Yoast SEO Adds LLMs.txt Support

Yoast SEO has introduced support for the llms.txt file format, now available to both free and premium users. This new feature aims to help website owners prepare their sites for the evolving landscape of AI-powered search engines.

The addition of llms.txt capability allows users to easily manage how their content is accessed and used by AI systems. With this update, Yoast users can now include llms.txt files directly on their websites as a way to stay ahead of future developments in search technology.

According to the team at Yoast, this move is part of a broader effort to ensure that all users—regardless of subscription tier—can adapt to the growing influence of artificial intelligence in search engine algorithms.

By integrating llms.txt into the plugin, Yoast is providing a proactive tool for site owners to control how AI engines interact with their online content. This could become particularly important as AI search becomes more widespread.

With search engines increasingly relying on large language models (LLMs) to index and display information, having an llms.txt file could influence how your site appears—or doesn’t appear—in AI-generated search summaries.

Yoast also emphasises that this feature is easy to use and can be configured through the familiar settings interface, without requiring technical knowledge or manual uploads.

This update is a clear signal that AI-specific optimisation is becoming a core consideration in the world of SEO. Tools like llms.txt may soon be as essential as traditional robots.txt files.

As AI search continues to develop, industry experts are encouraging site owners to consider how their content is being accessed and represented by these new systems.

Yoast’s decision to make this feature available to all users underlines their commitment to democratising access to advanced SEO tools and keeping their community ahead of major shifts in the digital space.

For those looking to maintain visibility and control in a changing SEO environment, adding an llms.txt file may be a smart and timely step.

LLMS.Txt

The concept of llms.txt has been introduced as a proposed new standard to help large language models (LLMs) such as ChatGPT and Gemini access website content more efficiently. This format presents the main content in a simplified way, stripped of adverts and other visual elements designed primarily for human readers.

The proposed standard involves using markdown files (with a .md extension) that serve as simplified duplicates of existing webpages. These files contain only the core information, making it easier for LLMs to extract relevant content without distraction from ads or formatting.

However, the approach has drawn scepticism from some experts. Google’s John Mueller has hinted at concerns around the reliability of this method. One of the main criticisms is that there’s no mechanism to prevent bad actors from misrepresenting their content—essentially crafting LLM-friendly pages that differ significantly from what’s presented to human users.

Mueller suggests it may be more practical for LLMs to continue crawling standard webpages rather than relying on these newly proposed .md alternatives. As things stand, most AI models aren’t actively seeking out llms.txt files, and that’s unlikely to change soon.

Despite this, Yoast has embraced the proposal and integrated llms.txt support into both the free and premium versions of their SEO plugin. They believe this feature helps AI tools better understand websites by pointing them directly to the most relevant and up-to-date content.

Yoast highlights several key benefits of the feature: it guides LLMs to important pages automatically, without requiring users to hand-pick what to include. The system scans the site and updates the llms.txt file weekly, eliminating the need for technical input or manual edits.

Another selling point is that the feature is built into Yoast SEO and available to all users at no extra cost. It’s a one-click solution aimed at helping website owners prepare for an AI-driven search future.

Yoast positions this as a “future-proofing” tool, stating that it ensures your content is ready for how people—and search engines—will increasingly look for information going forward.

While questions remain about whether llms.txt will become a widely adopted standard, Yoast’s move reflects a growing interest in AI compatibility within the SEO space. It also shows how tools are evolving to keep up with changing digital behaviour.

Whether llms.txt becomes the norm or remains a niche solution, it signals the start of a new phase in how online content might be delivered to both humans and machines alike.

For now, the inclusion of llms.txt support in mainstream tools like Yoast makes it easy for website owners to experiment with this feature, without any complicated setup.

Only time will tell if llms.txt becomes a cornerstone of SEO strategy, but early adopters can now test its benefits thanks to this latest update from Yoast.