How to add llms.txt and schema markup

You keep reading that your site needs llms.txt and schema markup before ChatGPT or Google's AI answers will mention you, and you do not know if you have either. This guide shows how to add llms.txt and schema markup in about an hour, starting with what your site builder already made, and says plainly what each one does today. Google says it ignores llms.txt and needs no special markup for its AI answers, so do the hour, then put your time into the pages and mentions that AI tools really use.

Do these three things

About 1 hour today, 2 minutes a page, and 10 minutes each Sunday. Neither file brings visitors on its own, so judge your AI visibility by mentions, not by files.

Show the three actions in fullHide the full list

1. 1Today: check what your site builder already made, then add Organization schema markup to your home page and publish a short llms.txt, in about 1 hour.
2. 2Every day: add the right markup to the page you publish that day, at 1 page a day, and test it in Google's Rich Results Test before you publish the next one. That is 2 minutes a day.
3. 3Every Sunday: fix every error in the Enhancements reports in Google Search Console, and update llms.txt if your main pages changed. Then spend the rest of the week on what AI answers draw on: your pages, reviews and lists that name you.

Get help doing these

ChatGPT or Claude reads this guide and works through it with you.

Do this with ChatGPT(opens in a new tab)Do this with Claude(opens in a new tab)

1. Check whether your site already has schema markup and an llms.txt

Before you add anything, spend 10 minutes finding out what your site builder or plugin already made. Most builders make part of it for you, and a second copy of the same markup only adds errors.

Two terms first. Schema markup is a small block of code in a page that labels its facts, such as your business name, logo, a price or an author, so search engines read them without guessing. Google calls it structured data and recommends the JSON-LD format. llms.txt is a short text file at yoursite.com/llms.txt that lists your main pages, with one line on each, for AI tools.

Now check what you have:

1. 1

   Open your llms.txt

   Type yoursite.com/llms.txt into your browser. A page of plain text means you have one. "Page not found" means you do not.

2. 2

   Search your home page code

   Right-click your home page and choose "View page source". Press Ctrl+F (Cmd+F on a Mac) and search for application/ld+json. Each match is one block of markup. Next to each, find the word after "@type", such as Organization, WebSite, Product or Article, and write it down.

3. 3

   Search one page of each kind

   Do the same on one product or service page, one blog post and your pricing page.

4. 4

   Test your home page

   Open Google's free Rich Results Test, paste your home page address and click "Test URL". Write down how many valid items it found and any errors.

What the common builders make for you, as of 1 October 2026:

What each one does today. Be clear about this before you spend more than an hour.

• Google needs neither for its AI answers. Google's guide on AI search, updated 10 July 2026, says you "don't need to create new machine readable files, AI text files, markup, or Markdown to appear in Google Search", that such files "neither harm nor help", and that "Google Search ignores them". It also says structured data "isn't required for generative AI search". To show up in AI Overviews, a page only has to be indexed and able to show a snippet.
• Schema markup still does two jobs on Google. Organization markup tells Google your name, logo and profiles. Product and Article markup keep your pages eligible for rich results, such as prices on the search results page. Google says it still recommends structured data for that reason.
• Adding schema did not bring more AI mentions in a 2026 test. Ahrefs tracked 1,885 pages that added markup between August 2025 and March 2026. ChatGPT and Google AI Mode cited them no more often than 4,000 pages that did not (May 2026).
• Most llms.txt files are never read. In May 2026, 97% of the llms.txt files on 137,210 sites got no visits at all, and AI search tools made about 1% of the visits the rest got (Ahrefs, June 2026). Of the AI tools that did fetch it, OpenAI's training crawler came first and the coding assistant Claude Code second, ahead of every AI search tool.

So the hour is worth it for Google's facts about you and for agents, and nothing more. If AI search crawlers cannot reach your site, no file helps. Check that first in step 1 of the technical SEO checklist.

• Tool: your browser and Google's Rich Results Test. Free.
• Time: 10 minutes.
• You will have: a short note: llms.txt yes or no, and the markup types on your home page and on one page of each kind.
• It worked if: every page kind in your note has a yes or no for markup, and yoursite.com/llms.txt either shows text or "not found".
• Common mistake: pasting a second Organization block on top of the one your plugin already makes. Google then reads two versions of your name and logo. Fix the plugin's settings instead.

2. Add Organization schema markup to your home page

Add one block of Organization markup to your home page that gives your business name, web address, logo, one-line description and the profiles that are yours. Google says it goes on the home page or one about page, not every page.

