Crawlability Basics: robots.txt, sitemap.xml, and llms.txt

How to configure core discovery files so search and AI crawlers can efficiently access the right pages.

• crawlability
• sitemap
• llms-txt

Discovery files should be explicit, minimal, and always in sync with production URLs.

robots.txt

Allow major crawlers unless intentional restrictions are needed.

sitemap.xml

Include only canonical URLs and regenerate on every deploy.

llms.txt

Use it to state scope and crawling preferences for AI systems when relevant.

Summary

Accurate discovery files reduce crawl waste and improve indexing coverage.