What is LLMs.txt and How to Create One for Your Church Website
More people are finding churches through AI-powered search tools like ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and Google’s AI Overviews. When someone types “Reformed churches near me” or “churches with evening services in [city],” the answer increasingly comes from an AI model, not a traditional search results page.
These AI models need to understand your website to recommend it. And most church websites make that harder than it should be.
LLMs.txt is a simple file you can add to your church website that tells AI systems what your site is about, what pages matter most, and how your content is structured. Think of it as a guided summary of your site, written specifically for AI to read.
This article explains what the file is, why it matters for your church’s online visibility, and how to create one.
What LLMs.txt Actually Does
LLMs.txt is a plain text file written in Markdown that sits in the root directory of your website (e.g. yourchurch.com/llms.txt). It lists your most important pages with brief descriptions of what each one contains.
Large language models (the AI systems behind ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity, and others) crawl the web to gather information. When they encounter your church website, they have to parse through navigation menus, JavaScript, embedded media, and page templates to figure out what your site is about. Most of that structure is designed for human visitors, not AI.
LLMs.txt gives the AI a shortcut. Instead of parsing your entire site, it can read a single, clean document that says: “Here’s our church, here’s what we believe, here’s when we meet, here’s how to contact us.”
The format follows a proposed standard from llmstxt.org. It uses a specific Markdown structure:
# Grace Reformed Church
> A Reformed church in Seattle, Washington, committed to expository preaching and biblical community.
## Main Pages
- [About Us](https://gracerc.org/about): Our history, mission, and leadership team
- [What We Believe](https://gracerc.org/beliefs): Our statement of faith and confessional standards
- [Sunday Services](https://gracerc.org/services): Service times, location, and what to expect as a visitor
- [Sermons](https://gracerc.org/sermons): Weekly sermon archive with audio and transcripts
- [Contact](https://gracerc.org/contact): Address, phone, email, and directions
## Resources
- [Blog](https://gracerc.org/blog): Articles on theology, Christian living, and church life
- [Events](https://gracerc.org/events): Upcoming church events and fellowship gatherings
The H1 heading and blockquote summary are required. Everything else is optional but recommended.
Why This Matters for Churches Specifically
Church websites have a particular problem that LLMs.txt helps solve. Most church sites are relatively small (5 to 15 pages), but the information visitors need is spread across pages that AI struggles to distinguish from each other.
Your “About” page, “Beliefs” page, and “Visit Us” page may all contain overlapping content. Your sermon archive might be behind a media player that AI crawlers can’t access. Your service times might be buried in a sidebar widget rather than in the main content of any page.
When someone asks an AI tool “What time does Grace Reformed Church meet on Sundays?” the AI needs to find that information, understand it, and serve it accurately. LLMs.txt helps by pointing directly to the right pages and describing what each one contains.
Churches also benefit from the descriptive summaries in the file. You can include your denomination, confessional standards, and theological distinctives in the blockquote summary. This gives AI enough context to recommend your church to people searching for those specific things.
How LLMs.txt Differs from Robots.txt and Sitemaps
Your church website likely already has a robots.txt file and an XML sitemap. These serve different purposes.
Robots.txt tells search engine crawlers which pages they’re allowed to access. It controls access but doesn’t describe content.
XML sitemaps list all your pages and tell search engines when each was last updated. They help with indexing but don’t explain what each page is about.
LLMs.txt describes your content in natural language. It doesn’t control access or list every page. Instead, it curates your most important content and provides context that helps AI understand what your church is and what you offer.
All three files work together. Robots.txt handles permissions. The sitemap handles discovery. LLMs.txt handles comprehension.
Is Anyone Actually Using LLMs.txt Files?
The standard is still emerging. No major LLM provider (OpenAI, Google, Anthropic) has officially confirmed that their crawlers follow LLMs.txt files. Google’s John Mueller has stated that Google doesn’t currently use them.
That said, Anthropic (the company behind Claude) has published an LLMs.txt file on their own website. Webflow, WordPress, and Drupal all have plugins or built-in support for generating the file. And tools like Semrush now check for the presence of LLMs.txt in their site audits.
The situation is comparable to the early days of XML sitemaps. They weren’t immediately supported by every search engine either. But websites that adopted them early were better positioned when support arrived.
For churches, the effort required is minimal. Creating the file takes 15 to 30 minutes. The downside risk is zero. The upside is that your church appears correctly and prominently when people use AI to search for a congregation.
How to Create an LLMs.txt File for Your Church Website
Step 1: Decide Which Pages to Include
List the pages on your church website that a visitor would need to understand who you are. For most churches, this includes:
- Homepage
- About / Our Story
- Statement of Faith / What We Believe
- Leadership / Elders / Staff
- Service Times / Visit Us
- Sermons
- Events / Calendar
- Contact / Directions
- Blog (if you have one)
- Small Groups / Ministries (if applicable)
Leave out admin pages, login pages, and anything behind a members-only area.
Step 2: Write the File
Open a plain text editor (Notepad on Windows, TextEdit on Mac, or any code editor). Create a new file and save it as llms.txt.
Start with your church name as an H1 heading, followed by a one-to-two sentence summary in a blockquote. Make this summary specific. Include your denomination or tradition, your location, and what makes your church distinctive.
Then organise your pages into sections using H2 headings. Each page entry should be a Markdown link followed by a colon and a brief description.
Here’s a template you can adapt:
# [Your Church Name]
> [One-to-two sentence description. Include denomination, location, and key distinctives.]
