John Mueller compares llms.txt to the keywords meta tag
On Reddit, Google’s John Mueller said llms.txt is “comparable to the keywords meta tag”: a site owner’s own claim about what the site is about.
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What happened?
In a Reddit thread on r/TechSEO titled “LLM.txt - where are we at?”, on 16 April 2025, John Mueller wrote: “To me, it’s comparable to the keywords meta tag - this is what a site-owner claims their site is about.”
In the same comment he added: “AFAIK none of the AI services have said they’re using LLMs.TXT.” Search Engine Journal reported the exchange the next day.
Why the comparison matters
The keywords meta tag was abandoned by search engines because sites could write anything in it, and many did. The point of the comparison is that llms.txt is self-description: a reader has no way to trust it beyond checking it against the pages it describes.
What does it mean for your site?
An llms.txt is only as useful as it is accurate. Write descriptions a reader could check against the page they link to: facts, prices, limits, who the page is for. Promotional claims are exactly what the comparison warns about.
Our best practices guide covers how to write descriptions that hold up.
Sources
Source: John Mueller on Reddit (r/TechSEO)
Coverage: Search Engine Journal, 17 April 2025