What Is llms.txt, and Why Are WordPress Sites Racing to Add It?
A search engine crawls a site in its entirety, following links and developing a picture of the site over time. AI assistants (ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini, Perplexity) operate differently: They only pull a few pages at a time, not the entire site. If your most important content sits behind heavy navigation or JavaScript-rendered pages, the assistant often skips it, and the answer it gives is incomplete or wrong. The llms.txt standard fills that void: a simple text file, also in Markdown format, in your site’s root directory that tells AI what pages actually matter. In my opinion, the only remaining question for WordPress websites is: which of the best llms.txt tools actually does the job of generating and maintaining WordPress llms.txt without doing any manual work? In relation to using LLMs for SEO.
Key Takeaways
- llms.txt is a Markdown file at your site root that tells AI assistants which pages to read first
- Several WordPress plugins now generate and auto-refresh llms.txt, with some producing the fuller llms-full.txt version too
- Yoast SEO now has built-in support for the llms.txt file for all plans, free and paid.
- Standalone plugins offer extras beyond what Yoast can do, such as AI-crawler tracking and per-page Markdown.
- The right choice varies based on the need for tight SEO-suite integration as compared to a single-purpose tool with deeper controls.
Best llms.txt Tools for WordPress in 2026
A small but active group of WordPress plugins have developed around generating llms.txt files, including some listed in the WordPress.org llms.txt plugin directory. They differ in their level of automation, whether they produce an extended version of the llms-full.txt file, and how they handle updates.
- Dedicated generator plugins: Free plugins that automatically rebuild the file on schedule, while respecting noindex settings of your current SEO plugin (Yoast, Rank Math, SEOPress, AIOSEO).
- llms-full.txt generators: Generate structured media documentation, alt text, and captions for documentation hubs. Look at llms-full.txt explained for when the fuller version gets its keep.
- AI-visibility suites: Combine AI content generation with comprehensive tracking, including AI crawler requests and an “AI visibility score.”
| Tool type | Best for | Watch out for |
| Simple generator | Small business sites, blogs | Conflicts if two llms.txt plugins run at once |
| llms-full.txt generator | Documentation sites, large libraries | Larger file size, needs periodic review |
| AI-visibility suite | Agencies managing multiple sites | Pro tiers often gate site-count limits |
Don’t run two llms.txt plugins side by side. Several of the most common llms.txt mistakes from not reviewing auto-generated files after a redesign. If you’re running a catalogue with a lot of documentation or a lot of news updates, choose LLM plugins that update automatically instead of just during installation.
Yoast SEO’s Built-In llms.txt Feature
If you have Yoast SEO set up on your site, you might not require another plugin. Yoast also introduced llms.txt generation support directly in the free version of its plugin, rather than the upgraded one, which is a significant change for site owners who were forced to decide between Yoast AI plugins for this functionality. The toggle sits in Yoast’s settings, off by default; once enabled, it builds the file automatically and refreshes it as content changes, with pages selected automatically or curated by hand.
Full details are on Yoast’s own llms.txt feature page. The free plan includes basic llms.txt and Schema Aggregation; Premium includes AI-powered content suggestions and internal linking recommendations, which make it more of an AI writing assistant for SEO than a one-and-done AI SEO plugin. Schema and llms.txt is a foundation, not a guarantee: it makes content easier to find and parse, but doesn’t mean that any assistant will cite you over a competitor. See Generative Engine Optimization: where llms.txt fits in for the bigger picture.
AI SEO Plugins for WordPress Beyond Yoast
However, not all websites have Yoast, and sometimes users prefer to have a specific tool. For SaaS and documentation sites, plugins can generate per-page Markdown, and AI coding assistants can often ask for a page’s Markdown directly (see llms.txt for SaaS and developer docs). WooCommerce sites should consider looking for plugins that feed products in automatically instead of a manually curated list that goes stale (see llms.txt for ecommerce). Multiple client site management agencies favour suites that have a shared dashboard.
The short answer to “which tool is best” is based on what you’re already running. If you use Yoast, turn on its native feature first. If your content is a large, often updated catalog, then consider using llms-full.txt and automatic regeneration. If you must determine if AI crawlers are actually reading the file, you can find a plugin that will record AI-bot requests. llms.txt is one aspect of a larger strategy of being visible to AI, along with clean, structured data and content that actually responds to what people have asked AI assistants; it’s a technical signal, not a content strategy in itself.
Conclusion
llms.txt has moved from a niche experiment to a standard feature across major WordPress SEO plugins in a little over a year. The easiest beginning if you have Yoast on board is its built-in toggle, which has recently become free. A dedicated plugin will be more suitable if you need llms-full.txt generation, catalog support for WooCommerce or tracking of AI crawlers. In any case, the file is designed to complement valuable content, so see it as part of a broader strategy for enhancing AI search visibility. If you prefer us to do this for you and keep it up to date, our SEO services team can do this as part of our technical SEO services.
FAQs
Q1. Do I need llms.txt if I already have a robots.txt file?
Yes, robots.txt will tell search engines what to index throughout your entire website, and llms.txt is a curated summary designed for AI assistants, which only read small chunks of a site in real time; thus, they are not intended to replace robots.txt.
Q2. Can I use Yoast’s llms.txt feature and a separate llms.txt plugin together?
No. Most llms.txt plugins (including Yoast) control the file in the same manner and using more than one at a time usually results in a conflict or fatal error. Pick one source of truth.
Q3. How often should my llms.txt file update?
It depends on how often your content changes. If you have an active blog or store, a plugin that regenerates regularly is fine, but if you just have a brochure site, you can probably do it manually after big changes.
Need help setting up llms.txt and AI search visibility on your WordPress site? Contact Search Digitally or reach out at your usual project email, and we’ll handle the setup alongside your existing SEO plugin.