SEO Squeeze #106: One less thing on your list.

This week I am giving you an item you can cross off your list instead of add to it. You’re welcome. 😜

You might’ve seen people talking about something called an LLMs.txt file. (or maybe not lol) If that reads like total gibberish, you’re most likely not alone.

Most business owners have never heard of it, and thankfully, you never need to.

An LLMs.txt file is a little text file some “SEO gurus” swore you had to add to your website so AI tools like ChatGPT would find you.

The good news is you don’t need it, and Google said so themselves.

In their own June guidance, they spelled out that you don’t need any special AI file or code to show up in Google or its AI answers, because Google doesn’t even use them.

One study of 137,000 sites with the file found the AI bots basically ignored it.

If you’ve still got the 10 minutes to-do itch, do this:

1. Check in 10 seconds, if you are curious. Type your website address with /llms.txt on the end, right into your browser bar. If you get an error page, perfect. You don’t have one, and you’re done.

2. If one does show up, leave it alone. Some website builders and plugins add it for you. It won’t help you rank and it won’t hurt you, so don’t spend your day ripping it out.

3. Put the real 10 minutes here instead. Read the very first line of your homepage out loud, and make sure it says in plain words what you do and who you help. That clear, human sentence is the thing Google and the AI tools actually read, and fixing it does more for your AI visibility than any text file could.

And remember the stuff that moves the needle for your business is almost never the stuff that “gurus” panic you into buying.

Have you met the Duo yet?
Well let's get that out of the way, shall we!? We are Abbey Oslin and Courtney Petersen, the Minnesota-based marketing experts, educators, and co-founders of a boutique marketing agency called Duo Collective. One part design and one part strategy we specialize in helping you grow your business without spending money on paid ads, specifically through SEO and branding for small business owners and creative entrepreneurs just like you!

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