMs don’t crawl the web constantly like search engines, they do need to access your content:
Don’t block AI crawlers without good reason. Some sites block common AI crawlers in robots.txt. Unless you have specific concerns, allowing access helps your content be discovered.
Camieo can help audit your site and fix robots indexing and missing images
Provide text alternatives. If your content is primarily video or audio, provide transcripts. LLMs can’t watch videos, but they can process transcripts beautifully.
Minimize JavaScript requirements. While modern AI systems can handle JavaScript rendering, static or server-rendered HTML is more reliably processed.
The Content Itself
Write for Understanding, Not Gaming
The best advice for LLM discoverability is the same as for humans: create genuinely useful content. LLMs are trained to identify helpful, accurate information. Focus on:
Being authoritative. Cite sources, acknowledge limitations, and be honest about what you don’t know.
Staying current. Update content regularly, especially for fast-moving topics. Mark content with clear dates.
Going deep. Comprehensive treatments of topics tend to be cited more often than shallow overviews. LLMs value thoroughness.
Being specific. Concrete examples, specific numbers, and detailed explanations all help LLMs provide better answers than vague generalities.
Monitoring and Iteration
Unlike traditional SEO, there’s no established way to track “LLM rankings” yet. However, you can:
- Monitor referral traffic from AI-powered search tools
- Ask LLMs directly about your site to see how they represent it
- Keep an eye on how your content is cited when it appears in AI responses
- Test your llm.txt file by providing it to an LLM and asking it to summarize your site
Keep Developing
The intersection of AI and web content is evolving rapidly. The llm.txt standard is just emerging, and best practices will continue to develop. The key is to stay focused on creating clear, well-structured, accurate content that serves both humans and machines.
By making your site LLM-friendly now, you’re positioning yourself for a future where AI assistants are a primary discovery channel—while simultaneously making your content better for human readers. That’s a win regardless of how the technology landscape shifts.
Start with a solid llm.txt file, audit your content structure, and commit to maintaining clear, current information. The LLMs—and the people who rely on them—will thank you.