What is llms.txt — and why every Irish tradesman needs one in 2026

You already know what a customer does when they need a tradesman. For twenty years it's been the same: open Google, type the trade and the town, ring a couple of names. That's changing faster than most people on the tools realise. More customers every week skip the search bar entirely and just ask an assistant — ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini — 'who's the best stove fitter in Wexford?' and take the answer it gives them.

Which raises a simple, slightly uncomfortable question: when the AI answers, does it know about you?

What llms.txt actually is

It's a small text file that lives at the root of your website — yourbusiness.ie/llms.txt — written for the AI assistants rather than for people. Think of it as a clean, plain-English business card you hand directly to the machines: here's my name, here's my trade, here's the counties I cover, here's what I do, here's how to contact me.

Websites are messy. They've menus and pop-ups and cookie banners and ten years of half-finished pages. An AI trying to understand your business has to wade through all that. An llms.txt file cuts straight to the point — it tells the assistant exactly what to say about you, in the words you'd choose yourself.

Why it matters now, not in five years

Here's the thing about being early. When an AI assistant doesn't have a clear, confident source for 'best electrician in Kildare', it either hedges or it names whoever it can understand most easily. Right now, for most Irish trades and most counties, that field is wide open — because almost nobody has done the basics. The first tradesman in a county who makes themselves easy for the AI to understand tends to become the name it reaches for. That advantage is hard to take back once it sets.

What goes in it

1. 01Your business name and what you actually do, in plain words.
2. 02The counties and towns you cover — specifically, not 'nationwide'.
3. 03Your services, listed the way a customer would describe them.
4. 04Your qualifications and credentials — RECI, RGI, SafePass, whatever applies.
5. 05How to contact you, and a link back to your site.

That's it. No jargon, no SEO trickery — just a clear, honest description an AI can read and repeat. The honesty matters: these systems are getting good at spotting puff, and a file full of 'award-winning' nonsense does you no favours.

The Tradeflo bit

Every website we build for a tradesman ships with an llms.txt file generated automatically from their real details, and we keep it current. You don't have to know any of this exists — that's rather the point. But now you do know it exists, and you know most of your competitors haven't got one. Make of that what you will.