Google search analyst Gary Illyes told attendees at Search Central Deep Dive Asia-Pacific on 23 July 2025 that conventional SEO best practices are all a page needs to surface in Google’s AI Overviews. He also confirmed Googlebot does not read - and has no plans to read - the proposed LLMS.txt file that some publishers are adopting for large-language-model crawlers.
Key details
- Illyes advised site owners to “simply use normal SEO” to appear in AI Overviews, according to a LinkedIn post by Kenichi Suzuki.
- In a follow-up exchange, he added that Googlebot will not request LLMS.txt and that the company has “no plans” to support the format (LinkedIn).
- The comments came during a technical session and open Q&A at the two-day Search Central Deep Dive event held 22-23 July 2025 in Singapore.
- Server logs shared by SEO consultant Ray Martinez show OpenAI requesting LLMS.txt every 15 minutes, while Google traffic is absent (X).
- Google’s stance echoes John Mueller’s earlier remark that no AI system is currently using the LLMS.txt file.
Background
AI Overviews rolled out globally in May 2024 and continued expanding through early 2025. The feature generates concise answers powered by Google’s Gemini models and credits source pages below each summary. Google states that its existing ranking signals - relevance, authority, freshness, and others - power both AI Overviews and traditional search results.
LLMS.txt emerged in March 2025 as a community proposal to let publishers specify how language-model crawlers may use their content. Although a handful of experimental bots check for the file, no standards body has formalized the syntax, and major search providers, including Google, have not adopted it.
What this means for marketers
Illyes’s clarification suggests marketers can stay focused on established SEO fundamentals - crawlability, indexability, high-quality content, and structured data - rather than invest resources in experimental directives that Google does not recognize. While LLMS.txt may still influence other AI companies, it has no bearing on visibility within Google Search or AI Overviews.
.svg)
.svg)
.svg)