YMYL is an acronym for “your money or your life.” It is a specific content that influences or impacts someone’s health, finance, or life. For example, life insurance blogs or pregnancy-related websites are crucial and sensitive as they directly influence or affect your financial decision or healthcare conditions. So Google has devised specific policies on YMYL topics.
The Google Quality Content Parameter is a ranking signal for search engines that helps determine how high or low a website’s pages will rank in search engine results. YMYL (Your Money or Your Life) content is a subset of this parameter. The goal is to ensure that people are given accurate information to help them make decisions about their finances and health.
YMYL concept is strongly linked with EAT rule. For example, suppose a topic falls into the “Your Money or Your Life” category. In that case, it should fulfill the basic criterion of expertise, authority, and trustworthiness as it directly impacts the customer’s health, wealth, and life.
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YMYL (Your Money Or Your Life)
Google is the world’s largest search engine today, and the reason is simple: We trust Google because it provides us with THE BEST results in terms of accuracy and reliability. As a result, users are searching for medical assistance, legal advice, and financial consultancy online.
Behind the scenes, Google has formulated a set rule of algorithms and rolled out a defined policy on content quality. Content Quality is a subjective term; however, the tech giant has provided a specific framework and quality rating parameters to provide the best results to end users.
YMYL are all those topics that are crucial, sensitive, and impactful in our life. Health and safety, legal advice, medical consultancy, fitness and nutrition, online shopping, and others fall into this broad category.
Google has introduced a quality content parameter that considers the quality of the entire website. This means that the content of your site, not just one page, will be judged. Google will look at whether you have high-quality, original content; and whether it provides significant value to users.
Reason for YMYL Parameter
Google introduced a new parameter called Your Money or Your Life which aims to provide users with the best information to make responsible decisions about sensitive and possibly harmful topics.
The reason for creating a category of YMYL is obvious for two reasons:
Harmful or Dangerous Topics
These are topics that are harmful and dangerous itself due to their nature. This content can be harmful and dangerous to discuss or act on.
Topics such as suicide, body shaming, pro-anorexia, other self-harm, suicide, violence, crime, sexual assault, and abuse are just a few of the topics that may lead to negative feelings.
Lack of EAT causes Harm or Danger.
These are not dangerous or harmful topics; however, mild inaccuracies or content from less reliable sources could significantly impact someone’s health, financial stability, or safety, or impact society, for topics like symptoms of a heart attack, how to invest money, what to do if there is an earthquake, who can vote, or needed qualifications for obtaining a driver’s license.
YMYL Topics
Though Google clearly points out the categories and topics on YMYL, it is not hard to define these broad categories. Moreover, it links with common sense as these topics are closely linked with our health and finance.
In our routine life, we always strive for the best and expert opinion on these matters in ideal conditions. Every rational individual discusses legal matters with lawyers, health issues with doctors, and shops from reliable stores.
Google is a tech giant and the most reliable search engine, try to keep this rule intact in a digital world: Let me guide you through four basic areas where the YMYL rule applies strictly:
A)- Health and Safety
There are a lot of inaccurate and misleading articles on the internet. When you’re reading about health and safety topics, it’s tempting to find any information that makes sense or is written in a way that appeals to you.
However, rather than relying on these sources, it is important to consult with experts in the field who have research experience and knowledge of the subject.
So Google ensures that only authentic, reliable, trustworthy, and expert opinions would be to rank higher.
Visitors can go through it without fear of falling into the trap of misleading information. These topics directly impact his health and safety.
Example: Health and Safety Topics are those that deal with the prevention of injury, illness, and death.
These topics include pollution, occupational health and safety, traffic accidents, diseases, and pandemics.
B)- Financial Security
Financial security was traditionally considered a matter of money and wealth. But it is more than that. Financial security is also about the quality of life, food, and other basics for living. Financial insecurity can result in illiteracy, lack of adequate housing, hunger, and poverty.
Money is a necessary factor in our life. We need it to survive and sustain ourselves. But, in the current world scenario, we cannot get the best financial security.
The inflation rates keep on fluctuating. Therefore, consulting quality sources is the only way to be financially secure.
Therefore, Google only provident accurate results that are reliable and authentic sources. Only then can the visitor get trustworthy information.
Example: The financial security topics are: Life insurance, Social Security, Retirement Income, Health Care, Estate Planning, investment plans, Financial guidelines, and more.
C)- Legal Matter
As with any profession, you must consult a qualified professional when it comes to legal matters.
Lawyers are legally obligated professionals who have studied and trained extensively in law and legal matters.
