Google Confirms: Standard SEO Works for AI Overviews — LLMs.txt Not Used
If you’re aiming to rank in Google’s AI Overviews, stick with traditional SEO — no need to worry about LLMs.txt.
At the recent Google Search Central Deep Dive event for the Asia-Pacific region, Gary Illyes from Google confirmed that ranking in AI Overviews doesn’t require any special files or protocols like LLMs.txt. Instead, normal SEO practicesremain the key to visibility in Google’s evolving search experience.
Focus on Traditional SEO for AI Overviews
Kenichi Suzuki, who attended the event, shared on LinkedIn:
“To get your content to appear in AI Overview, simply use normal SEO practices. You don’t need GEO, LLMO or anything else.”
This reinforces that Googlebot still crawls and indexes websites the same way for AI Overviews as it does for traditional search results. That means factors like high-quality content, structured data, site speed, mobile-friendliness, and backlinks continue to matter — even as AI-powered search expands.
Google Isn’t Using LLMs.txt
During a Q&A session, Illyes also stated that Google is not crawling or supporting the LLMs.txt file, a recently discussed method aimed at controlling AI content usage.
Suzuki quoted Illyes as saying:
“Google doesn’t support LLMs.txt and isn’t planning to.”
Other AI platforms, however, may treat it differently. For example, Ray Martinez shared log files on X (formerly Twitter) showing that OpenAI is actively crawling LLMs.txt every 15 minutes, indicating interest from non-Google AI systems.
Meanwhile, John Mueller from Google recently noted that, as of now, no major AI system is using LLMs.txt, though this may change quickly given the pace of AI development.
Why This Matters for SEO and AI Search
As Lily Ray highlighted, AI-driven search is growing, but SEO is far from dead. If your goal is to appear in AI Overviews — and potentially benefit from the visibility boost — the best course is to focus on proven SEO strategies.
Whether AI Overviews will consistently generate clicks and conversions is still an open question, but visibility remains a crucial first step.
