AI assistants are reading your website right now
When someone asks ChatGPT "where should I do wine tasting near Franschhoek?" or asks Perplexity "best restaurants in Stellenbosch with a view", those tools don't just guess. They go and read websites, review sites, directories, and anything else they can find online.
The problem is that most business websites weren't built to be read by AI. They were built for humans - and that's fine, but it means the AI has to work hard to figure out the basics. What does this business actually do? Where are they? What are their hours? What pages matter?
An llms.txt file solves this by giving AI a clear, structured summary of your business. Think of it as a briefing document, placed at the root of your website, that says: "Here's who we are, here's what we do, and here are the pages worth reading."
What llms.txt actually is
It's a plain text file that lives at yourwebsite.com/llms.txt. The format is simple - Markdown with a clear structure:
- A short summary of the business
- A list of key pages with descriptions
- Contact and booking information
- Any other facts that help an AI understand what you offer
Here's a simplified example for a restaurant:
# The Stoep Kitchen
> A farm-to-table restaurant in Robertson, serving seasonal dishes
> made with locally sourced produce since 2015.
## Key pages
- [Menu](https://thestoepkitchen.co.za/menu): Seasonal lunch and dinner
menus. Mains from R160. Vegetarian and children's options available.
- [Reservations](https://thestoepkitchen.co.za/book): Open Wednesday to
Sunday for lunch (12pm-3pm) and Friday to Saturday for dinner (6pm-9pm).
Booking recommended for groups of six or more.
- [Private events](https://thestoepkitchen.co.za/events): Indoor and
garden venue for private functions. Capacity up to 60 guests.
- [Contact](https://thestoepkitchen.co.za/contact): Email, phone, directions.
## Location
Robertson, Western Cape, South Africa
That's it. No special software, no technical expertise needed. It's a text file with basic formatting.
Why it matters for AI visibility
We wrote recently about GEO - Generative Engine Optimisation and how AI search engines decide which businesses to cite. An llms.txt file helps in two direct ways:
It reduces misinterpretation. Without a structured summary, AI tools have to piece together information from your homepage, your about page, your footer, and whatever else they can find. They might get it wrong. They might miss your event venue entirely and only mention your lunch menu. They might list outdated hours from a cached version of your booking page. An llms.txt file gives them the authoritative version.
It highlights what matters. Your website might have forty pages, but only six are relevant to someone planning a visit. The llms.txt file points the AI to those six pages and explains what each one covers. Instead of hoping the AI finds the right page, you're telling it where to look.
Who is already using it
The llms.txt specification was created to give websites a standardised way to communicate with AI systems. It follows the same principle as robots.txt (which tells search engines what they can and can't crawl) and sitemap.xml (which tells them where your pages are).
Major websites and platforms have started adopting it. But the real opportunity is for smaller businesses, because AI assistants currently struggle most with exactly the kind of businesses that benefit from clear, structured information - local restaurants, guesthouses, service providers, wine farms.
A large hotel chain has enough mentions across the web that AI can figure out the basics. A boutique guesthouse in McGregor with a three-page website needs all the help it can get.
What to include in yours
Keep it honest and factual. The purpose is to help AI understand your business accurately, not to sell to it.
Always include:
- Business name and a one-line description
- What you do and where you are
- Your most important pages with short descriptions
- Contact information
Include if relevant:
- Opening hours
- Price ranges
- Booking or reservation information
- Seasonal variations (if your offering changes significantly)
- Accessibility information
Leave out:
- Marketing language and superlatives - AI doesn't respond to "award-winning" or "world-class"
- Internal pages that aren't useful to visitors (admin, login, terms and conditions)
- Anything that changes so frequently it'll be outdated within days
How to add it to your website
The file needs to be accessible at yourwebsite.com/llms.txt. How you get it there depends on your setup:
If you can upload files to your website's root folder (via FTP, cPanel, or your hosting dashboard), create a file called llms.txt, write the content, and upload it alongside your robots.txt and other root files.
If you're on WordPress or a similar CMS, you may need a plugin or a small server configuration to serve a text file from the root. Your developer can set this up in a few minutes.
If someone else manages your website, send them this article and ask them to add one. It's a small job - most developers can do it in under half an hour.
How to check if it's working
Once the file is live, visit yourwebsite.com/llms.txt in your browser. You should see the plain text content you wrote. If you see a 404 error, the file isn't in the right place.
Beyond that, you can test whether AI tools are using it by asking them about your business and checking whether the answers align with what you've written. This takes a few days to a few weeks, depending on how frequently the AI re-crawls your site.
The bigger picture
An llms.txt file is one piece of a broader AI visibility strategy. On its own, it won't transform your search presence overnight. But combined with good structured data, a well-built website, and an active online presence, it helps AI assistants get the facts right about your business - and that's increasingly what matters.
If your business isn't showing up when people ask AI for recommendations in your area, start with the basics: a clear website, accurate information, and an llms.txt file that tells AI exactly what it needs to know. It's a small investment of time for a signal that will only become more important.
If you'd like help creating an llms.txt file or understanding how visible your business is to AI search, get in touch. We're happy to have a look and give you an honest assessment.