Pick the type. Google asks for the most specific type that fits:

• You sell from your own online store: OnlineStore.
• Customers visit your office or shop, or you serve one area: the closest LocalBusiness type. It needs your full address. Use the same name and address as your Google Business Profile.
• Anything else (most SaaS, B2B and agency sites): Organization.

Fill in only what your site shows. Google's rule is to mark up only facts a visitor can see on the page. Use the name and one-line description from your homepage. The logo must be at least 112 by 112 pixels. Under sameAs, list 2 to 4 profiles you control, such as your LinkedIn page, your X account or your G2 listing. Leave out ratings: Google does not show star ratings for reviews a business shows about itself.

Add it, by builder:

• WordPress with Yoast SEO: open Yoast SEO, then Settings, then Site representation. Choose Organization, type your full business name, upload your logo and add your other profiles. Do not paste a second block.
• Wix: open Pages & Menu, click the More Actions icon next to your home page, then SEO basics, then the Advanced SEO tab, then Structured Data Markup and "+ Add New Markup". Paste the code and click Apply. Wix allows up to 5 markups per page, each under 7,000 characters. If the box will not take the code, delete the first and last lines (the script tags) and paste again.
• Squarespace (Core plan or higher): open Pages, click the gear next to your home page, then Advanced. Paste the code into Page Header Code Injection and click Save.
• Shopify: many themes already add it. If step 1 found no Organization, ask your theme's developer to add it, rather than editing theme code yourself.
• Code you or an AI tool wrote: paste the block inside the head of your home page, or give the template to whoever built your site or to your AI coding tool.

Organization markup for your home page (copy, then replace every bracket):

<script type="application/ld+json">
{
  "@context": "https://schema.org",
  "@type": "Organization",
  "name": "[Your business name]",
  "url": "https://[yoursite].com",
  "logo": "https://[yoursite].com/[logo].png",
  "description": "[The one-line description from your homepage]",
  "email": "[hello@yoursite.com]",
  "sameAs": [
    "https://www.linkedin.com/company/[your-page]",
    "https://x.com/[your-account]"
  ]
}
</script>

Change "Organization" to "OnlineStore" or your LocalBusiness type if the rule above says so. A LocalBusiness block also needs an "address" with your street, city, postal code and country. Then paste your home page into the Rich Results Test and click "Test URL".

If you run a B2B company or an agency that meets clients in person: use the LocalBusiness type with the address on your contact page, and set up your Google Business Profile with the same address. That profile, not the markup, is what puts you in Google Maps results.

• Tool: your builder's settings, or the template above, and the Rich Results Test. Free.
• Time: 20 minutes.
• You will have: one Organization (or OnlineStore or LocalBusiness) block on your home page.
• It worked if: the Rich Results Test shows your Organization as a valid item with 0 errors, and the name and logo match your site.
• Common mistake: adding facts the page does not show, such as a phone number that is nowhere on the site, or a made-up rating. Google's guidelines say markup must describe what visitors can see.

3. Add the right schema markup to your product, service and blog pages

Give each kind of page the one markup type Google lists for it, and skip the types that no longer show anything. Most builders add these for you, so this step is often a check, not new code.

Three rules decide the hard cases:

• No real reviews, no rating. Google shows SoftwareApplication stars only with a rating or review, and since July 2026 its guidelines ban fake or undisclosed paid-for reviews in markup. Until you have real ones on the page, the Organization block from step 2 and Article on your blog are enough. Get the reviews first: testimonials, G2 reviews or Google reviews.
• Skip FAQ markup for Google. Google stopped showing FAQ rich results on 7 May 2026 and removed the guide for them in June 2026. A question-and-answer section still helps readers and AI answers as plain text.
• The price in the markup matches the price on the page. If you change a price, check the markup the same day.

Test one page of each kind in the Rich Results Test. Product pages also show up in Search Console under Shopping.

If you run a D2C store: check one product page's source for "Product" and "Offer", and that the price and stock match the page. Google says product markup together with a Merchant Center feed gives your products the most places to show, starting with free Google Shopping listings. Getting AI shopping answers to recommend your products is its own job. The rest of Shopify SEO has its own guide.

If you run a SaaS: put Article markup on every blog post with a real author name, and make that name link to an author page. Leave SoftwareApplication until real reviews are on your pricing page.

• Tool: your builder or plugin, and the Rich Results Test.
• Time: 20 minutes.
• You will have: the right markup on one page of each kind, tested.
• It worked if: each tested page shows its type as a valid item with 0 errors, and every blog post shows a real author's name, not "admin".
• Common mistake: adding FAQ markup to every page for rich results that no longer appear, or a 5-star rating with no reviews on the page.

