Making content readable by AI, not just search engines
SEO’s Never-Ending Evolution
If it feels like SEO is a constantly moving target, you’re not alone. As AI search tools like ChatGPT become central to how people discover information online, what worked before in SEO is shifting, and fast.
At Linden, we’ve been rethinking how we approach SEO in an AI-first world. This post offers a peek behind the curtain: how we’re evolving our strategy, exploring new tools like the llms.txt file, and helping clients stay visible in this next era of search.
The Shift We’re Seeing
With the growing use of AI assistants, not just how we search is changing, but what we’re searching through. AI tools don’t crawl the web like traditional search engines; they summarize and synthesize based on content they understand to be credible, clear, and well-structured.
This shift means SEO isn’t just about keywords and rankings in Google Searches anymore. It’s about helping AI understand and represent your site’s content accurately.
How We’re Adapting Our SEO Strategy
One exciting tactic we’re pursuing is simple but powerful: the llms.txt file.
What is a llms.txt file?
This lightweight file lives on a website and provides large language models (LLMs) like ChatGPT with a direct, structured way to understand and surface a site’s pages and key content. It ensures the model reads between the lines the way you intend.
We’re developing this into a standardized llms.txt template that typically includes:
- A short description of the business or brand
- Links to key site pages
- Brief descriptions of what each page contains
It’s a small file with a big job: helping AI tools represent your brand accurately, every time.
How to upload an llms.txt file
To add an llms.txt file to your website, start by creating the file. Then, open FileZilla (or any other similar FTP client) and connect to your website’s server with the login info provided by your hosting provider. Once connected, simply drag and drop the llms.txt file into the main root folder of your website.
Once uploaded, the file will be live and publicly accessible at a link like yourwebsite.com/llms.txt, ready for AI tools to find and read.
What We’re Still Figuring Out About the llms.txt File
Our own site was the first test case. Linden’s llms.txt file includes a concise company description and links to core pages, with quick summaries that mirror how we’d want a tool like ChatGPT to describe us.
This experiment sparked valuable internal conversations about content clarity, page prioritization, and what we want to be known for in AI-driven discovery.
We’re still exploring:
- How often LLMs reference this file
- Whether more detailed descriptions perform better than short summaries
- How other AI tools like Perplexity, Gemini, and Claude treat structured content like llms.txt
- Traffic changes and testing whether including the file in a site audit improves discoverability or enhances brand representation in AI-generated responses
Pro Tip: As you explore the llms.txt file, try A/B testing your page summaries, comparing the performance of meta descriptions versus lengthier, custom-written summaries.
Why It Matters For You
AI is changing the way people find and engage with websites, but that doesn’t mean you need to start from scratch. With small strategic shifts like implementing the llms.txt file, you can help ensure your site is ready for the next generation of search.
And if you’re a Linden client (current or future), this is just one of the value-adds we’re bringing into our SEO playbook — designed to keep your content discoverable, relevant, and adaptable.
Want to position your site for AI-powered discovery? Have questions on AI and SEO? We’d love to chat. Connect with us today!
