What is llms.txt, and does a local business need one?

Where the idea comes from

The llms.txt convention was proposed in September 2024 by Jeremy Howard of Answer.AI. The reasoning is simple: web pages are built for people and browsers, full of menus, scripts and layout. A language model reading your site has to dig your facts out of all that. A single clean text file at a known address hands them over directly.

It sits next to robots.txt and sitemap.xml, but does a different job. robots.txt says what crawlers may read. The sitemap lists every page. llms.txt is a short, human-written summary with links to the handful of pages that answer the questions people actually ask about you.

What to put in it

For a local business, the file should answer the questions a customer would ask an assistant before they call:

• who you are, what you do and where you work (city, service area);
• your main services, in the words customers use;
• hours, phone, and how to book;
• anything that sets you apart and is true: licences, years in business, warranties, languages spoken;
• links to your service pages, pricing, FAQ and contact page.

A template you can copy

# Northwind Heating & Air

> Family-owned HVAC company serving Norcross, Duluth and Peachtree Corners, GA
> since 2009. AC repair, furnace repair and installation, heat pumps.
> Licensed and insured. Same-day service Monday to Saturday.

- Phone: (555) 010-0000 · Hours: Mon–Sat 7am–7pm
- Service area: Gwinnett County, GA
- Book online: https://example.com/book

## Services
- [AC repair](https://example.com/ac-repair/): diagnosis and repair of all major brands
- [Furnace repair](https://example.com/furnace-repair/)
- [Heat pump installation](https://example.com/heat-pumps/)

## Optional
- [Pricing and service fees](https://example.com/pricing/)
- [Reviews](https://example.com/reviews/)

Keep it short. The value is that every line is a fact an assistant can repeat without guessing.

What llms.txt does not do

It does not make assistants recommend you on its own, and it is not a ranking factor anyone has confirmed. Assistants that search the web still lean on the same things search engines do: whether your pages can be crawled, whether they answer the question directly, what your reviews say and whether your facts match across the web. See how local businesses get recommended by ChatGPT.

Treat llms.txt as cheap insurance: the facts you most want repeated, in one place, in your words.

How to add it

1. Write the file in any text editor and save it as llms.txt.
2. Upload it to the root of your site so it opens at https://yourdomain.com/llms.txt. On WordPress, a file manager plugin or your host's file manager will do; on Squarespace and Wix, where you can't place files at the root, a redirect from /llms.txt to a plain page works as a fallback.
3. Open the address in a browser. It should show plain text, not your 404 page.
4. Update it when your hours, services or phone change. A stale llms.txt is worse than none.