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Humans.txt

Humans.txt is a plain text file that credits the people and teams behind a website, providing transparency about authorship, technology stack, and acknowledgments.

humans.txt
Since 2011
2011
First Released
3/5
GEO Score

Origin & Background

Creator
Abel Cabans and others
Year Introduced
2011
Alternate Names
Purpose
Created to provide a human-readable way to credit website creators, designers, developers, and contributors, promoting transparency and recognition.
Official Specification
View Specification

Key Benefits & Advantages

Benefits Overview

  • Provides transparency about site authorship and team
  • Signals credibility and professionalism to AI systems
  • Simple plain text format accessible to all

Technical Advantages

Establishes authorship and credibility signals
Helps AI systems understand who created the content
Improves trust signals for ethical AI crawlers
Provides technology stack information
Simple format that requires no special tools
Promotes transparency and attribution
Can improve E-A-T (Expertise, Authoritativeness, Trustworthiness) signals
Recognized by ethical AI systems and attribution validators

SEO / GEO / LLMO Relevance

Humans.txt strengthens credibility and authorship signals that AI systems increasingly factor into trustworthiness assessments and attribution modeling.

Establishes clear authorship and team credentials
Improves E-A-T signals for content quality assessment
Signals transparency and professionalism
Helps AI systems understand content provenance
Recognized by ethical AI crawlers and attribution systems

Implementation Guide

Syntax Example

humans.txt
Reference
/* TEAM */
Founder & CEO: Alex Morgan
Head of AI Research: Dr. Sarah Chen
Lead Engineer: Jordan Kim
Product Design: Taylor Rodriguez
Content Strategy: Morgan Lee

/* THANKS */
Built for the future of AI-powered search
Optimizing the web for LLMs, one site at a time

/* SITE */
Last update: 2024-01-15
Standards: AI-optimized formats, Schema.org, RDF
Components: Next.js, React, TypeScript, Tailwind CSS
Software: VS Code, Figma, GitHub
Hosting: Vercel
Focus: Generative Engine Optimization (GEO)

/* CONTACT */
Email: [email protected]
Twitter: @geordyai
GitHub: github.com/geordy

Troubleshooting & Best Practices

Comparison to Alternative Formats

Alternative Formats
When to Use Humans.txt

Use humans.txt for any site that wants to establish authorship, credit contributors, and signal transparency. Especially valuable for agencies, product companies, and content publishers.

Advantages

  • +Simple plain text format
  • +Promotes transparency and attribution
  • +Improves credibility signals
  • +Easy to create and maintain

Limitations

  • −Not widely adopted compared to other formats
  • −Requires manual updates
  • −Limited impact on traditional SEO
  • −No standardized validation tools

Popular Use Cases

Team Credits

Acknowledge the people who built and maintain your website

Example:
Agency sites, product companies, open source projects

Technology Transparency

Document the technology stack and tools used

Example:
Developer portfolios, tech companies, SaaS platforms

Authorship Signals

Establish clear authorship for content and code

Example:
Content publishers, documentation sites, blogs

Real-World Adoption Examples

Google

Uses humans.txt to credit teams and acknowledge contributors

View Implementation

GitHub

Implements humans.txt for team credits and technology stack

View Implementation

Mozilla

Uses humans.txt to acknowledge contributors and community

View Implementation

Developer Toolkit

Validators

Libraries & SDKs

Resources & Citations

Humans.txt Official Site
Humans.txt Standard
Humans.txt Wikipedia

Frequently Asked Questions

Automated Generation

Start Using Humans.txt with Geordy

Geordy automatically generates and maintains Humans.txt files for your website, ensuring optimal AI visibility without manual work.