To run any SEO campaign successfully it is important to keep up to date with search engine evolving algorithms and be aware of their guidelines. Therefore, one must be aware of what is YMYL in SEO
YMYL means “Your Money Your Life”, these ages cover topics that can potentially affect anyone’s happiness, financial stability, health, or safety. For instance, a page that tells the user about “where to invest for your retirement” is the YMYL page or “how to diagnose and treat high blood pressure.”
Here in this blog, we will discuss: what is YMYL in SEO, YMYL content topics, and the requirements to rank YMYL content high. So let’s get started:
What are YMYL Pages in SEO?
As we described the abbreviation earlier, YMYL in SEO means “Your Money Your Life.” These pages are a type of online content that can benefit or harm the readers in any form. According to the Google Quality Rater Guidelines, YMYL content is,
“Topics [that] could significantly impact the health, financial stability, or safety of people, or the welfare or well-being of society.”
Google considers these pages of high importance as their impact is quite high on online visitors. Pages on YMYL topics need more research and authentic content to maintain a high ranking, thus SEOs have to be extra careful.
What are YMYL Topics?
Now that you have a general idea of what YMYL is, let’s explore more into its topics to get a comprehensive understanding.
Health:
The first on the YMYL topics list is content on health. Health topics include informative content that can affect the mental, emotional or physical health of individuals or groups. These topics are generally referred to as advice on drugs, medicines, diseases, nutrition, health, etc. For instance
- How does marijuana affect mental health
- Can you take painkillers during pregnancy?
- Can we give salty foods to a six-month-old baby?
Safety:
After health, the next page under the YMYL category is about Safety. It is a huge niche that encompasses the online and offline safety of a person or group of people. The safety topics include risks and hazards of working in factories, cybersecurity, protection techniques, equipment for safety, etc. For instance
- How to save your skin from sunburn at the seashore
- Tips to secure your laptop from hackers
- How to stay safe while driving to the hilly station during the rainy season
Financial Security
After health and safety, the third major aspect that affects human beings is finance and financial security topics & information. The information can support individuals or harm them in any way. The topics under financial security are retirement planning, taxation, real estate purchase, college or university funds, buying insurance or business insurance, etc.
The pages under financial security may also include sites that allow visitors to make purchases or sales transfer money, etc. For instance,
- How to save your money for retirement
- Top London Properties for Sale
- Best student loan schemes of August 2024
Society:
The topics under society can leave an impact on public institutes or impact public or personal interest. It usually refers to information related to government policies, laws, government programs, social services, politics, technology, science, business, and international or national events. For instance;
- Changes to HMRC Tax Compliance Requirements for Small Businesses
- Impact of Brexit on Trade Regulations in the UK
- Recent Reforms to the UK National Health Service (NHS)
Other:
Other or Miscellaneous group is a collection of all topics that can leave a positive or negative impact on the well-being of an individual or group of people. It can cover topics under education, career, household, etc. For instance;
- How to select the right career for you
- What are Black-hat SEO techniques and their negative impact on your business
- Choose from the best home workout equipment advised by the trainers
Requirements for YMYL Content to Rank High
Here are a few of the requirements for YMYL pages to rank high on search engines.
- Page purpose
- High E-E-A-T
- Content quality and amount
- Information about the person or website responsible for the content
- Reputation of the person or website responsible for the content
It is apparent that these are not ranking factors, however, these factors give a hint on how Google or any other search engine will consider your content quality high when it’s about YMYL.
Here are a few of the tips that can help you improve YMYL page ranking. Let’s have a look
1. Content Should be Enough to Achieve the Purpose:
The content on the page should be fulfilling the purpose for which the page was created. For YMYL pages, it is also necessary that the purpose is achieved effectively through clear and informative content.
2. Maintain High E-E-A-T:
The abbreviation E-E-A-T stands for Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness. These are the standard factors of Google content quality raters to evaluate the quality of web page
With YMYL pages little information, misinformation or unprofessionalism has no place. As Google has clearly explained that they require the highest E-E-A-T standards for YMYL pages.
3. Maintain Content Quality:
Content is the King and Google claims it is one of the most important ranking factors. So make sure your YMYL pages adhere strictly to the high-quality content requirements. For instance;
The content should be informative, authentic, genuine, optimised naturally with keywords, images, videos, etc.
4. Add Website Information:
A web page for any website with an optimised about page has strong credibility in the eyes of Google. The importance is twice for YMYL pages. So make sure, your about pages rightly define the website owner, the page niche and all relevant information.
5. Strong Website Reputation:
While working on content it is worth working on increasing the website’s reputation. It is no doubt a time-consuming job, but helps a lot in sustainable high ranking on SERPs.
The website’s reputation can be improved by building backlinks on websites with high domain authority and making your position visible as an authority on the topic. For instance, writing guest posts for reputable sites and publishing informative content on different credible platforms.
Conclusion:
So that’s all about understanding “What is YMYL in SEO?” YMYL pages are a great way to craft effective SEO strategies, especially given the evolving nature of search engine algorithms. To excel in ranking YMYL content, it’s important to focus on creating high-quality, authoritative, and well-researched content.
Ensure your pages meet Google’s stringent E-E-A-T (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness) criteria, provide accurate information, and maintain a strong online reputation. By prioritizing these factors, you can enhance your YMYL pages’ visibility and effectiveness in search engine results, ultimately leading to a more successful SEO campaign.
