YMYL in SEO. What is Your Money Your Life?

YMYL is short for the English phrase “Your Money or Your Life” (Twoje pieniądze lub Twoje życie). It refers to topics and pages that can have an impact on users in the real world. It is worth finding out a little more about this topic.

What is “Your Money Your Life” (YMYL) content?

Users use search engines to find information on many different topics, from health issues through financial queries to creating new stories. If the information found is inaccurate, out of date, false or simply incorrect, this can have consequences for such users in the real world.

Google describes this type of information with the phrase Your Money or Your Life, which means it is so-called YMYL content. In other words, it covers pages and topics that can potentially affect a person’s future happiness, health, financial stability or safety.

Google introduced the concept of YMYL content in the first version of the Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines (Search Quality Evaluator Guidelines). These guidelines were created to help independent contractors assess the quality of search results pages, in order to improve the ranking algorithm and Google results. These guidelines also provided valuable insight into how Google works and which pages are worth placing highly on search results pages (SERP).

Right from the start, YMYL content was important in terms of search engine optimisation and in content marketing activities. Many algorithm updates focused on it, including the infamous Medic update. This is because Google is concerned with delivering relevant results that are as closely aligned with search intent as possible.

Above all, YMYL changed the way content is created and the search environment that is available today. So if you want your content to be at the top of the SERP, it is important to understand what YMYL content is and how you can use it to your advantage in SEO.

1. 01Impact on lifeHealth, finances, safety
2. 02Risk of errorsInaccurate, false, out of date
3. 03Required qualityA high standard of reliability
4. 04Google guidelinesStandards for evaluators

Summary: YMYL content can have a direct, significant impact on a user’s wellbeing, which is why it requires the highest level of credibility and reliability.

Examples of YMYL content

In the SQEG guidelines, Google listed several common examples of YMYL topics covering:

• news,
• civics, government and law,
• finance,
• shopping,
• health and safety,
• groups of people.

This is by no means an exhaustive list of all YMYL niches. Any page offering advice to users, helping them make a decision, encouraging them to take a specific action or otherwise affecting readers’ lives can be considered a YMYL page. Google encourages search raters to assess as accurately and as well as possible whether a given page or piece of content is YMYL.

If you regularly use Google Search, you have probably come across information on YMYL topics. Let’s say, for example, that you want to buy a new car. In that case, you may have searched for answers to many queries considered YMYL, such as which car to choose or how to sell your old vehicle, or you may simply have become interested in buying cars on-line.

Each of the searches mentioned above concerns YMYL topics, because the results presented could have guided your decision about the car you were buying or the sale price of the older vehicle, or the budget allocated to buying a new car. In other words, the results could have affected your money or your life in some way.

Why are YMYL pages important?

YMYL pages stand out from many other types of content because they can potentially harm human wellbeing and/or health. For example, when waking up with a cough, you might type the query “how to treat a cough” into Google.

If you land on the wrong source of information providing incorrect advice, you may suffer even more and become ill. That is why it is important for Google to provide high-quality information so that the pages presented do not adversely affect the user’s health.

Due to the important nature of such content, Google applies higher standards to YMYL pages. Low-quality YMYL pages can potentially have a negative impact on a person’s happiness, health, financial stability or safety. If you want to achieve a high position in search results for YMYL topics, you need to take care of many important issues.

1. 01Impact on health/well-beingRisk of harm to people
2. 02MisinformationBad advice, worse condition
3. 03Higher Google standardsEnsuring high quality

Protecting users from harmful content and providing reliable sources.

Best SEO practices for YMYL sites

1. Patience

There is a very small chance that Google will recommend new pages for YMYL topics. When creating content related to YMYL, you need to prepare for a fairly long wait for such content to rank. While waiting, it is worth working on the next three best practices.

1. 01Author E-E-A-TExpert knowledge and authority in the biography.
2. 02Owner informationClear details about the company or site owner.
3. 03Contact detailsEasy access to contact information.

Key for YMYL trust: transparency builds authority and credibility.

2. links on popular sites

Getting mentions on sites with a good reputation is one of the best things you can achieve when ranking YMYL content. The quality raters’ guidelines clearly state that, for informational YMYL topics, the reputation of the site or content creator should be assessed against what experts have to say. Recommendations from expert sources, such as professional groups, are strong evidence of a very positive reputation.

You can use Site Explorer to find excellent-quality sites with a reputation by “reverse-engineering” the backlink profile of the top results. Bear in mind the key goal, which is to find reputable sites and persuade the people running them to mention your content. This is not easy, but it is also essential when it comes to SEO for YMYL sites.

3. Inviting real experts to conduct interviews

When it comes to YMYL topics, it is a good idea to invite real experts. You should interview them in order to gather valuable information with a strong reputation. Then you should use a copywriter to turn the interview into high-quality content.

Using a general copywriter or content marketer to research YMYL topics is a poor idea. Such people should have specialist expert knowledge for the content to be sufficient. By involving the expert being interviewed, you can demonstrate excellent specialist knowledge in a way that is accessible to the reader.

4. Keeping transparent information about the site owner and writers

In Google’s eyes, YMYL sites require the highest standard of E-E-A-T (expert knowledge, experience, authority, trust). These elements are not immediately visible in the author profile or in information about the company or site owner. They also include contact details.

You need to make sure that YMYL pages include an author biography showing their expertise, experience, authority and trust. This needs to be taken care of before working on the content.