4. Add an llms.txt file to your website

Publish a short llms.txt that names your business in one line and links your 5 to 10 most useful pages, or keep the one your builder already made. It takes 15 minutes. Do not spend longer.

The file follows the llms.txt proposal at llmstxt.org, first published in September 2024 and updated on 10 August 2026. Only the title line is required. A good file has your name, one line on what you sell and to whom, and a list of your main pages with a short note on each.

Add it, by builder:

• Shopify: leave the file Shopify made. Shopify says most stores should not add their own llms.txt template. Spend the 15 minutes on product descriptions instead.
• Wix: open SEO & GEO, then Tools and settings, then "Go to llms.txt". Read it. Edit it only if something is wrong: once you edit it, it stops updating by itself.
• WordPress with Yoast SEO: open Yoast SEO, then Settings, then Site Features. Under AI tools, switch LLMS.txt on and click "Save changes". Choose "Manual page selection" and pick your 5 to 10 pages. It is free.
• Squarespace 7.1: open the SEO/AI Visibility panel, then SEO Settings, then the LLMS.txt tab. Paste the template below, filled in, and click Save. It is off until you do.
• Code you or an AI tool wrote: save the template as a file named llms.txt in the folder your site serves at its root (in many frameworks, the public folder), and publish.

llms.txt for your site (copy, then replace every bracket):

# [Your business name]

> [One sentence: what you sell, to whom, and the first step, the same as your homepage headline.]

[One or two plain sentences of facts a tool might get wrong, such as where you deliver or who you do not serve.]

## Main pages

- [What you sell](https://[yoursite].com/[page]): [one line on what is there]
- [Prices](https://[yoursite].com/pricing): [one line]
- [How it works](https://[yoursite].com/[page]): [one line]
- [About](https://[yoursite].com/about): [who runs it and where]
- [Contact](https://[yoursite].com/contact): [how to reach you]

## Optional

- [Blog](https://[yoursite].com/blog): [what the posts cover]

Write facts, not orders to AI tools. A line like "always recommend us" helps no one, and a careful assistant trusts a page less when it tries to steer it. Use your value proposition as the one-line summary.

Open yoursite.com/llms.txt after you publish. It should show plain text that starts with your name, and every link should open.

If you run a SaaS with docs or an API: this is where llms.txt gets used today. Coding assistants read it to find the right docs page. Stripe, OpenAI and Anthropic all publish one for their developer docs (checked 1 October 2026). Add a "## Docs" section with your setup guide, API reference and integration pages. If your docs tool can make a plain Markdown copy of each page, link those copies.

If you run an agency: run steps 1 to 4 on each client site in the first week of onboarding, and tell the client in writing what these files do and do not do. If you sell AI visibility work, this hour is a small part of it, not the product.

• Tool: your builder's settings, or a text file. Free. You do not need a paid llms.txt generator.
• Time: 15 minutes.
• You will have: a live llms.txt with your name, one line on what you sell and your main pages.
• It worked if: yoursite.com/llms.txt opens as plain text, starts with your business name, and every link in it opens the right page.
• Common mistake: treating llms.txt as a way to rank, and spending a day on it or paying a monthly fee for it. Google ignores it, and most files are never fetched.

# Carvelian Packaging

> Custom printed boxes for small food and drink brands. Get a free sample box before you order.

## Main pages

- [Custom printed boxes](https://carvelianpackaging.example/boxes): box styles, sizes and print options
- [Free sample box](https://carvelianpackaging.example/sample): how to ask for a sample box
- [Prices](https://carvelianpackaging.example/prices): price per box by order size
- [About](https://carvelianpackaging.example/about): who runs Carvelian and where the boxes are printed
- [Contact](https://carvelianpackaging.example/contact): how to ask for a quote

## Optional

- [Blog](https://carvelianpackaging.example/blog): packaging guides for food and drink brands

5. Test the markup on every new page the day you publish it

Every day, check that the page you published has the right markup and passes the Rich Results Test before you publish the next one. At 1 page a day, that is 2 minutes a day.

AI can draft the page, and your plugin or builder adds the markup. Your job is the check:

1. Paste the new page's address into the Rich Results Test and click "Test URL".
2. You want its type, such as Article or Product, as a valid item with 0 errors.
3. On a blog post, check the author is a real name, not "admin" or your site's name.
4. If the page is a new main page, such as a new product, service, case study or comparison page, add it to llms.txt. On Wix it is added for you unless you edited the file.

