Google Doesn't Use llms.txt: 7 AI SEO Myths Google Busted Live on Stage

A lot of “AI SEO” advice is being sold right now: llms.txt files, Markdown copies of pages, tricks to get cited by AI. At Search Central Live in Bengaluru on 30 October 2026, the Google Search team ran a true-or-false session on the most popular claims.

Most of them were false. Here’s every verdict, with the slides.

Myth 1: llms.txt tells Google’s AI crawlers what to do

Verdict: False. Google doesn’t use the instructions or data in llms.txt files. Earlier in the day, Google also said llms.txt isn’t necessary to appear in its AI features.

What to do instead: robots.txt is still the file Google reads. Spend the time on making real pages crawlable.

Myth 2: Google prefers clean Markdown over HTML

Verdict: False. Google’s web rendering service makes sure both Search and its AI training pipelines see the same things users see.

What to do instead: don’t build Markdown copies for bots. Make sure your rendered page shows the content to users and Googlebot alike.

Myth 3: rank #1 and AI will cite you

Verdict: False. Ranking first for a query doesn’t guarantee a citation.

Why: AI features use query fan-out, so they pull from pages that answer the related sub-questions too, not just the top result for the original query.

Myth 4: AI only cites Wikipedia, Reddit and big media

Verdict: False. Google said its AI systems regularly cite a brand’s own site when it’s a relevant, authoritative source.

What to do instead: make your own site the best source on what you know: your product, your data, your process.

Myth 5: AI scrapers eat your crawl budget

Verdict: It depends. AI scrapers don’t use your Google crawl budget. But if they overload your server until it throws errors to Googlebot too, Google slows down crawling.

What to do: rate-limit aggressive non-search bots, and alert on 5xx errors served to Googlebot.

Myth 6: Gemini “indexes” content the same way Search does

Verdict: False. Search and Google’s LLMs share similar crawling and data-processing pipelines early on, but the end products are very different.

Myth 7: blocking Google-Extended removes you from AI search

Verdict: False. Disallowing Google-Extended keeps URLs out of future Gemini training and grounding in Gemini Apps and Vertex AI. It doesn’t un-train existing models, and it isn’t the control for AI Overviews or AI Mode. Here’s what Google-Extended and the new Search Console AI setting each do.

The one claim Google marked true

“Writing content for humans is still what works best for Google’s AI systems.” Verdict: True. Google said its systems, whether Search or AI, understand content created for humans, and told the room to stick to that.

All verdicts at a glance

Claim	Verdict
llms.txt instructs Google’s AI crawlers	False
Google prefers Markdown over HTML	False
Rank #1 and AI will cite you	False
AI only cites big media, Reddit and Wikipedia	False
AI scrapers use up your crawl budget	It depends
Gemini indexes content the same way as Search	False
Blocking Google-Extended removes you from AI search	False
Writing for humans works best for Google’s AI	True

FAQ

Does Google use llms.txt?

No. Google said it doesn’t use the instructions or data in llms.txt files.

Should I create Markdown versions of my pages for AI?

Not for Google. Its rendering service ensures Search and AI training see what users see.

How do I get cited in AI Overviews?

Google’s answer: be a relevant, authoritative source that’s crawlable and indexed, and write for people.