🔥 The SEOs Diners Club - Issue #162 - Weekly SEO Tips & News

What is LLMs.txt and Why Does It Matter?

LLMs.txt is a newly proposed standard for AI models to crawl websites, offering content owners greater control over their data.

Large language models (LLMs) are increasingly vital in today's digital world. They learn from, generate content with, and respond to user queries using website information. However, LLMs face challenges in efficiently crawling and understanding web content. This is precisely where a new standard called LLMs.txt, proposed by Australian technology expert Jeremy Howard, comes into play.

Think of it as robots.txt's more cooperative cousin. While robots.txt tells search engines what they can't access, LLMs.txt is designed to help AI models better understand what they should pay attention to.

How Does LLMs.txt Work?

LLMs.txt is a simple text file placed in a website's root directory. Site owners can add URLs of specific sections, provide summaries, or even supply the entire raw text content of the site in single or multiple files. They can also create .md markdown versions of web pages they want LLMs to pay particular attention to.

This provides LLMs with detailed context on how content can be accessed and used. According to Howard, the LLMs.txt markdown format is easily readable by both humans and LLMs and has a precise format that can be processed with classical programming techniques like parsers and regular expressions.

This simple yet effective approach enables the reduction of entire websites to their basic linguistic and textual essence, allowing AI platforms to parse content more easily for various purposes (content development, site structure analysis, entity research, etc.).

Several free tools are already available:

• Markdowner: A free, open-source tool that converts website content into well-structured Markdown files

• Appify: An LLMs.txt generator developed by Jacob Kopecky

• Website LLMs: This WordPress plugin creates your LLMs.txt file for you

• FireCrawl: One of the first tools to emerge for creating LLMs.txt files

• Manual Creation: You can manually capture and flatten your website's content

Why Should You Care About LLMs.txt?

The potential benefits of LLMs.txt are extensive, offering advantages for both LLMs and website owners:

• Improves Resource Usage for LLMs: Theoretically, LLMs.txt allows LLMs to use their technical resources more efficiently. Instead of extracting and making sense of complex HTML pages, LLMs can access expert-level information from a single accessible location.

• Provides Control to Content Owners: Today, content owners are increasingly concerned about how AI models use web content. LLMs.txt gives content owners more control over how their data is used.

• Offers Potential SEO and GEO Benefits: LLMs.txt has various potential benefits in search engine optimization (SEO) and generative search optimization (GEO):

  • Protects Proprietary Content: LLMs.txt can theoretically prevent AI from unauthorized use of original content

  • Brand Reputation Management: Businesses can theoretically have some control over how their information appears in AI-generated responses

  • Linguistic and Content Analysis: With a completely flattened and AI-consumable version of your website, you can perform various analyses

• Enhanced AI Interaction: LLMs.txt helps LLMs interact more effectively with your website, allowing them to more easily retrieve accurate and relevant information.

• Improved Content Visibility: By directing AI systems to focus on specific content, LLMs.txt can theoretically "optimize" your website for AI indexing.

Google AI Overviews Expanding in Europe: Very Close to Turkey!

Google has expanded its AI Overviews feature in Europe. Turkey isn't on the list yet, but it's reached our border. Risks and opportunities for SEO experts!

Google has announced that it's opening its AI Overviews feature, which transforms search results with AI support, to more countries in Europe. This feature allows users to encounter summary information directly in search results. For now, Turkey hasn't been included in this list, but geographically it has come right to our border. This feature, which has been made available in countries like Germany, Italy, Poland, and Spain, is just a matter of time before coming to Turkey.

Highlights

• The AI Overviews feature is now active in these countries: Austria, Belgium, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Switzerland.

• Languages include German, French, Italian, Portuguese, Polish, Spanish, and English.

• Only shown to users who are logged into their Google account and are over 18.

• Google claims that these summaries increase search satisfaction and provide opportunities to discover new sites.

What Can You Do?

• Prepare Before It Comes to Turkey: Review your content immediately to avoid being caught unprepared when this feature is activated in Turkey.

• Transition to Instructional Content Format: Question-answer format, topic summaries, and solution-oriented content will stand out.

• Monitor Your Search Console Data: If you have German or English content, you may see movement in your European traffic.

Google Speaks Up for Small Sites: What to Do, How to Stand Out?

At Search Central Live NYC, Google detailed strategies that small and independent websites can use to increase their visibility in search results.

I've been in the industry since 2009, and with every algorithm update, I hear small publishers complain: "Is Google only showing big brands?" This week at the Search Central Live NYC event, Google Search Liaison Danny Sullivan addressed precisely this concern and gave important advice that small, independent site owners should listen to carefully.

