What llms.txt does for a local business

llms.txt is a text file at the root of your site, the way robots.txt is. It lists the URLs you consider canonical and a one-line description of each. Crawlers that look for it get a clean map. It is not a ranking switch, and publishing an empty file will not make ChatGPT recommend you.

Write the pages first

Put the city and the trade in the title and the first paragraph of a real service page. State the neighborhoods you cover, how to hire you, and a fact a stranger can check, such as a license number or the year you opened. Then point llms.txt at that page, your about page, and your contact page.

• Use the same business name you use on Google and Yelp.
• Link the page from the homepage with those words, not “learn more.”
• Keep hours and the phone number as text, not only inside a map image.

Where it sits in the fix list

On a Does AI Pick Me? report, llms.txt is one item among schema, reviews, and directory profiles. If the assistants are not naming you at all, the service page and the Google profile usually come first. The file is a small, specific task once those pages exist.