They can provide insights from their expertise to guide you in making informed decisions about your legal case or situation.
They also know the laws and regulations for your local jurisdiction.
They have extensive knowledge of the laws, regulations, and financial aspects of marriage dissolution, so they can advise you on your best action for asset distribution or other decisions that need to be made.
Google ensures that visitors get reliable and trustworthy legal advice as it ranks only quality content on high SERP pages.
Legal service includes marriage, divorce, disputes, legal cases, laws and regulations, Legal documentation and authority letters, etc.
D)- Shopping
Shopping online is convenient and time-saving, but shopping only from trusted websites is important.
When shopping online, make sure you use a credit card that offers purchase protection and read the retailer’s return policy before buying anything.
There are many reasons why you should always be shopping from trustworthy websites.
Firstly, buying from reputable websites will ensure you have peace of mind of knowing that what you are purchasing is genuine and safe.
Secondly, buying from trusted sites ensures that they offer the best customer service should any issues arise with your purchase.
Finally, buying from a trustworthy site is important because many malicious online sellers sell fake products or inferior quality goods.
This is why Google keeps trustworthy sites on top of their natural and organic results.
Many or most topics are not YMYL and do not require a high level of accuracy or trust to prevent harm . Because YMYL assessment is a spectrum, it may be helpful to think of topics as clear YMYL , definitely not YMYL or something in between. Pages on clear YMYL topics require the most scrutiny for Page Quality rating.
How to Write YMYL Content
Quality content is the backbone of any website. It is the first thing visitors see, and they decide whether to stay on your site based on what they see.
YMYL content is designed to help customers make important decisions about their lives. It can often be used in various industries, such as finance, health, legal, and education. When writing YMYL content, it’s important to follow certain guidelines as below:
1)- Choose a Topic Wisely
This is a very important section to read. It will help you understand the importance of being an expert in the topic you are writing on. The more knowledge and expertise you have about a topic, the better your writing will be.
However, choosing a blogging niche is easier than we think. First, we need to choose a domain in which we are an authority or at least have the knowledge and passion for researching and writing down as per quality standards.
Second, we need to conduct rigorous and extensive research. Consult the authority websites, articles, journals, and publications, discuss with experts, and join and learn from relevant groups and forums.
By following these simple steps, we can give a clear sign to the search engine who we are and what we are doing. In addition, the author’s bio at the start or last of the blog plays a key role in developing the trust and faith of customers.
2)- Hire an Expert
The content that you publish on your website is the most important thing for your business. Therefore, it needs to be good quality, interesting, and informative.
If you are not a professional writer, hiring one is better. Many companies provide such services. You can use the internet to find them and hire one according to your budget and needs.
Hiring a professional writer is always beneficial because they have the skills and experience to write high-quality content for your site.
3)- External Links with Reliable Sources
The content you produce on YMYL topics directly impacts your website ranking.
However, it’s not easy to produce high-quality content all the time.
That’s why you need to find external blogs with authority and link them to your content. In addition, external links with authority blogs have several benefits for your business:
- First, they provide you with a wealth of information that may help your business.
- Second, this authoritative blog posting can help create trust in your blog.
- Third, it provides external links to your content that users may not immediately notice or remember from the depths of their blog reading experience.
- Fourth, the surrounding article text on an external link with an authority post may be shared by social media influencers who have subscribed to the author’s feed (especially if a popular, well-known blogger writes it).
4)- Review and Revision Process
The next step in creating content with quality is to review and revise your content with a professional copywriter.
Copywriters are experts in writing engaging and persuasive copy for websites, blogs, articles, or any other type of online content. They can help you create an optimized post that will likely rank high on Google’s SERPs and increase traffic to your site.
If the blog is regarding health care and medical advice, it would be great if reviewed and revised by a medical expert. If the post is about legal matters, try to revise and proofread by a lawyer, and for financial consultancy, hire someone with expertise in financial matters to revise.
The content writing process is a challenging one. It requires a lot of research, creativity, and time. In the end, it needs to be revised by a professional to ensure that it is clear and well-written.
You can add a “reviewed by” button with the reviewer profile as it develops trust in the customer.
5)- Constantly Update Content
Stay up-to-date with the latest trends and update your content regularly.
Every day, there are new trends and changes in the digital marketing industry. These trends and changes come from many sources.
Google’s algorithm updates, social media platforms, the online behavior of users, etc. It is important to stay up-to-date with these changes to ensure that you provide your readers with the best possible content.
