What is llms.txt, and does your online store need one?

You may have seen sites adding a file called llms.txt. Here is what it is, what it is not, and how a store should think about it.

What it is

llms.txt is a proposal for a simple markdown file placed at the root of your site (yourstore.com/llms.txt). It gives AI assistants a short, human-readable summary of your business and links to your most useful pages. It was proposed in 2024 by Jeremy Howard of Answer.AI, and it is not an official standard of any search engine.

What it is not

• It is not a ranking factor for search engines. Search engines have not confirmed that they use it.
• It is not a replacement for robots.txt, which controls crawling, or for a sitemap, which lists pages.
• It does not guarantee that any AI assistant reads it or recommends you. Whether tools use it is up to each provider and can change.

Why add one anyway

It costs almost nothing, it forces you to write a clear description of your business, and it may help tools that choose to read it. Think of it as a tidy front desk for machines.

What a store's file can contain

A good file has:

1. A title: your brand name.
2. A short summary in a blockquote: what you sell, where you ship, key policies.
3. Sections with links: main collections, best sellers, shipping, returns, contact.

Example:

# Khadi Elegance

> Handloom khadi sarees, dupattas and stoles made by weavers in West Bengal.
> Ships across India in 3 to 5 days. 7-day returns on unused items.

## Shop
- [Sarees](https://example.com/collections/sarees): handwoven khadi sarees
- [Stoles](https://example.com/collections/stoles): natural-dye stoles

## Policies
- [Shipping](https://example.com/pages/shipping)
- [Returns](https://example.com/pages/returns)

## Contact
- [WhatsApp and email](https://example.com/pages/contact)

Tips

• Keep it accurate and short. Do not stuff it with keywords.
• Link to pages that exist and work.
• Update it when your range or policies change.
• Make sure your robots.txt does not block the crawlers you want (robots and sitemaps).

What matters more

AI assistants and search engines learn about your products mainly from your pages: clear titles and descriptions, structured data, reviews, mentions elsewhere and fast loading. Invest there first (getting suggested by AI, schema).

Stores on Orvexa include an llms.txt file as part of our AI-friendly setup, alongside structured data and sitemaps. We describe it as helpful, not magic.

How to check that it works

Visit your own /llms.txt in a browser and make sure it loads as plain text, with no login or redirect. Click every link inside it to confirm they work. Then keep it in sync with your site: when you add a major collection or change a policy, update the file the same day. An outdated summary does more harm than none.

What to do next

Write your three-sentence business summary, list your top ten links, and publish the file. Then check that it loads at /llms.txt.