Highlights

• Google once again emphasized that it does not algorithmically prefer large brands.

• They mentioned that algorithmic improvement work has been done for a year to make small and independent sites more visible.

• These changes are being implemented incrementally due to diversity.

• The most critical emphasis: "Recognition" and "making a difference" are the keys to success.

• Google's perspective: The reader needs to understand who you are. This isn't just about the "About Us" page but should be the soul and identity of the site.

What Can You Do?

As an SEO consultant with over 15 years in the industry, I'm listing Danny Sullivan's recommendations:

1. Build brand awareness: A good domain name, memorable logo, mascot, or unique site concept.

2. Make it clear who you are on your site: The answers to "Who are we?", "Why are we here?", "What makes us different from others?" should reach the user immediately.

3. Prepare your content not just for SEO but for user experience. Remember, algorithms constantly change; quality experience is permanent.

4. Be different from hundreds of thousands of content in the same field. Avoid being ordinary.

5. Create a structure that gives confidence to site visitors. Develop a narrative that first-time users can connect with.

Why It's Important for SEO Professionals

This statement shows that E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authority, Trust) criteria are still on the table and that the opportunity window remains open for independent site owners. Google's promise to support small publishers will pave the way for sites that have invested in branding and are sincere and trustworthy.

However, remember this: This is not an update that will be made with "one move." Increased visibility for small sites will come piece by piece, over time. So those who take action now will win.

Google's March 2025 Core Algorithm Update Completed

Google has completed the March 2025 core algorithm update. Rankings have been reshaped. Risks, opportunities, and recommendations for SEO experts in this article.

Google completed its March 2025 core algorithm update as of March 27. This two-week update brought the highest SERP fluctuations of the last 12 months. According to data from Local SEO Guide and SISTRIX, forum content in particular lost visibility significantly. While Reddit continues its rise, small forum sites have virtually been erased. Additionally, programmatic content and industry-independent weak content have also become targets.

What Can You Do?

• For sites that manage forum content, just "being a forum" is no longer enough. Update your forum pages and highlight valuable discussions.

• Sites that publish programmatic content: Be sure to optimize your content with a focus on user intent. Get rid of empty, meaningless pages.

• If your site experienced noticeable traffic loss, check which URL groups were affected in Search Console and make a revision plan focused on content quality.

Why It's Important for SEO Professionals

I've been in the SEO industry since 2009 and have seen hundreds of algorithm updates, but I've never witnessed forum content being discarded so harshly. This update is part of Google's recent "Site Reputation Abuse" and "Search Quality" projects. Sites with user-generated content like forums can no longer rely solely on content volume. Quality, moderation, and content that offers real value to users will come to the fore.

This update also shows that AI-supported low-quality, programmatic content sites have fallen out of favor. In other words, the algorithm's message is clear: "Bad news for those who produce content just for SEO."

This could be the beginning of a period where content strategies will change radically across the industry. If you're still following an SEO strategy focused on volume rather than content quality, this update is a clear warning to you: It's time to invest in quality.

This Week in the AI World: Tools, Services, and Tips

Artificial intelligence is driving innovations in digital marketing. Let's take a look at the latest developments and applications accelerating marketing impact!

• OpenAI has made a powerful enhancement to ChatGPT's visual production capacity. With the new model, we can now create more realistic, detailed, and natural-looking visuals. This update is especially important for content creators, SEOs, and digital marketers because better supporting user experience with visuals means increasing engagement.

• Anthropic has activated real-time web search for its AI model Claude. This feature was being tested with a limited user group for a while; now it's available in all accounts! This means Claude won't be limited to just training data but can pull up-to-date information from the internet to provide you with more current and accurate answers.

Key Takeaway: AI-Ready SEO Is The Future

The emergence of LLMs.txt demonstrates that we're approaching a new frontier in search. While traditional SEO optimizes for search engines, we now need to adapt to AI-assisted search experiences.

As an SEO strategist with 15 years of experience, I can tell you that the convergence of traditional search and AI-generated responses represents both a significant challenge and opportunity. Those who prepare now by implementing LLMs.txt and focusing on authentic, valuable content will be positioned to succeed.

Remember: Google doesn't have a bias against small sites - it has a bias against sites that don't clearly communicate their unique value proposition and expertise. In this AI-driven world, standing out matters more than ever.

Let's embrace these changes together. As always, I'm here to help guide you through this evolving landscape.

I hope you've enjoyed this week's SEOs Diners Club.

See you in the new edition of SEOs Diners Club next week, which is full of new information, tactics, and strategies.

I wish you a good week. Take care!

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