Do you need special markup to show up in Google's AI answers? Google says no.

What does Google actually say?

Google's Search Central guidance on AI features says there are no additional requirements to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode. You do not need new machine-readable files, AI text files or special markup. What you need is what you always needed: your page must be indexed and eligible to show a snippet in ordinary Search.

So what still matters?

• Google can reach your pages. That includes your robots.txt and, as we explain in another article, your firewall.
• Your pages are indexed and can show a snippet.
• Important content is in text, not only in images.
• Any structured data matches the visible text. Markup that describes something the page does not show is worse than none.
• Your Business Profile and other Google business information is current.

Where do llms.txt and schema fit in?

Google says you do not need new files or markup for its AI features. Other AI tools may read llms.txt or structured data, but we have no evidence that either changes what they say. Structured data is still worth doing when it is accurate, because it states your facts unambiguously. llms.txt is cheap to publish and keep accurate. Neither is a shortcut.

Can you control what Google shows?

Yes. Google says you can limit what appears in Search with nosnippet, data-nosnippet, max-snippet or noindex, and that Google-Extended limits the use of your content for AI training and grounding in other Google systems. Google also says traffic from AI features appears in the Search Console performance report under the Web search type.

What does the page not tell us?

• It covers Google's AI features only. It says nothing about ChatGPT, Claude, Perplexity or other assistants.
• It says meeting the requirements does not guarantee your content will be crawled, indexed or shown.
• It does not say what makes one page more likely to be used than another.
• The page is not dated, so we record the date we read it.

Sources

1. AI features and your website · Google Search Central, undated page. Read by us on 27 October 2026.

We keep what a source says separate from our reading of it. If a source is from another country or a different date, we say so. We are not giving advice, and nothing here is a promise of rankings, citations or sales.