Built a free llms.txt generator to drive traffic to my docs SaaS
Hey everyone!
I'm building Dokly — a documentation platform (think Mintlify/GitBook alternative but indie-priced at $19/mo instead of $150+/mo).
Like many of you, getting initial traffic has been brutal. SEO takes forever, paid ads are expensive, and cold outreach feels gross.
The Idea: Free Tools for SEO
I noticed that "llms.txt" is a growing search term. It's a new standard for helping AI assistants (ChatGPT, Claude, Cursor) understand your documentation — kind of like robots.txt but for AI.
The keyword has:
- Low competition (it's new)
- High intent (developers actively searching for solutions)
- Direct relevance to my product (documentation)
So I built a free llms.txt generator: https://dokly.co/tools/llms-txt-generator
What It Does
- Enter your site name and description
- Import pages from your sitemap (or add manually)
- Generates properly formatted llms.txt
- Copy or download
No signup. No email capture. Completely free.
The Strategy
- Rank for "llms.txt generator" — low competition, direct intent
- Provide genuine value — not a crappy lead gen trap
- Soft CTA — "Want docs that generate llms.txt automatically? Try Dokly"
- Build trust — free tools → trust → eventual conversion
Why I'm Sharing
Would love feedback on:
-
Is this a good traffic strategy? Building free tools around adjacent keywords?
-
Should I gate it? Currently no email required. Should I add optional email capture for "save your progress" or keep it friction-free?
-
What other tools could work? Thinking about:
- Documentation site analyzer
- MDX playground
- API docs generator
- README to docs converter
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Is the tool itself useful? If you have docs, would you use this?
Learnings So Far
- Free tools are a great way to build backlinks naturally
- Adjacent keywords with commercial intent > exact match keywords with no intent
- Not gating actually builds more trust (counterintuitive but seems true)
The Numbers (so far)
Too early for real data, but I'll update this thread as I see results.
Link: https://dokly.co/tools/llms-txt-generator
Main product: https://dokly.co
Happy to answer any questions about the build or strategy!
Gautam — ungated adjacent tools is a good IH traffic move. On the file itself, we’d be honest with users so the generator doesn’t overclaim.
llms.txt is useful for docs and coding agents (Cursor and Claude Code will fetch it). It is not a ChatGPT-citation lever. Google’s own guidance now says maintaining one will neither help nor hurt Search or AI Overviews. Ahrefs’ May 2026 log study: 97% of published files got zero requests, and most of the bots that did hit them were SEO auditors, not retrieval bots. Live answer-time crawlers (ChatGPT-User, PerplexityBot) read the HTML.
So: ship it for docs sites, keep it auto-generated so it doesn’t go stale, and put the facts you care about (pricing, positioning, founder name) in crawlable HTML plus schema. Don’t sell the file as GEO.
On gating: keep it friction-free. The trust is the product. Optional “email me the file” is enough if you need a list.
Great idea! llms.txt can help make documentation more accessible to AI systems. I’d also pair this with technical SEO and site auditing to catch issues that can limit organic visibility. SERPSpur brings those SEO checks together in one toolkit.
Smart SEO play - llms.txt is becoming the new robots.txt for AI crawlers.
Before you double down: have you validated that docs SaaS founders actually struggle with traffic, or is acquisition the bigger pain? I've seen too many devtools solve the wrong problem.
I built FounderOS to check this exact thing - validates market demand before you build features. Happy to run your docs SaaS concept through it if you want to check product-market fit?
Takes 3 mins, might save you months of building the wrong thing.