Word Book : Topic & Details

• News and current event sites. Essentially news or current even sites that focus on topics that could affect the wellbeing of people, like politics, business, disasters, etc.
• Civics, government, and law sites. These are websites that deal with civilian wellbeing, community development, local politics, voting, and more.
• Finance sites. Sites that give finance advice or information regarding investments, taxes, financial planning, loans, banking, insurance etc. These styles of sites can be a bid part of life wellbeing.
• Shopping websites. Sites with information about research on shopping, shopping services, eCommerce sites, etc.
• Healthy and safety sites. This means sites that give information on medical issues, drugs, hospitals, emergency preparedness, activity safety, workplace safety, etc. Another example of sites that ostensibly don't operate on monetary transactions but are still businesses where wellbeing is a factor.
• Sites on groups of people. These can be sites with information on specific social groups like religions, ethnic groups, disability, age, nationality, veteran's status, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, and more.

Any sites related to 'big decisions or important aspects of people's lives which thus may be considered YMYL, such as fitness and nutrition, housing information, choosing a college, finding a job, etc.'

Google summarizes their guidance by saying this: 'We have very high Page Quality rating standards for YMYL pages because low quality YMYL pages could potentially negatively impact a person's happiness, health, financial stability, or safety.' Ultimately Google tells businesses to use their best judgment on what this can mean for their target audiences.
 

YMYL and Google's EAT for better content

It's clear that YMYL is based largely on the quality and subject matter of a website or its pages. But how do you make sure that your content is up to snuff?

But to talk about better content, we need to talk about EAT.

Google also defines the concept of 'EAT' in it's quality evaluator guidelines which introduced marketers to the idea of content that should be Expert, Authoritative, and Trustworthy - EAT! Learning how to write EAT friendly content for Google SEO also means better performance for YMYL sites.

The idea with EAT content is that your site's content should include information designed to give readers what they want and to put them at ease with high-quality content.

According to Google, the amount of information needed to demonstrate EAT depends on the subject matter and the type of website. Specifically they say:

'YMYL websites demand a high degree of trust, so they generally need satisfying information about who is responsible for the content of the site. In addition, High quality stores and financial transaction websites also need clear and satisfying customer service information to help users resolve issues.'

So what does this mean exactly?

Good content should demonstrate the expertise, authority, and trustworthiness of the site content creator. An in fact a big part of EAT is making it clear who the content creator is, as well as demonstrating the content creator's history and reputation. Likewise providing visitors with useful contact information, customer service information, and transaction information can help convey all these qualities. This is why info pages like Contact pages, About pages, FAQ pages, and more can help ensure that your YMYL site appears more legitimate.

In fact, Google says that an 'unsatisfying amount of information about the website or the creator of the main content' can be a key factor in a low rating for YMYL sites. This means that information about your business is important across your contact page, your NAP (name, address, phone-number), your about page, customer-service/help pages, and other areas.

You can also improve your organic traffic by building out content on YMYL page to be 'very high quality.' Here's what that means, Google's guidance says:

'We will consider the [main content] of the page to be very high or highest quality when it is created with a high degree of time and effort, and in particular, expertise, talent, and skill-this may provide evidence for the E-A-T of the page.'

But very high-quality content can be created for any topic or on any site. It doesn't have to be academic, scientific, or have in-depth research. Very high-quality content may be created by experts, hobbyists, or even people with everyday expertise in their business. Google's standards depend on the purpose of the page and the type of content, but for YMYL websites specifically, there is a high standard for accuracy and well-established medical/scientific/historical consensus where such consensus exists.

A big part of this means creating content that is unique and original for that specific website. Avoid reiterating common knowledge or just compiling information that can be found anywhere else. Go the extra mile!

This means that your YMYL website should focus not just on meeting the needs of visitors, but should also focus on being particularly authoritative and trustworthy.

Here are some specifics on what EAT and 'very high-quality content' can look like for YMYL website SEO:
 

• Original reporting for news website and info that could not be easily found elsewhere.
• Artistic multi-media content that is original, well made, and is related to the purpose of the site or page.
• Informational text content that is original, accurate, comprehensive, clearly communicated, and professionally represented. Again, this is going to vary from site-to-site and will depend on what your target audience needs. Very high-quality content for YMYL sites doesn't have to be long, but it should aim to help users get what they need from a reliable source and should help them complete the purpose of their visit.
• Info that is accepted as proven or that has a clear consensus.
• Citations for claims, research information, or cited authority of the content creator that can justify the claims.

YMYL SEO best practices and how to fix your YMYL pages

So how do you optimize for YMYL SEO on Google search results?

The truth is that neither YMYL or EAT refer to specific ranking signals used in Googles core ranking algorithm. Google's engineers insist that there is not a score or ranking system that the algorithm could use to measure something like EAT or YMYL quality. But there are known SEO strategies that can help you in these areas. Improving YMYL legitimacy and EAT can help you in other areas of SEO.