## Main Pages
- [About Us](https://yourchurch.com/about): [Brief description of page content]
- [What We Believe](https://yourchurch.com/beliefs): [Confessional standards, doctrinal positions]
- [Services](https://yourchurch.com/services): [Service times, location, visitor info]
- [Sermons](https://yourchurch.com/sermons): [Format of archive, e.g. audio/video/transcripts]
- [Contact](https://yourchurch.com/contact): [Address, phone, email]
## Resources
- [Blog](https://yourchurch.com/blog): [Topics covered]
- [Events](https://yourchurch.com/events): [Types of events listed]
- [Ministries](https://yourchurch.com/ministries): [Overview of ministry areas]
Step 3: Upload the File
The file needs to live at the root of your domain, so it’s accessible at yourchurch.com/llms.txt.
If your church website runs on WordPress: Install a plugin like “Website LLMs.txt” from the WordPress plugin directory. It generates and serves the file automatically. You can also upload the file manually via FTP or your hosting provider’s file manager.
If your church website runs on Webflow: Webflow supports uploading LLMs.txt files to your site’s root directory through their dashboard.
If your site is on a church-specific platform (SolaSites, Nucleus, Tithe.ly Sites, etc.): Check whether your platform supports custom file uploads to the root directory. If not, contact their support team to request it. As the standard gains traction, more platforms will add native support.
If you’re not sure how: Ask whoever manages your church website to upload a single text file to the root directory of your hosting. It’s the same process as uploading a robots.txt file.
Step 4: Validate the File
Once uploaded, visit yourchurch.com/llms.txt in your browser to confirm it loads correctly. You should see your Markdown content displayed as plain text.
You can also use the free validation tool at llmstxtchecker.net to check that your file follows the specification. It verifies the H1 heading, blockquote, and link formatting.
Step 5: Keep It Updated
Review your LLMs.txt file whenever you add or remove pages from your church website. If you launch a new sermon series page, add it. If you retire an old ministry page, remove it. A quarterly review is sufficient for most churches.
Writing Effective Descriptions
The descriptions next to each link matter more than you might expect. AI models use them to determine whether a page is relevant to a user’s query.
Bad descriptions are vague: “Information about our church.” Good descriptions are specific: “History of our congregation since 1987, leadership bios for our three elders, and our affiliation with the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.”
Write each description as if you’re telling a friend what they’d find on that page. Be concrete. Include names, numbers, and specifics where they help.
For the blockquote summary at the top of your file, include:
- Your church’s full name
- Your denomination or tradition (e.g. PCA, OPC, RPCNA, SBC, free evangelical)
- Your city and region
- One or two distinguishing characteristics (e.g. “committed to the Westminster Standards” or “a bilingual congregation serving English and Spanish speakers”)
This summary is the first thing an AI reads. Make it count.
A Complete Example
Here’s what a finished LLMs.txt file looks like for a mid-size Reformed church:
# Covenant Presbyterian Church
> Covenant Presbyterian Church is a congregation of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) located in Bristol, England. We are committed to Reformed theology, expository preaching, and Christ-centred community.
We hold to the Westminster Confession of Faith and Catechisms as our doctrinal standards. Our congregation of approximately 150 members gathers each Lord's Day for morning and evening worship. We are served by two teaching elders and four ruling elders.
## Main Pages
- [About Us](https://covenantpres.org.uk/about): Church history, mission statement, and denominational affiliation with the PCA
- [What We Believe](https://covenantpres.org.uk/beliefs): Statement of faith, the Westminster Confession, and our position on key doctrinal questions
- [Leadership](https://covenantpres.org.uk/leadership): Bios and contact information for our elders and deacons
- [Sunday Worship](https://covenantpres.org.uk/services): Morning service at 10:30am, evening service at 6:00pm, location and parking details, visitor welcome information
- [Sermons](https://covenantpres.org.uk/sermons): Audio archive of weekly sermons organised by book of the Bible and series
- [Contact](https://covenantpres.org.uk/contact): Church address, phone number, email, and Google Maps directions
## Community
- [Small Groups](https://covenantpres.org.uk/groups): Midweek home fellowship groups across Bristol with meeting times and locations
- [Events](https://covenantpres.org.uk/events): Upcoming church events including conferences, fellowship meals, and outreach activities
- [Children and Youth](https://covenantpres.org.uk/children): Sunday school programme, youth group details, and child protection policy
## Resources
- [Blog](https://covenantpres.org.uk/blog): Articles on Reformed theology, Christian living, and book reviews by our pastors
- [Recommended Reading](https://covenantpres.org.uk/reading): Curated book lists for new believers, church members, and those exploring Reformed theologyWhat LLMs.txt Won’t Do
LLMs.txt doesn’t guarantee that AI tools will recommend your church. It doesn’t replace good SEO, and it doesn’t make up for thin or outdated website content. If your service times page still lists hours from 2019, the LLMs.txt file will helpfully point AI directly to that wrong information.
The file also won’t prevent AI from accessing other parts of your site. That’s what robots.txt is for. LLMs.txt is about guiding AI to your best content, not blocking it from anything.
And because the standard is still emerging, there’s no guarantee that every AI platform will read it today. But the cost of creating one is low, and the trajectory of AI-powered search makes it worth doing now rather than later.
Getting Started
Creating an LLMs.txt file for your church website is a 30-minute job that positions your congregation for how people will increasingly search for churches. Open a text editor, list your most important pages, write a clear summary, and upload the file to your root directory.
If you want to check whether your file is correctly formatted, visit llmstxtchecker.net. If you want to see examples from other organisations, browse the directory at llmstxt.site.
Your church’s online presence is often the first point of contact for visitors. Making it readable by AI is a small step that could make a measurable difference as AI-driven search continues to grow.