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Technology3h 10m ago

John Mueller stated that LLM systems cannot use files like llms.txt to decide which websites to surface for a given query.

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Who
Google’s John Mueller
What
John Mueller stated that LLM systems cannot use files like llms.txt to decide which websites to surface for a given query.
When
Mon, 15 Jun 2026 16:28:02 GMT · 3h 10m ago
Where
not specified ·
Why
Mueller argues LLM systems by design cannot trust self-reported information in llms.txt files as a way of differentiating between different websites.
The Frontline Impact

How this affects you

This suggests that llms.txt files, despite their purpose, are fundamentally limited in aiding AI discoverability due to their self-promotional nature, similar to how meta keywords became ineffective. The files may still serve a narrow function once an AI agent is already on a specific website.

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  1. Technology3h 10m ago
    John Mueller stated that LLM systems cannot use files like llms.txt to differentiate between websites for search query results.
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    John Mueller stated that LLM systems cannot use files like llms.txt to decide which websites to surface for a given query.

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