Last Updated: 1 year ago by BrodNeil
YMYL stands for Your Money Your Life. Google takes YMYL sites and topics very seriously. Here are four things you need to know about YMYL to improve your content for a better Google ranking.
1. What are Your Money Your Life (YMYL) pages
The Internet offers a variety of information and functions. However, some pages and topics can impact people’s health, safety, happiness, and financial stability. We call these topics and sites Your Money Your Life (YMYL) pages.
2. What are examples of YMYL topics
The following are some examples of YMYL sites and topics:
News and current events
These topics include news and current events involving international affairs, politics, science and technology, business, and other important matters. News on sports, entertainment, and lifestyle are not considered YMYL topics.
Civics, government, and law
YMYL topics also cover government and legal information, such as details about government agencies, public offices, social services, voting, and legal issues. For instance, if you search online for tips on creating a will, adopting a child, divorcing your spouse, applying for citizenship, or renewing your passport, the search results will lead you to YMYL pages. These sites are expected to help you and give you expert advice and reliable information.
Finance
These pages give advice and information on investment, banking, loans, insurance, taxes, retirement, and other financial matters. Example topics include computing your taxes, comparing investments, choosing insurance policies, transferring funds online, making retirement plans, and applying for a loan.
Shopping and fund transfer
YMYL pages include websites that allow you to shop online, such as e-commerce platforms and online shops. Banking, e-wallet, and other financial platforms where you transfer your funds online are also considered YMYL pages.
Health and safety
Contents involving the health and safety of the people are treated as YMYL pages. These include information about hospitals, emergency preparedness, medications, and therapies. More topics and tips involving mental health, nutrition, certain infections and diseases, and the safety of certain activities are also included.
Groups of people
YMYL sites also cover information about groups of people based on age, gender, sexual orientation, social class, religion, nationality, race, ethnicity, and disability. These also include claims pertaining to groups of people who are victims of violence, events, discrimination, marginalization, and more.
Other topics
Many other topics not included above that involve major life decisions and important life aspects are also considered YMYL pages. Examples are advice and tips on choosing a school for your child, finding a job, moving to a new place, and more. Just use your judgment and consider if the content can impact other people’s health, safety, happiness, and financial stability.
3. How YMYL pages are rated
Google explains that they have very high page quality rating standards for YMYL pages. This is because when these pages are of low quality, they have the potential to harm people’s lives. Wrong and bad information can negatively impact a person’s happiness, safety, health, and financial stability.
To guide us in ensuring a high-quality YMYL page, let us consider Google’s Page Quality rating factors:
- Purpose of the page
- Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T)
- Main content quality
- Website and author information
- Website and author reputation
Purpose of the page
This factor is mainly for the raters to identify in a page they are rating. The raters must be able to understand the purpose of your page in order to determine the quality of your content. For instance, if you have an online shop, the purpose of your page would be to sell or give information about your products. If you have a tech blog, your purpose would be to share updated tech news or make product reviews, among others.
Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-A-T)
YMYL pages require higher E-A-T than other topics, because as previously mentioned, the impact of these topics can affect the people’s quality of life.
Expertise – Expertise is concerned with the author or creator of the main content. Is the creator an expert of the subject matter? Does the page contain the writer’s credentials or information that can back up the expertise?
Authoritativeness – This factor is concerned with the content, the content creator, and the website. It considers whether a content comes from an author, brand, or website known to be a leader or authority in the industry.
Trustworthiness – Trustworthiness refers to the content, the content creator, and the website. Are your information sources credible? Do users trust your author or your website to share reliable, updated, and helpful information?
Main content quality
Another factor that greatly affects YMYL page quality rating is the value of the main content (MC). MC is the content that achieves the purpose of the page. For example, if you have a news page, then your news article is the main content. If you have an online shop, your product page is your main content. MC may include texts, photos, videos, reviews, and the title of the content.
The MC quality requirement is high when it comes to YMYL pages. This means that the content should able to serve the purpose of the page. It should also be original, unique, and accurate.
Now let’s go back to our examples. If you have a news page, a high MC quality would mean factual, clearly-written, and in-depth news article. It must be accurate and supported with reliable sources. It must also meet the professional journalistic standards of news writing.
If you have an online shop, high MC quality would allow the users to easily find the products they want, including their accurate information on the page. The information may include product pictures and description. Users should also be able to easily purchase the products they want in the page.
Website and author information
Since YMYL pages are crucial, users need to be able to trust your site with clear information. For example, a medical blog must have satisfying information about the author of the content and the website. The author information is usually indicated after the main content, while the website information is found in the About Us section.
Online shops, banking platforms, and other financial transaction websites must also have a clear and complete customer service information to help users with their issues.
Website and author reputation
YMYL pages require positive reputation for both the content creator and the website. YMYL reputation information needs to come from experts, professional groups, awards, and more, which are associated with the YMYL topic. For example, an online shopping page’s reputation has to come from people who have used the website to purchase their products in the form of user reviews and testimonies. For a page giving medical tips, the author and website should be experts in the certain medical field.
4. How to get high YMYL page ranking
If you want your YMYL page or website to rank better in SERPs, Google’s page quality rating factors mentioned above can be your guide.
- Your YMYL page must have high E-A-T.
- You must have the high-quality main content (MC) that achieves the purpose of your page and satisfies your readers and users.
- Your page must have enough information so that users can trust your page and website. The information may include author, website, and customer service information, depending on the type of YMYL page.
- Your content and your website must have positive reputation coming from reliable sources depending on the type of page or website.
Conclusion
Google aims to protect its users from the information they get on the Internet, especially those that affect people’s happiness, financial stability, health, and safety. With this consideration, Google takes Your Money Your Life (YMYL) pages very seriously. They rate these pages according to factors that ensure people can get the best user experience.
If you want to have a high rating with your YMYL pages and rank higher in Google and other SERPs, you need to ensure that you consider the rating factors. These include high expertise, authoritativeness, and trustworthiness (E-A-T); high quality main content (MC); and positive author and website reputation. Finally, you need to ensure there is enough page information to help protect and support your users when issues arise.