Good advice needs proof.

We check what a study found, how it ran, and where it falls short.

Google guidance

Google does not need a special AI file.

Google says the usual search rules still apply. A file called llms.txt is not needed for its AI search features.

This is Google's guidance. Other tools may use different files.

Bing guidance

Bing counts links to your pages in AI answers. Those counts do not show your rank or where a link appeared.

The data covers the AI services Bing names, not every AI tool.

Vendor study

Schema is code that labels page facts. Ahrefs saw no clear gain in AI links when pages added it.

The pages already had AI links. The study does not show what happens to pages with none.

Vendor study

Ahrefs saw this happen in a test of two of its own brands. A link and a brand mention were not the same result.

The test was small, and results changed across tools and days.

Vendor study

Seer found that many pages used in AI answers had recent updates. It did not test whether an update caused more links.

It studied cited pages in four markets, not a test group against an unchanged group.

Vendor estimate

Ahrefs builds its estimate from Google search data and traffic. It is not a count of the questions people asked AI.

This describes one vendor's method. Our test questions are not demand estimates.

We review the claim and test the rule first. New rules stay out of reports until the tests pass and the release is approved.