Discoverability · Check llms-txt
llms.txt - AI-assistant identity file
A plain-text file at the root of your domain (`/llms.txt`) that gives AI assistants a clean, machine-readable summary of who you are, what you do, where you work, and how to reach you. It's a 2026 standard, not yet widely adopted.
Why it matters
The case for llms.txt
When a homeowner asks ChatGPT or Claude "find me a [trade] in [city]", the assistant fetches your site and tries to summarize it. Sites with llms.txt get summarized cleanly from your authored text. Sites without it get summarized from whatever HTML the assistant can parse - usually noisier and less accurate than what you'd write yourself.
How this audit checks it
What we actually look at
We GET `https://yoursite.com/llms.txt` and check that the response is HTTP 200 with non-empty plain-text content.
Copy-pasteable fix
Snippet to drop in
# Your Business Name
> One-paragraph honest summary of what you do, where you work, and how to contact you.
## Identity
- Business: Your Business Name
- Owner: First Last
- Service area: City, State + surrounding region
- Phone: (xxx) xxx-xxxx
- Email: you@yourdomain.com
- License: WA L&I # YOUR-LICENSE-NUMBER
## Services
- Service 1 - one-line description
- Service 2 - one-line description
## What this site is
A short paragraph about who the site serves and what it doesn't try to do.Steps
How to apply it
- Save the snippet above as llms.txt at your site's root (next to index.html or in public/)
- Visit https://yoursite.com/llms.txt and confirm it loads as plain text (Content-Type should include text/plain)
- Update the content to match your actual business - don't ship the template values
Common mistakes
What goes wrong
- Saving as a Markdown file with HTML rendering (Content-Type matters - must serve as text/plain)
- Including hype/marketing copy instead of honest factual summary (AI assistants reward accurate, calibrated descriptions)
- Forgetting to update when business details change (stale phone/license/service-area is worse than missing)
Other checks in the baseline
Continue your audit walk-through.
Next step
See how your site scores.
Run the free 13-point audit on your URL — takes ~10 seconds, shows exactly which checks pass and fail with copy-pasteable fixes.