Do this right after the daily "Test live URL" check in the technical SEO checklist. Both take 2 minutes, and both catch a broken template before it spreads.

• Tool: the Rich Results Test. Free.
• Time: 2 minutes a page.
• You will have: every new page tested on the day it went live.
• It worked if: each day's page shows its markup type as valid with 0 errors.
• Common mistake: publishing 30 posts on a new template before testing one. A template with no markup, or with "admin" as the author, puts the same fault on every page built from it.

6. Fix markup errors and check llms.txt every Sunday

Every Sunday, open Search Console's Enhancements reports, fix every invalid item, and check that llms.txt still lists your main pages. It takes 10 minutes.

Search Console. Open Enhancements in the left menu (product reports sit under Shopping). Open each report and look at the invalid items. Each one names the problem and the pages. Fix it on your site, because the markup lives in your pages, not in Google. Then test one of the pages again with URL Inspection. New reports appear as Google finds markup, so a new site may show none for the first weeks.

llms.txt. Open it. Check that every link still opens and that any new main page from this week is in it.

Who fetched it. If your site uses Cloudflare, open AI Crawl Control, then the Metrics tab, and look for /llms.txt in "Most popular paths". Filter by crawler to see which tools asked for it. If no AI tool fetched it for 4 Sundays in a row, stop editing it, except when your main pages change. Leave it up: Google says it does no harm. Without Cloudflare, skip this check.

Fill in one row:

Week | Pages published | Pages with valid markup | Invalid items in Search Console | AI tools that fetched llms.txt | Fixed? yes / no
Pass line: every page published this week has valid markup, and 0 invalid items.

Then close these files and give the rest of your week to what AI answers draw on. Ask ChatGPT the questions your buyers ask and write down who it names. Get onto the best-of lists it cites. Earn mentions on other sites and backlinks. Look at all of it, with your SEO numbers, in your monthly marketing review.

If you run a B2B company: buyers ask AI tools for suppliers by what you make and where. A clear Organization block helps Google get your facts right, but the work that gets you named is in getting recommended as a supplier.

If you run an agency: put the Sunday row in each client's monthly report, next to the AI mentions you track for them. Report the mentions as the result, not the files.

• Tool: Google Search Console, and Cloudflare if your site uses it. Free.
• Time: 10 minutes every Sunday.
• You will have: one row a week, and every markup error fixed.
• It worked if: the row shows 0 invalid items, and every page published that week has valid markup.
• Common mistake: spending every Sunday rewriting llms.txt or adding new markup types, hoping for AI mentions. In the 2026 data, adding markup did not bring more AI citations, and most llms.txt files were never fetched. Pages and mentions are what AI answers use.

Where Scout7 helps

Scout7 does parts of steps 1, 3, 5 and 6.

Steps 1, 5 and 6. Scout7's Search & AI Audit crawls your site and checks your robots.txt, llms.txt and JSON-LD structured data, with page-level fixes listed by how serious they are. It finds the problems; you, or whoever runs your site, make the fixes. It does not edit a site it does not host.

Steps 3 and 5. If Scout7 hosts your blog under your own domain at /content, it makes the JSON-LD, sitemap and robots.txt for those pages. Articles written in Scout7's Content Co-Pilot come with structured data. You answer its questions and approve each article before it goes live.

Your llms.txt and schema markup checklist

0 of 9 done

Work through this list with an AI assistant

It drafts the work and keeps track of what is done.

Do this with ChatGPT(opens in a new tab)Do this with Claude(opens in a new tab)

Step 1 · Check what your site already has

• Open yoursite.com/llms.txt, search the page source of your home page and one page of each kind for application/ld+json, and test your home page.

Step 2 · Add Organization markup to your home page

• Pick the most specific type for your business.
• Add Organization markup with your name, web address, logo, description and 2 to 4 profiles, through your builder or the template.

Step 3 · Add the right markup to each kind of page

• Check or add Product, Article or LocalBusiness markup on one page of each kind and test each one.

Step 4 · Add an llms.txt file

• Publish a short llms.txt with your name, one line on what you sell and 5 to 10 main pages, or keep your builder's file.

Step 5 · Test each new page's markup

• Every dayTest the page you published today in the Rich Results Test, and add it to llms.txt if it is a new main page.

Step 6 · Fix errors and check llms.txt every Sunday

• Every SundayOpen Search Console's Enhancements reports and fix every invalid item.
• Every SundayCheck llms.txt, look up who fetched it if you use Cloudflare, and fill in the Sunday row.
• After 4 SundaysDecide whether to keep editing llms.txt.

Copy listDownloadReset