It is important to change your content to stay relevant, updated, and in tune with the latest changes in the industry and your readers. This is especially important if you are operating a business in an ever-evolving market like digital marketing, health, fitness, finance, legal or law-related affairs, etc.
6)- Provide NAP (Name, Area, Phone Number)
The author’s bio should contain the person’s name, area of expertise, and phone number. This will help readers know who they are reading from and if they want to contact them for any queries.
It is important to provide a name, area, and phone number on your company’s website if your business is local. This will help build trust in your content.
People are more likely to trust the content on your website if they know who you are. A name, area, and phone number will help build that trust. Therefore, NAP is a basic and mandatory parameter in local SEO.
7)- Grammar and Plagiarism
Quality content must have correct grammar and zero plagiarism.
Poorly written content is not only a bad user experience, but it can also lead to penalties from Google.
A good rule of thumb is to proofread your content before publishing it. Proofreading includes checking for spelling errors, grammar errors, and other mistakes that might be present in the text.
If you need help with what a word means or how to spell it, use a dictionary or search engine like Google to find out.
Moreover, Google hates duplicate and plagiarized content, so try to create unique, fresh, and value-driven content for customers.
8)- Write down the Pros and Cons
To create quality content, you must cover all possible aspects of the topic and different views. When you want to cover a topic in-depth, you must provide information on both sides of the story.
You can also include your personal opinion to make it more authentic and interesting. Add a pros and cons section and a do and don’t portion to cover every possible aspect.
It is important to have well-written content covering all aspects and views. This helps in better understanding the product and builds trust among the readers.
9)- Add Disclaimer
A disclaimer is a statement an individual or company makes to protect themselves from something.
In the case of content, disclaimers are statements that something is false or that there is some bias. Never overpromise and make lofty claims about a product or service you may not fulfill.
To make disclaimers, you need to use a phrase like
“This article does not reflect the views of our website, and the writer is a freelancer.”
“The opinions expressed in this article do not represent those of my employer.” or
“These are general guidelines on health, in case of emergency consult physician in person.”
These disclaimers are mandatory as it is guidelines to the customer that we are not the sole authority or final judge to pass a statement, and it may also have other implications. You may observe disclaimers on medicine, health and diet products, and other related materials.
10)- Fulfill Legal Requirements
The legal requirements are only sometimes clear in the field of copywriting. This is why it is important to stay up-to-date with the latest developments. In addition, copywriters should be aware of the laws governing their copywriting, including libel, copyright, and trademark law.
Copywriters should also have a basic understanding of intellectual property laws and know how to use them to protect their work against plagiarism and other forms of infringement. They also need to know when it is appropriate to use copyrighted material from others as part of their work.
Before writing on a given topic, it is important to know the nuances of the law. The writer should be able to identify the legal requirements and fulfill them before publishing anything on the subject. This will help in avoiding any legal issues and complications while writing.
For example, if you are writing on life insurance, it would be considered necessary to show your license. If you offer mental health advice, share your license number and contact details. If you are a doctor, publishing your degree, awards, and other relevant printed materials online would be helpful.
11)- Add Terms and Conditions Page
This section will discuss the importance of having a terms and conditions page. It will also discuss what should be included in the terms and conditions page: It should include
The basic definition of terminologies
- Refund Policy
- Contractual rights and obligations
- Jurisdiction/governing law
- Privacy Policies
- Contact Us
Terms and Conditions pages are important for online businesses because it is a legal requirement for them to have one.
It is also important for online businesses because it helps build customer trust. This section will talk about how to write a good Terms and Conditions page so that the customer trusts your company more than they would if you didn’t have one.
12)- Avoid Hidden Charges
One of the most important factors determining whether a customer will buy from an online store is whether they trust the company to deliver what they are promising.
This is why businesses need to ensure that there are no hidden charges or extra fees lurking around the corner. This could deter potential customers and lead them to go with a competitor instead.
Explicitly announce your prices, delivery fee (if applicable), and other costs (if incurred) tax (mention included or excluded), and never overcharge or apply hidden charging tricks.
Final Thoughts
Google has a specific quality parameter for the content people share on their site. For example, if the content is YMYL (Your Money or Your Life), it must meet certain criteria.
This includes medical, financial, legal, and political content. Google has two specific requirements: The content must be provided by a credentialed source. The content cannot promote hate, violence, or illegal activities.
We either need to be an expert or hire an expert to produce quality content on YMYL topics. Link with trusted blogs and adding terms and conditions pages may lead to earning customers’ trust.
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