Is Your Website Invisible to AI? Most Dutch Sites Missing Crucial 'llms.txt' File

Recent research by Frankwatching reveals that a crucial technical element for AI discoverability, the llms.txt file, is missing from almost all (100 surveyed) Dutch websites. This represents a striking blind spot that directly impacts how AI systems find and utilise your content, and therefore your visibility in the rapidly changing digital landscape.

What is llms.txt and Why Is It Important?

You’re probably familiar with robots.txt, a file that tells search engines which parts of your website they are allowed to crawl and which not. llms.txt works in a similar way, but specifically for Large Language Models (LLMs) and other AI systems. While Google Search ignores this file, Google Gemini certainly reads it. This means that via llms.txt, you can specify how AI models are permitted to interact with your content: are they allowed to use everything, or do you want to exclude certain parts from scraping and training?

Why is this relevant? Because AI assistants like Gemini are increasingly generating direct answers, summarising and quoting information from websites. If your content is a source, you’ll want to have control over how it’s presented and whether you’re mentioned in it at all. Without an llms.txt file, you completely relinquish this control, which could lead to undesirable use or missed opportunities for AI visibility.

What Does This Mean for You as a Business Owner/Marketer?

The absence of an llms.txt file on most Dutch websites indicates a widespread lack of strategy for Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO). This is a missed opportunity to proactively position your content within the AI landscape. It’s no longer sufficient to optimise solely for traditional SEO; you also need to consider how AI models process and display your information.

Consider the following steps:

• Check your website: Verify whether your website already has an llms.txt file. It’s highly likely it doesn’t, given the research findings.
• Define your AI strategy: Determine how you want AI systems to use your content. Do you want maximum visibility, or do you want to protect specific content?
• Implement llms.txt: Add an llms.txt file to the root of your website and configure it based on your strategy. This provides you with a fundamental control mechanism over how AI models index and cite your content.
• Focus on authority and specific content: AI models prefer reliable, expertise-driven, and specific content. Ensure your website projects authority and offers concrete answers to specific questions.

The shift towards AI-driven search is a structural change. By taking action now on fundamental elements such as llms.txt, you lay a solid foundation for your AI discoverability and retain control over your online presence.

Source: Frankwatching