New Squarespace Update to Know
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If youβre new here, hi. I'm Janessa from JPK Design Co.
This particular email is super focused on Squarespace and SEO/AI Search. But I also write about business, DIY entrepreneurship, marketing, and other related shenanigans. I send occasional emails. (Not interested? Unsubscribe here, no hard feelings!)
Now, on to the Squarespace update:
Squarespace now natively supports LLMS.txt files on all 7.1 sites.
LLMS.txt is a markdown file that sits at the root of a site (like robots.txt or sitemap.xml) and is meant to give AI assistants (ChatGPT, Claude, etc.) a clearer, more direct read on what a site's most important content actually is, instead of the AI having to infer that by crawling the sitemap and parsing HTML.
Cool Janessa, you might be thinking, but what does that actually MEAN?
I'll tell ya:
LLMs = "Large Language Models." That's the technical name for AI systems like Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, etc.
So "LLMS.txt" just means "a text file for AI models to read."
Think of it like this: when Google indexes your website, it crawls through all your pages, reads the HTML, follows your sitemap, and pieces together what your website is about. That's worked a-ok for search engines for 20+ years.
But AI assistants work a little differently. When someone asks an LLM like Claude about a website, it doesn't always crawl the whole thing the way Google does.
So some people came up with an idea: what if websites had one simple, clean file, written in plain markdown (just simple text, not HTML) that says "here's what matters on this site" in a format an AI can read easily and quickly?
That file is called llms.txt. It sits at the "root" of a website, meaning the main folder already tells search engines what to crawl or skip.
So the new Squarespace annoucement basically means this: "You can now create and edit a LLMS file directly inside Squarespace, instead of needing a workaround." It's a new setting, tucked into SEO settings, and it's off by default.
And I'll tell you how to update it and turn it onπ
The steps to add this to your site:
- Your website has to be on Squarespace 7.1 (not 7.0). Native support only landed for 7.1 sites.
- You need to be logged in as an account with admin permissions on that site. Editors or contributors won't see the setting.
- Go to SEO/AI Visibility > SEO Settings > LLMS.txt tab.
- It's a toggle, off by default, so you'd switch it on.
- Then you write the actual content of the file inside that tab, in plain markdown, and hit save.
Confused on what to write? I got you here, too.
As for "how do you do that": there's no special tool or process. You just write it, the same way you'd write a short bio or an "about me/us" summary. Here is what you do:
- Look at your website's main navigation and pick out the 4 to 6 pages that are most important to your business (home, about, services, blog, contact, whatever your real structure is)
- For each one, write a single plain sentence describing what's there
- Write one or two sentences at the top describing the business as a whole
- Format it into that markdown structure I showed you above π
- Paste it into the LLMS.txt tab in Squarespace settings, and then toggle it on
That's it!
And if you want extra help - and are someone who uses AI - I wrote a prompt for you. Just copy below π and paste it into Claude (or whatever AI you use).
Act as an expert in AI search visibility who prepares Squarespace client sites for AI assistants like ChatGPT, Claude, and Perplexity.
[Context: I am writing an llms.txt file for the Squarespace site at [SITE URL].]
Task: If you have live web browsing, visit the site and identify the business name, what the business does, its main pages, and what each page covers. If you do not have browsing, ask me for the business name, a short description, and a list of key pages with URLs before continuing. Then write a complete llms.txt file: a title line with the business name, a one to two sentence summary, a Pages section listing each key page as a link with a one line description, and a Notes section with any special instructions for AI models, such as ignoring tag or pagination pages. Keep it to essential pages only. Format it ready to paste into Squarespace's SEO Settings under SEO/AI Visibility, LLMS.txt tab.
Ask me any questions you have.
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I built a free Template Quiz for anyone DIYing their own Squarespace site (if you already have your website, skip this one, though you're welcome to poke around for funsies).
I went through all 200 free built-in Squarespace templates, categorized and reviewed them, and built a quiz around it: three quick multiple-choice questions (business type, pages you need, main action you want visitors to take), answer as much or as little as you want.
You get your best-match template plus a handful more that fit, and everything else to browse if you want: screenshots, demo links, my reviews. It's totally free, not gated, no email required, so share away.
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And if you land on your result and go "...now what," that's what my Power Hour is for: a focused 60-minute call for Squarespace fixes, troubleshooting, template help, SEO, strategy, whatever you're stuck on.
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