A
argbe.tech - news
1min read

Does llms.txt move AI traffic?

A new Search Engine Land analysis tracked 10 sites before and after adding llms.txt. Most saw no change, and the few gains aligned with other launches and visibility spikes.

A Search Engine Land report (summarized below) reviewed analytics from 10 sites to see whether adding llms.txt was associated with changes in AI-driven referrals. This is a third‑party, observational analysis and does not establish causation. It is not legal advice.

Key points as reported (comparison window: ~90 days before vs. ~90 days after adding llms.txt):

  • Signals reviewed: AI crawl activity and referral traffic from ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Gemini
  • Reported outcomes:
    • 8/10 sites: no measurable change
    • 2/10 sites: increases
  • The report notes the largest increase (reported +25%) occurred during other changes, including a PR/visibility push, a rebuilt content hub, and updates adding more extractable/structured content (e.g., tables)
  • The other increase (reported +12.5%) coincided with a separate content launch (downloadable templates) and a reported rise in Google organic traffic to those pages
  • The report also mentions llms.txt briefly appearing in certain Google documentation pages in December and later being removed; John Mueller attributed this to a sitewide CMS update
  • Report’s overall conclusion: observed gains aligned more with concurrent launches and content changes than with llms.txt alone